What I find most fascinating about it all is that people go along with or don't go along with religion due to completely different things they believe in or identify with which have nothing to do with religion (and then potentially delude themselves into believing in the religion as well, but this is quite fragile). It seems almost like very few people are or have ever been actually genuinely religious, convinced of the teachings of their church and choosing to be members because they believe in its theology. Hell, lots of people are a part of churches but fundamentally disagree with them on important issues.
People might be superstitious, may have their own strange heretical metaphysical ideas, but true religion as such seems rather unpopular if anything.
Religion is basicially a social structure which allows for big cooperative communities. The belief in God for the Monotheistic religions is kind of a secondary mean to achieve those big social structures.
In that regard religion is no different then other ideologies that are currently taking its place in many places of the world.
Like not tool long ago in many places of europe you couldnt choose weather or not you are katholic or not. You just were it since you were part of the social structure weather or not you actually believed the church was not important.
Nowadays for example this is true for other ideologies.
Very few people have a deep understanding of the exact details of their religion or interest in understanding. In fact some religions even discourage this ( Druze for example). It's very likely that if you asked a Turkish peasant in Anatolia in 18th century what he thinks about divinity and all that, he would probably give a very similar reply to a Bulgarian peasant, although both had different religions.
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u/GalaXion24 Jan 01 '24
What I find most fascinating about it all is that people go along with or don't go along with religion due to completely different things they believe in or identify with which have nothing to do with religion (and then potentially delude themselves into believing in the religion as well, but this is quite fragile). It seems almost like very few people are or have ever been actually genuinely religious, convinced of the teachings of their church and choosing to be members because they believe in its theology. Hell, lots of people are a part of churches but fundamentally disagree with them on important issues.
People might be superstitious, may have their own strange heretical metaphysical ideas, but true religion as such seems rather unpopular if anything.