Any person vaguely aware of the public sphere will understand that the world has increasingly condemned organized religion as being at best silly and at worst dangerous. This view can be seen in the following quote from Voltaire, “Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Indeed, we have been taught that organized religion is responsible for historic and present wars, and every time a pastor is outed as a hypocrite, it is reported with great fanfare by the MSM. Unfortunately, there is some truth to these claims, yet they hide the full picture.
Humans need organized religion because WE NEED TO BE TAUGHT WHAT IS RIGHT OR WRONG. IN THE ABSENSE OF HAVING AN EXTERNAL PRESSURE GUIDING US TOWARDS THE RIGHT, WE WILL REVERT TO OUR MOST BASE INSTINCTS.
Pride and humility play a huge role here – pride will lead us to think that we don’t need others to help us in our spiritual journey towards god, that we can do it by ourselves, or that we don’t even need god! Humility will lead us to recognize our own imperfections and that we won’t be able to successfully complete our journey back to our God without the help of others. This point is reflected in Proverbs 3:5-7:
5 ¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 ¶ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
The impacts of letting humans decide by themselves (in the flesh) what they think about the world without being taught (through the spirit) are clear to see. The widespread normalization of pornography is a poignant example, with many “experts” not just claiming that it is ok to do, but that it is good to do! On a related note, I once saw someone interview an unclothed attendee of a gay pride parade, and I was struck when they defended themselves appearing in front of kids. They claimed that kids actually need to be accustomed to seeing the full human body and that the body should be a source of pleasure for us! Though such a statement seems crazy, we shouldn’t be surprised, this is unfortunately only the natural consequence of living in a society that has abandoned organized religion. There obviously is a lot more to say on the lgbt front, but instead I will take the advice of Amos 5, which discusses the state of the world in the last days:
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Parents Can’t Just Let Kids Socialize Each Other, Kids Must Be Taught
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In brief, this study proves that kids who have parents who are willing to perform discipline do better in life. This showcases the fact that humans naturally will not perform well or know what is right or wrong unless they are very clearly taught morality by authority figures. Organized religion is a perfect institution to make this happen, because it involves, definitionally, other people teaching you how to think, rather than you just figuring out how to think by yourself.
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A study found that youngsters smacked up to the age of six did better at school and were more optimistic about their lives than those never hit by their parents.
They were also more likely to undertake voluntary work and keener to attend university, experts discovered.
The research, conducted in the United States, is likely to anger children’s rights campaigners who have unsuccessfully fought to ban smacking in Britain.
[…]Those who had been smacked up to the age of six performed better in almost all the positive categories and no worse in the negatives than those never punished physically.
…
Prof Gunnoe found little difference in the results between sexes and different racial groups.
Relationship between Religion and Moral Foundation
This study compares the moral systems and beliefs among members of a prominent organized religion – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – to those who used to be members but later left. It displays that former members have totally different moral systems to current members, which just shows that the decision to accept or reject organized religion plays a profound role in the moral systems we follow. As I will show later, the role of religion is always a positive one – people who make an effort to read the bible tend to have much better outcomes compared to those who don’t.
The study also shows that people who leave religion tend to switch their views from believing in god to believing in a “higher power”. Higher powers, unlike gods, tend not to have strict lists of commandments to follow, and the decision to place loyalty away from gods and instead to higher powers of course at its core is a decision to distance the role that God has in your life and your ethical code.
Effect on Actions
This is the most important study here. It shows that people who make an effort to read the bible at least four times a week have dramatically better life outcomes.
- Feeling lonely drops 30%
- Anger issues drop 32%
- Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
- Alcoholism drops 57%
- Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
- Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
- Viewing pornography drops 61%
- Sharing your faith jumps 200%
- Discipling others jumps 230%
Again, this shows that just trying to figure out life by yourself usually doesn’t work. Rather, we need to be humble enough to allow ourselves to be taught by external sources.
Conclusions
We need organized religion because we are simply not smart enough or sophisticated enough creatures to figure out the correct moral systems, choose the right guiding principals, and then follow them without the help and guidance of other fellow humans (and God). Organized religion is the natural route by which humans council each other on what is right and wrong and how we can approach, together, our God for guidance about our role on Earth. I understand that organized religion has had many flaws, but the response should not be to throw it all out, but rather to dig in, participate, and try to perfect our organized religion to root out the evil and maximize the positive effect it can have.
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