Why can't some people

[Kcnorwood]

I'm not able to sleep so here I am!

As I was looking over some of the post a question came to mind. Why is it that some people believe that without religion of some sort that your not able to think for yourself? Let alone do any thing good, where did this idea come from? Do people just refuse to think for themselves or just don't care to?

Forgive me if this doesn't come out right I didn't sleep at all last night, good thing I have today & tomorrow off.

 

[James the Persian]

I'm not able to sleep so here I am!

As I was looking over some of the post a question came to mind. Why is it that some people believe that without religion of some sort that your not able to think for yourself? Let alone do any thing good, where did this idea come from? Do people just refuse to think for themselves or just don't care to?

Forgive me if this doesn't come out right I didn't sleep at all last night, good thing I have today & tomorrow off.

Why do some people think that if you adhere to a religion it's an indication that you can't think for yourself? Some people just like to denigrate those that hold different beliefs to their own. I really don't think that there's anything much deeper to it than that.

James

 

[FatMan]

I'm not able to sleep so here I am!

As I was looking over some of the post a question came to mind. Why is it that some people believe that without religion of some sort that your not able to think for yourself? Let alone do any thing good, where did this idea come from? Do people just refuse to think for themselves or just don't care to?

Forgive me if this doesn't come out right I didn't sleep at all last night, good thing I have today & tomorrow off.

I think you might have been better off phrasing this as a question on how the board feels about religion and thinking for oneself. Surely, there are people who use religion as a crutch to lean on, but they are probably the same people that use several things to lean on.

But surely, more people are both religious and free thinkers. To make broad,sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.

 

[Pardus]

But surely, more people are both religious and free thinkers. To make broad,sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.

I will disagree, most people are sheep.

 

[Kcnorwood]

I think you might have been better off phrasing this as a question on how the board feels about religion and thinking for oneself. Surely, there are people who use religion as a crutch to lean on, but they are probably the same people that use several things to lean on.

But surely, more people are both religious and free thinkers. To make broad,sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.

Sorry like I said no sleep I was afraid that it might come out wrong....

 

[Scuba Pete]

Why do some people think that if you adhere to a religion it's an indication that you can't think for yourself? Some people just like to denigrate those that hold different beliefs to their own. I really don't think that there's anything much deeper to it than that.

James

Amen Brother James!

What we have here is the NOK mentality coming out. You believe differently than ME, ergo you must not be thinking! In my humble opinion, this is the beginning of all bigotry.

NOK=Not Our Kind

 

[Anti-World]

I think you'll find there's fewer people that believe that than you think. Though I don't see how it should bother you. People will follow others to figure out their morals because there is nothing else they base their morals off of. When people find the root of their morals they can think more clearly for themselves. The problem with religion is that people get comfortable having other people tell them what's what without thinking about it for themselves. I think you'll also find that people who don't have religion still do alot of the same things.

 

[michel]

I think you might have been better off phrasing this as a question on how the board feels about religion and thinking for oneself. Surely, there are people who use religion as a crutch to lean on, but they are probably the same people that use several things to lean on.

But surely, more people are both religious and free thinkers. To make broad,sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.

Quite right; I think James' reply demonstrated that very well.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

Amen Brother James!

What we have here is the NOK mentality coming out. You believe differently than ME, ergo you must not be thinking! In my humble opinion, this is the beginning of all bigotry.

NOK=Not Our Kind

James and Pete said it very well.

I've met religious and non-religious folks who've done good and bad things. Some did think for themselves quite well, and others refused to do even try.

...To make broad,sweeping generalizations is an exercise in futility.

Also very nicely stated and very true.

 

[Paladin]

I think Graves' model of Spiral Dynamics illuminates this question very well. Just as Kohlber, Fowler and Maslow, mapped out levels of development, Spiral Dynamics shows how people settle into cultural memes or value memes in an ever ascending spiral beginning with survival of self, and through the different stages of the first tier. I think a reference to NOK above suggests this. According Ken Wilber, approximately 70% of the human race is still at an ethnocentric level of understanding and interaction.

Peace
Mark

 

[ChristineES]

Most people I have known who were religious were very much able to think for themselves. There are some religious folks who cannot think for themselves and there are some nonreligious people who cannot think for themselves, as well.
I notice that there are times that religious people are stereotyped grossly by nonreligious people. I see it movies, TV, and with talking with other people. It seems a normal thing to generalize things we do not understand. For instance, I was watching some Native Americans in a film the other day, and I realized that Native Americans are shown, particularly in older films, talking with no emotion in their voices (this isn't true in more modern films). I find the old films rather funny but at the same time I wonder if the people making these films really believed that Native Americans were really something other than human beings. I am half Navajo, and I have emotions. (I am sorry to say that I really never knew a lot of Navajos).
So it does not surprise me that this is done with religious people in movies as well. Religious people are people, too. Some are open-minded, some are closed minded, some can think for themselves, while others can't, some are bigots while others are very accepting.
Thanks for letting me vent.