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The effect of religion on your brain

Multifactorial.

Religion is second most important FILTER involved in "Generation of thoughts".

The Most Important filter is Language. The basic trait that differentiate humans from animals. Followers of same religion from groups belonging to different languages will respond differently to same religious triggers.

Beyond its primary language, any religion will be flawed, viciously with time.
 
Not sure burning flags is an indication of religious brain rot or just mob hooliganism common through the third world. In fact it's common in the first world as well come to think of it.
 
I respect religion for providing a sense of peace and calmness to people. Everyday life can be too daunting to deal with especially in the modern era. In this materialistic society which wouldn’t stop making you feel inadequate everyday, religion provides relief to the mind that none of this matters after all and something lies beyond all this struggle of the mortal life.

The moment religion is added to politics , governance and used for dominance is when it loses its meaning for me.
 
Seems like religion ( particularly one) is on your mind 24/7 Farhan Bhai.
One cannot ignore the chronic malaise this "one" religion offers.

Alternatively, you can provide empirical evidence of any incremental benefit this "one" offers to society. Be it uptick in human intelligence, societal hygiene, health or fitness, environmental upkeep, intra or inter peace accords.

Identify any empirical improvement this "one" brought about since IRP rebrand in '71. Any mention suffices. Any.
 
If anything is taught to a person from childhood that it is the most important thing in his or her life, that will become inseparable part of the person's life as an adult. Any criticism or even questioning of his beliefs will become an attack on their very existence. They can react anywhere between mild rebuke to physical violence. It all depends on how strongly the person is indoctrinated.
 
If anything is taught to a person from childhood that it is the most important thing in his or her life, that will become inseparable part of the person's life as an adult. Any criticism or even questioning of his beliefs will become an attack on their very existence. They can react anywhere between mild rebuke to physical violence. It all depends on how strongly the person is indoctrinated.

Imo what is worse is someone who claims to be an atheist but is a staunch defender of a religion which his parents or ancestors are . Ive never witnessed an atheist like yourself defend right wing Hinduism so much. Are you hiding something or pretending?
 
Imo what is worse is someone who claims to be an atheist but is a staunch defender of a religion which his parents or ancestors are . Ive never witnessed an atheist like yourself defend right wing Hinduism so much. Are you hiding something or pretending?

I think you could make a case for believing just about anything and claiming it is Hinduism. Therefore no doubt Hinduism can be spiritual or atheist, meat eating or vegan, etc. You get the picture.
 
Imo what is worse is someone who claims to be an atheist but is a staunch defender of a religion which his parents or ancestors are . Ive never witnessed an atheist like yourself defend right wing Hinduism so much. Are you hiding something or pretending?
I don't defend any religion. I defend the right to exist and freedom to follow or criticize any religion or cult.
 
I think dogma/superstition is the issue with religion that affects the brain, faith and community actually helps the brain.

I do think basis of religion is actually good for the brain, not saying not question Practices or put faith on pedestals of logic, but brain circuitry can actually heal and get better with good community and faith.

Above is just my personal opinion.
 
I always have held @miandadrules and @KB in high regards the way they could articulate their thoughts even if its something I don’t believe, it’s something we can all learn from them.

But i can neither be either of them, cant be a full atheist like Miandadrules or able to believe deeply in ideology like KB.
 
Islam has a great affect on my brain.

I could've turned into a full-blown Joker if not for Islam.

Islam helps me to live a normal and purposeful life.
 
I think dogma/superstition is the issue with religion that affects the brain, faith and community actually helps the brain.

I do think basis of religion is actually good for the brain, not saying not question Practices or put faith on pedestals of logic, but brain circuitry can actually heal and get better with good community and faith.

Above is just my personal opinion.
religion doesnt exist randomly, either you take the religious view that god has guided humanity, or you take the non religious view, that through centuries of social evolution there are some practises which cannot be relied to be acted on due to indovidual motivation but but benefit the collective, and these rules, morals, were codified to ensure their propogation. living in a peaceful family, village, tribe, town, city, country no doubt has a positive effect on mental health.
 
Religion is a great motivator and also gives people great hope. This is something that Atheists fail to understand.
 
Religion is a great motivator and also gives people great hope. This is something that Atheists fail to understand.

No religion/belief is going to save you.
You're damned mate..
 
Religion is a tool with multiple uses. Control, Power, Money and mental peace. A lot depends on who controls who and who holds the power.
 
I am surprised the many Indian fans of sweep bhai here have let this easy opportunity go by. It's ripe for the taking. Come on @Bhaijaan @Rajdeep

You should've posted my entire post rather than cherry-pick one sentence. :inti

My entire post:

Islam has a great affect on my brain.

I could've turned into a full-blown Joker if not for Islam.

Islam helps me to live a normal and purposeful life.
 
I am surprised the many Indian fans of sweep bhai here have let this easy opportunity go by. It's ripe for the taking. Come on @Bhaijaan @Rajdeep

I made an understanding with @sweep_shot long time ago and refrained from needlessly attacking him. I think he's a simple minded hard working bloke. I don't mind his Anti India commentary and its becoming kind of fun to read his, Deadly and Heel Mamoon's customary jibes at India on the forum. You know they're having fun mostly.
 
For many humans there is a deep drive for meaning, for transcendence. Without something bigger to believe in or something to distract them, humans are confronted by the reality of their personal mortality, the potential for meaninglessness, the prospect of emptiness, the angst of a void. There is a need to think of their lives as part of a higher reality.

Religion has historically provided this sense of deep meaning and continues to be a source of transcendence. Of course in many secularised societies in some parts of the world, traditional religion no longer serves this function. Instead many double down on materialism or play the latest video game or watch the latest Netflix series, or follow their sporting team or look forward to their next holiday etc. The cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker in his classic book, The Denial of Death, put it cynically “Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing.”

Yet for others, such activities leave them feeling a bit empty, as offering no meaningful nourishment for the soul. In Ian Johnson’s book, The Souls of China (a book about the revival of religious faith in China), he quotes one Chinese person as saying: “We thought we were unhappy because we were poor. But now a lot of us aren’t poor anymore, and yet we’re still unhappy. We realise there’s something missing and that’s a spiritual life.” Katy Hull in her book - The Machine Has a Soul - has shown why some American sympathised with fascism. Many regretted the “soulless aspects of their mechanised society.” She quotes one individual as writing, “We have invented and found nearly everything: about the only thing we have not found is ourselves.”

If many in secularised societies have turned away from traditional religion, the religious impulse has hardly disappeared. It either manifests itself in individualised expressions of spirituality or instead the ‘secular’ is often imbued with a sacred aura to create new ‘secular’ religions. Humans continue to draw on “a system of beliefs, myths, rituals, and symbols that interpret and define the meaning and end of human existence by subordinating the destiny of individuals and the collectivity to a supreme entity.” (This quote is from the Italian historian, Emilio Gentile's work, Religion as Politics.)

The nation is perhaps the most obvious example of a ‘secular’ supreme entity. In the nation, constitutions become like “holy scriptures,” founders get treated as prophets, “temples of veneration,” for the fallen get built to show that the individual lives mattered for some higher good, the land is treated as sacrosanct, sermons and liturgy for the nation get propagated and so on and so forth.

As the English writer, G.K. Chesterton is said to have written, “When men stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
 
@KB was generative AI on the forum 2 decades before one being invented, top post again even if I might not agree on all the points he makes.
 
I am surprised the many Indian fans of sweep bhai here have let this easy opportunity go by. It's ripe for the taking. Come on @Bhaijaan @Rajdeep
Ultimately we all have to deal with death. I feel religious people have something to hang on to on their deathbed. Irreligious and Atheist/Agnostics will have nothing. But religious people live their lives shackled by rules. Some good and some that don't make any sense.
As long as human suffering is there, religion will have its place in the society.
 
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