There are 7 choices, 9 votes for darkesthour's debate

Why does society need God?

Why do you think that through out history there has not been a time without a higher power? I am curious why you think what you do!


  • "The Opium of the People"

    Spirituality aside, there certainly is a popular belief in psychology that religion is a means of explaining the world, a solid unchangeable thing in a world ever changing and inexplicable.

    Religion says "this is how it is, because God said so, and you don't need to worry about explaining it any further."

    Where did we come from? What was there before the universe? Why are we here?

    A general trend in this age, is that science is beginning to answer the unanswerable questions, to comfort (or not) in the same way religion once did. If you study medieval society, for example, religion was a far more central doctrine, because very few people understood medicine, ‘natural philosophy’ and mathematics, and had no other method to explain the world, and the events within it.

    Another suggestion in psychology is that religion is a subliminal form of blame. You can’t have a perfect God, if you look at the world and say “look, there is some wrong here. There is suffering.”

    So…you come up with the idea of Satan as a fallen angel, and women guilty of ‘original sin’ and forsaking the previous “perfect world.” Or, if you are Buddhist, the wrongness of the world is not related to the ‘god figure’ and can be made irrelevant by reaching Nirvana. Or, as Gnostics believe, that the ‘wrongness’ and suffering in the world is because an inferior god fallen from divine Wisdom created it – humans themselves are blameless, yet this ‘demiurge’ god traps us in his imperfect world of matter, where there is wrong, until we ascend back to the Source.

    Everyone appeals to a higher power to strengthen their argument. Everyone excuses the blame of their own wrongs by appealing to some kind of universal wrong, that will eventually be put right.

    Is it not absurd to suggest that we, as sentient beings have reached a point where we need to invent/are aware that some greater cause is the answer to questions which otherwise have none?

    22%  Voted for by ennoia, sweetypie101.
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  • HAHAHAHAHA

    The reason why society needs a god or gods are because they are weak, they need a crutch. Whether or not there actually is a god is irrelavent, then fact is that it is human nature to crave companionship. For those who are weak, they feel that this supernatural being is there for them, regardless of circumstance, regardless of if they have become mutated by a fire or something, that person would still be beautiful to somebody. I could ramble on and on about different examples of a god being a crutch, but I will leave that up to the readers.

    22%  Voted for by Unforgettable, sweetypie101.
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  • society needs to objectify itself

    Merely this, society needs to generalise itself with symbol. The symbol of the individual is the most powerful, so society creates deities in order to see itself. Whether this is a weakness or a strength depends, i suppose, upon moderation and propriety/appropriatness.

    Voted for by dewbee.
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  • craving God

    I personally keep going back and forth between 2 options:

    1) The human brain is so delicate that with out a higher power. They would not be able to function and possibly go insane.

    2) The fact that we just are is too much for us to take!

    God or No God I am not certain.

    Voted for by darkesthour.
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  • Ignorance

    Humans are constantly tainted with curiosity. We are not content accepting that the sky is blue because it is blue. We must KNOW WHY it is blue. We analyze everything from the grass in our backyard to the functions of the brain, and as we do this we feed on the knowledge we gain. However, there is one dilema. Where do WE come from? There is no answer, and because we do not want to be ignorant we believe in this higher being called God to rely on. It's a simple answer to a complicated problem.

    Voted for by Blosssom.
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  • All and More...

    I agree with all of the things that have been stated before mine, but there is one concept that has escaped mentioning thus far... and that is the idea of God as a superpower and establisher of rules.

    I beleive that one of the main reasons there has never been a society without a religion is because people NEED a divine power to set the limits on them. Like in christianity children are raised that these are the rules, and if u mess up... you have to answer to god and eternal damnation. This puts god as a sort of father figure. He gives guidlines and is watching over you to follow them. Without this basic set of morals and knowledge of the difference between right and wrong all societies would fall apart within months. As has always been, people turn to religion for their rules because while the threat of jailing is sometimes scary... eternal damnation with fire and brimstone is a more effective detterent.

    My personal beleifs cry at the fact that people beleive that there is no morals or good without god. I was once told that "everytime you do something good, it is done for jesus" becuase without jesus there is no morality... personally i do good because i know that it is the right thing to do.. no further than that.. jsut because it's RIGHT... but many need more motivation than that... thus religion comes into the picture.

    Voted for by sweetypie101.
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  • maybe...

    There seems to be a need for humanity to feel acceptance and love toward themselves. Personally, I beleive in a higher power, but there are those who accept a faith or religion for merely a selfish need to feel like there is a power that loves them regardless of their faults. Humanity is built on rules, so a religion without rules does not appeal to the masses.

    I disagree with morality being completely based on any given faith or religion. There is an internal drive in many people to act morally regardless of their backgrounds or religions. There are many people who possess morality just because they can place themselves in others shoes and see the benefit of moral choices and treating others in a manner that they would like to be treated. Many people also seem to need to validate their beleifs. This stems from weak beleifs and is the reason that all "good" things are claimed by religions and all "bad" things are from those without a chosen faith, or even the "right" chosen faith.

    Voted for by Soul of Chaos.
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