Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?My mind set is close to Daniel Dennett as far as what religious people / theist should become after they grow up.Personally, I like a lot of the social functions and appeasement of our need for fellowship, hivishness and tribalism offered by religious institutions.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5tGpMcFF7USo I do not want to kill all religions but just encourage them to be more moral, tolerant and give equality to women and gays.Having said the above, People and recent trends to read scriptures literally have cause many to forget that religions were invented as theatre and myth and were never meant to be read or taken literally. They were designed to seek God, not to find one.Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBSRabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said that when asked to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching, while he stood on one leg, said, "The Golden Rule. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. And everything else is only commentary. Now, go and study it."Please listen as to what is said about literal reading."Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."As you can see from the following, religions and temples have always been about entertainment and fellowship.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7BHvN6rZZAIf Christianity and Islam could return to the old way of seeking God instead of idol worshiping false Gods, perhaps jihadists and other fundamental believers might chill and get along the way they have at some points in our past history.Religions are fairy tales for adults. If this is a truth, we should encourage Christianity and Islam as well as all other religions to grow up and return to their better past of seeking God instead of idol worshiping Yahweh and Allah. Both of them are mythical and manmade Gods.Regards
DL

The Origen quote does that and if you think talking animals are not mythical and imaginary then you have a problem.What you want come when dealing with objections. Not in the main body of a O.P.Post the O.P. or not but it stays as is.Regards
DL

PhatThanks for this.Regards
DL

StileThanks for the reply. Well put."I don't think it should be a single pronged-approach."I agree. Education is one, debate and discussion is another which includes education.-----------------"I don't have an issue with this possible-solution, as long as the believers don't have an issue with it either. It's their belief... it's up to them to keep it or adopt it or change it or whatever."Literal believers will always have a problem with changing their view. They do not even listen to their own church hierarchies. For instance, basically all the mainstream religions are recognizing evolution yet many believers ignore their hierarchies on this issue.------------------"If they insist on hurting others, I think the primary focus should be on stopping them from... hurting others."I think the ongoing institutionalized homophobia and misogyny in Christianity and Islam are definitely hurting others. Hence my puny efforts to educate them.How to get their ear is the hard part. Even as we speak, the Pope is moving the Catholic Church to the left but you would not know it from what the adherents are saying and doing.Regards
DL

ringoI agree, but the bit of fiction under discussion, the bible and Qur'an, have been used forever to discriminate against women and gays without a just cause.Strange that you, a woman, would not be quick to condemn those books or prefer to have them read as pure myth.Regards
DLEdited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.Edited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.

ringoCorrect, but when they are reading it in a way other than fiction, and giving it credence that push them to harm others without a just cause, then correcting their poor reading habits and beliefs would be quite good for society as a whole.Regards
DL

ringoMy social duty is to try to correct.If the listener is blind and dumb there is nothing I can do but try.For evil to grow, all good people need do is nothing.I recognize that most theist are not even in their religions due to belief and they do not care to change anything.I work for the odd person who will listen and convert.It does not happen that often, in fact I have more success with lurkers than the actual person I chat with but on good days, like today, I have a woman who seems to be coming along after her and I had a bit of a rocky start.Looks like there will be at least 1 less Mormon out there after today.Happy days.Regards
DLEdited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.

ringoTrial and error will eventually show the best path. To live with wholesale homophobia and misogyny is definitely not the best way but you go ahead and do nothing if you prefer.I will continue to do my duty to society as I see fit.Regards
DL

OopsEdited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.Edited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.

FaithIs your God a fascist?He advocates interference and correction and so does your church.Ask all the dead bodies they left behind during the dark Ages and Inquisition.Proverbs 3:12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.I do it out of love while your forefathers did it out of hate.Or do you see the Inquisition as a loving organization?Regards
DL

Tag"It all seems a bit silly to me, but you certainly have the right to do as you see fit."Is there a limit to your statement?Lend me your ears, um, eyes for a bit.For the evils of religion to grow, read any scripture literally.Any and all harmless beliefs are allowed by Gnostic Christians. We know that any myth can be internalized for good results and as esoteric ecumenists, we enjoy knowledge of all the myths that man has created about Gods.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR02ciandvg&feature=BFa&l...When there is a victim is when that view changes. Then you see why Christianity annihilated Gnostic Christianity. We do not let the evils of forced literalism go unopposed. To a tyrant like Constantine, we were poison. One of his first commands to his new Church was to kill off the free thinkers and of course, his new tool, his Church, did as bid. It was quite a ride for free thought for the next 1,000 years.How can a Gnostic Christian, --- and any other free thinking moral person, --- not judge other's morals when seeing someone hurt other because of the same Church's teachings today?Can you ignore such things if you have decent morals? Impossible. Especially with Islam pulling the same murderous, freedom stifling ****.We must discriminate and judge constantly. Every law is a compulsion on all of us to judge.It is my view that all right wing literalists and fundamentals hurt all of us who are moral religionists, --- as well as those who do not believe. Literalists hurt their parent religions --- and everyone else, be he a believer or not. Literalists and the right wing of religions make us all into laughing stocks. Their God of talking animals, genocidal floods and retribution has got to go. So must beliefs in fantasy, miracles and magic. These are all evil.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zhlDbMfDgThey also do much harm to their own fellow adherents.African witches and Jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlRG9gXriVIJesus Camp 1of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACyLTsH4acDeath to Gays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyuKLyGUHNEFor evil to grow my friend, all good people need do is nothing. Fight literalism when you can. It is your duty to our fellow man.Regards
DL

FaithEh. Thanks.Which ancient cult are you talking about?I think I can trace the roots of Gnostic Christianity, my religion, back to the Chrestians.Which cult do you see as your roots and where were they for what, 1400 years?Regards
DL

FaithHuh?What harm am I advocating?Do try to be clear and please quote the pertinent text.Regards
DL

FaithYou forget that the winners of the God wars, Christianity wrote the history.It is not surprising that the old Christians would have hated Gnostic Christians forever. We idealized Gnosis and knowledge while Christianity hated knowledge and wanted to keep everyone as dumb as possible.That tradition is exemplified by the Christian burning of the libraries in Alexandria and continued throughout the middle ages.What is different about your particular denomination of cult? Is your version of Christianity as homophobic and misogynous as the so called false Christian sects and denominations?Regards
DL

FaithTrue of Alexandria but Hollywood chose Christians and Hollywood is more accurate than historians."Sorry, Gnosticism is a heresy, it contradicts and violates Biblical revelation."Absolutely and that is why we are not a homophobic and misogynous religion like yours?All moral people will violate your creed and moral tenets.You wrote.
"Historical Christianity is based on the Bible."And the bible is based on the Torah.And look at what intelligent people say of that.Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBSRabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said that when asked to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching, while he stood on one leg, said, "The Golden Rule. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. And everything else is only commentary. Now, go and study it."Please listen as to what is said about literal reading."Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."Whatever you have talked yourself into believing.Enjoy the movie.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u3Y9pxugvwRegards
DLP.S. You call myths history. You might want to re-thing as no historian recognizes the Jesus you follow. Archeology killed any history from the bible a long time ago. I have links.Edited by Greatest I am, : No reason given.