What is the purpose of religion? Majority atheist countries like Norway and China seem to function as well if not better than any religious country
>>18454268China is not atheist, they believe in confucianism like it is some sort of God or mystic knowledge. By all intents and purposes, CONFUCIANISM IS A RELIGION.
>>18454268From a purely secular POV it seems to be the only way to keep birthrates at a sustainable level.
>>18454268They have been irreligious for a matter of decades and both are graying now. It's like a plane whose engines have died. It will still stay in the air for a while but it will get lower and lower and that is precisely what we see in both nations.
>>18454287Birthrate argument aside it’s hard to say China is getting lower and lower. Quite the opposite
>>18454268There isn't one, they appear by chance because of how human minds work. They are very often weaponized by influentials and sometimes said influentials try to come up with new ones but most nowadays have, at least in great part, appeared naturally.
>>18454268One thing rulers from all over the globe, from ancient pharaohs to the leaders of today have agreed on is that religion is the best way to control and fool the great masses of people.
>>18454291>Birthrate argument asideHow can that be set aside? If your nation is graying and shrinking it's declining by definition. This is like saying "economic argument aside, X isn't poor..."
>>18454287Vague vibes-based claims made but no data, as usual when theists desperately try to claim secular nations are bad actually
>>18454337That argument only works for nations that trended up under Christianity and eventually down under atheism. Not with Chinks who saw a massive population boom under godless communism.
Nordic countries have among the highest rates of antidepressant use in Europe by the way. Just something to consider
>>18454268Is Godlessness the reason Swedish twinks arbitrated that a gajillion Muslim niggers should enter their country and rape everyone for holy science and humanism?Or that the Chinese should blunder their way into being a superpower and be uplifted by naive and stupid boomers who moved all their businesses overseas?
>>18454268Obviously, regardless on whether you want to sincerely subscribe to the tenants contained within a religion, it serves as a useful ideological foundation that unifies the soul of the nation. Seneca was right in that religion is useful to the rulers for this very reason. Those beliefs, ethics, values are what vitalizes a people. What has occurred since the latter half of the 17th century is an abandonment of this ancient foundation, but the implications of removing religion has not caught up yet. The effects of embracing secularization are delayed. They are slow, a festering gangrene. The direness of the disease is not made immediately apparent; it is a slow death. These countries you've mentioned (Norway for e.g.) are currently reaping the benefits of religion without paying the dues, but, eventually, people will realize what is entailed in a worldview without religion. In fact, it has already begin, but has not yet reached the magnitude large enough for civilizational collapse, but it will happen. This is what Nietzsche meant by "God is dead". It's not a pompous declaration of victory that we, through human ingenuity and scientific progress, have liberated ourselves from the fetters imposed upon us by our brutish, superstitious ancestors. Rather, it was a lament. "God is dead, and we must join him". That is the motto of a Europe without Christianity.
>>18454268Life is meaningless, and people will do what they can to fill the blanks.
>>18454880This is just another "rich vs poor" map. It should not come as a surprise to anyone why countries like Zimbabwe, Burma and Chad have low rates of antidepressant use. And it's not because they're all super happy.
>>18454268Social cohesion aka group survival.
>>18454268>Country that was Christian for 1000 years, that just recently decided they're not Christian anymore, as if that's going to instantly undo 1000 years of cultural development.>Country that, just a few decades ago, experienced some of the worst atrocities in human history under an explicitly anti-theistic regime and is still a dystopia to this day.Anon...
>>18454268>What is the purpose of religion?Social control for exoteric (normie, dogma based) religion. Connection to the spiritual world is the purpose esoteric religion.>Majority atheist countries like Norway and China seem to function as well if not better than any religious countryNorway's well-being has tradional religious life as its foundation, and that foundation is decaying. China is a totalitarian surveillance-state shithole, so it really doesn't make your case better.
Actual answer: DivinizationAncient pagans believed they were attaining the attributes of a particular god by participating in the practices of their cult—e.g., sacrifice a bull to a war god and eat it, now you have dined with the god and will become a better warrior.The goal of Orthodox Christianity is theosis (see: divinization), becoming like Christ. They eat the body and blood of Christ through the sacrament of the Eucharist, and in doing so, dine with God and participate in his nature, coming one step closer to theosis.Of course, there's also simply asking the god for something, like a good harvest, but I'd say that's more surface level and the deeper purpose was Divinization.
>>18454268>What is the purpose of religionGoycattle ready to die for the man telling them about being saved by god.
>>18454348It's not vibes-based at all. The graying of Scandinavia and China is well-known. Their populations are getting older. There aren't enough young people to support them. Especially China which had its disastrous one child policy.>>18454396Their population increased because of technology and advancements they received that came from Christendom. It's hard not to go up once you get access to engines and industry. But now they're losing the steam from their self-inflicted sabotage. Of all the nations with a birth crisis China has it doubly worse because their Communist government could simply declare "actually no, just one child, no more", so it's much worse than if it had been organic.
>>18454268We now have definitive proof that, in the absence of a normal religion, people will still adopt religious beliefs. In the secularizing west, ostensibly irreligious people hijacked previously scientific institutions to turn them into a bizarre form of clergy peddling even more absurd superstitions than actual religions. So, even if you don't believe in it yourself, it's better to get out ahead of this phenomenon and have a normal, predictable, controllable religion to prevent people from going completely insane.
>>18454880Russia is a shithole full of depressed people lmao. They're just too poor to get medication for it so they just drink themselves to death.
>>18455001>Norway's well-being tradional religious life as its foundationWhy are there so many countries with "traditional religious life" that are shitholes?
