America's nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don't like organized religion

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 1437 points – America's nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don't like organized religion
apnews.com

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.

Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

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Organized religion is a poison masquerading as a cure. The opium of the people as it were. I will never cause trouble for a religious person who doesn't cause trouble for others, but organized religion I can not abide.

I always thought that the success of Religion boiled down to two things:

  • It provides an explanation for what for many would otherwise be a terrifyingly chaotic random World. When faced with great tragedy (especially personal), "it was the will of Deity" is emotionally more easy than the terror and meaninglessness of it something like the death of somebody close having happenned purelly by random chance.
  • It's a social network and support group which brings all sorts of advantages, not just materially but even emotionally.