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Why can't we abandon religion the same way we abandoned the gold standard?


chuck norris 42

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54 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

 For example, Europeans in the Middle-Ages could have an outlook on religion way more comparable to ours than you would expect. .

Do you think religion in the Middle Ages  it was basically like ASOIAF, in the background most of the time but it would get intense during times of strife. 

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17 minutes ago, chuck norris 42 said:

Do you think religion in the Middle Ages  it was basically like ASOIAF, in the background most of the time but it would get intense during times of strife. 

Something like that, yeah.
Except that, well, since most people couldn't read, "religious strife" is something to be taken with some critical distance. The average peasant couldn't read the Bible, much less understand by themselves why exactly the "others" had to be sent to hell, so they would tend to believe what they were told. Or not. Although the power structures made it difficult for people to disobey their lord, or even call into question the teachings of the local priest, each individual was still free to entertain doubts about all these miracles they were told about. Depending on how devout a given community was, you could very well have lots of people who didn't take religion very seriously, especially since farm work had its own rituals and traditions...
Then there's the fact that the priesthood itself was not always that devout to begin with. There were many different reasons for one to enter a religious order... So while priests would use their religious authority for various purposes, they could also be quite relaxed as regard the gospel.
So yes, not unlike ASOIAF, actually. Which of course, is no accident, given how studious of these things the George is.

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2 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Is this the "Not having a crux IS a crux" defense?

Sounds like an extraordinary position you've carved out for yourself there.

Ever hear of the Old Treasury House in York England?

Or events in Zeitoun Egypt. 1968 to 1971? 

 

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2 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Funny, I think it's the other way around, that people start truly believing in themselves when they abandon their imaginary friends and crazy ideas that there is any such thing as divine/karmic justice.

I don't share that point of view.

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13 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Most “gold-bugs” don’t understand that the gold standard is simply a more restrictive and less flexible version of fiat currency.

Gold has no intrinsic value beyond being a rare, soft, shiny metal.

I'm not a gold bug myself, but less flexible and more restrictive does have certain benefits wrt to inflation control.  Consider the Bolivar or the Papier Mark.  "Intrinsic value" might actually cut to the heart of the question though.  I'm not sure anything has intrinsic value in the strictest sense.  Absent metaphysics, isn't what we value subjective?

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We abandoned the gold standard because we came up with something the vast majority agrees is better. There do exist places which have tried to replace it with something, but given that this "something" is often far more ephemeral than religion, it usually comes back (it's always amusing to see a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB as the guest of honor at Christian festivities...).

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13 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Religion belongs in the bottom of a well with unwanted girl children.

 Nooooooo!!!!  Unwanted girl children have suffered enough.   Throw your religion somewhere else.  Let those girls alone. 

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16 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Most “gold-bugs” don’t understand that the gold standard is simply a more restrictive and less flexible version of fiat currency.

Gold has no intrinsic value beyond being a rare, soft, shiny metal.

That used to be the case. It's widespread in computing now, due to its electrical conductivity, malleability and resistance to corrosion.

That doesn't make a useful currency, but it does make it a useful metal.

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6 hours ago, Altherion said:

We abandoned the gold standard because we came up with something the vast majority agrees is better.

This is true.  On first view I found this thread incredibly stupid, but I suppose that's a link.  We stopped the gold standard when we realized it was pointless.  That has some resonance to religion.

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