I wonder if belief in god/religion stops people living...

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I think it depends. I think a lot of religious people (probably varies by culture as to how much) are casual believers who don't think much of it outside of hoping they'll get to see a lost loved one again after death. I think these people are able to simultaneously value living while being religious.

Clearly not everyone is like that, though. The people who are all into religion, it's really sad to see how much they devalue life. What's really bad is also seeing this reflect in devaluing others' lives and the well-being of society and the world. Like you see this with the religious parents who deny life-saving treatments to their children. On a broader scale, the religious zealots (like US Christian Nationalists for one) who vote against helping the poor and needy, against better healthcare, against fighting climate change. It's deeply sickening. These people need to come to their senses. Too many peoples' lives (the only life we know we have) are being lost to belief in this only being a preamble to an afterlife or to faith healing nonsense. And when you live in a country like the US where the zealots and their lack of caring about the well-being of people or the world have taken power, it's extremely scary.

It shouldn't. Just because I believe an afterlife exists doesn't mean that I don't have a responsibility to make this world a better place in what ways I can. Anyone who actually studies the Bible would see that it has plenty to say about living in this world.

A lot of people are "devout" in their faith though without actually truly knowing what the core teachings are - like Christian Nationalists.

Depends how they're using it to live this life in reality with such belief.


Some are just upright naive to a point it's dangerously ignorant. To self and others.
Some are just flat out use it to favor their ego and whatever benefits them. Obviously.

Some use it to escape realities from life. Or even consequences. With foolish assumptions around morality and being good.

Some use it to be complacent -- because, as long as you believe, you'll be spared, you're still good, you pleased whatever god and go to afterlife of choice anyways.

Or, some ended up being so uptight about it, that they forget living this life, "eternity" is more important to a point that they'd deny themselves help or cut off everyone else as a human living in this reality.


All in all, it can be.
Like anything can be a cope, anything can be an excuse.
This is just one of the countless many.

It's never the matter of whatever god, whatever maxim, whatever platitudes, whatever afterlife, how devoted, etc.

It's this weird entanglement, being too hung up over it like everything is a nail to someone who holds a hammer.


In the end, the issue lies in the human factor.

I never actually blamed religion myself -- because I don't see the details related to said religion as important.
Just the believers and followers, manipulators and anyone that's using said religion.

Really, to me, it's a weird, weird mix of historical based advertising over whatever guide of 'how to make meaning of whatever this is and live in this existence supposedly rightfully'.

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I've known a number of people who say they believe in a god, and none of them have seemed any different to secular folks when it comes to valuing their own lives. But it's a Biblical thing that they're supposed to put themselves last, obey the deity's will whatever crap it gets them into on Earth, and store up treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt. Still, there's probably a loophole. You can prove black is white with scripture. And until recently my Christian acquaintances were mostly Church Of England, and the C of E isn't very intense.

Curiously, the Catholics I've known have seemed more hedonistic and licentious than the Protestants, even though Catholicism is rather more intense. There's a lot of Catholicism in Ireland, and they usually know how to have a good time. And the Italians I've met have been less stiff than the English. So I don't really know what's going on. I noticed that Cromwell said "Trust in God but keep your powder dry," which for me kind of points to the idea that they don't try to be other than normal humans.

I don't know how they all stand giving up all that time to go and get preached to though. It wouldn't be so bad if you could skip the sermons and just do the hymns, but I gather that's generally considered bad form. You'd think they'd pack it in once they'd got the basics. But I really don't know what makes religionists tick. I suppose they think the preachers are scriptural experts and authorities who can teach them the deity's idea of morality and stop them straying off the path of this righteousness thing. I don't know though.

I'd comment in depth on the Arkansas baptists and Pentecostals but I don't really know any of them that well yet. They seem to love life as much as anybody, as far as I can figure out. They've all got lots of nice toys. I don't suppose they'd bother if they were just waiting to die and get their "portion" as they call it.