> >4. I don't think that believing Stephen's dogma when it's false is only
>a
> >"very mild bad". If this is really the only life that I have, I don't
>want
> >to waste it on a lie.
Bill
>On the other hand, recent scientific (?) studies indicate a positive
>health benefit. For the average person, spending an hour in church and
>throwing ten bucks in the plate is more beneficial than spending an hour
>in a bar and giving the ten bucks to the bar keep.
Chris
Maybe it's just less *harmful* than giving the ten bucks to the bar keep.
I've argued for a long time that the best conventional religions are better
for people than the worst non-religious philosophies. Conventional religion
is just one form of self-destructive irrationality, though, in the world
today, it's a major form. Even Jones (yes, *Jones*!) is right about some
kinds of materialistic philosophical beliefs leading to amoralism,
relativism, etc. His (and Johnson's) mistake in this respect is to
generalize from that one form (or class of materialistic philosophies) to
all materialistic philosophies. This approach is like claiming that *all*
religions advocate killing infidels on the basis of the fact that *some*
religions do.
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