• ogeist
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    11 hours ago

    At the risk of being downvoted, religious laws were often used as methods of survival. Some groups bathed every so often, others had washing face as a rule, some didn’t ate pork or shellfish as they would rot really quickly, some would not kill cows because they would lose a long lasting source of rich in nutrients milk or simply the power to plough field thus increasing food production.

    So religion didn’t cure anything miraculously but it sure helped the communities to survive and the scientific method took a while to be developed.

    I’m an atheist but im also aware of the benefits religion had at some point. Remember that the guy that proposed washing hamds between autopsies and child birth was ridiculed.

    Sorry for no funny haha :(

    • Snailpick42@lemmus.org
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      9 hours ago

      Jesus could’ve actually saved lives by telling people to wash their hands. Instead, we have this totally unnecessary blood sacrifice thing.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 hours ago

        He could have also told people it’s not ok to own slaves.

        But apparently that was just a step too far.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 hours ago

            You could not be more incorrect. The Bible is undeniably, explicitly pro-slavery. And Hebrews owned slaves (both Gentile slaves, and Hebrew slaves. Their own people. Classy).

            https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+21&version=ESV

            20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

            They Old Testament were rules for the Hebrews, and in it there are rules for how to treat your Hebrew slaves. Huh.

            “Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave,[a] he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

            -Exodus 21

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_slavery

            And the New Testament is no better. John tells slaves to obey their masters. And Jesus, despite being absolutely steeped in slave culture, never once had anything negative to say about it. Pretty damning. Tacit approval by omission, if you ask me.

          • Mulligrubs
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            5 hours ago

            The Jews owned slaves back then; they weren’t morally superior to the Romans in any way.

    • SkyezOpen
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      9 hours ago

      I was going to say religion is still necessary to control some people because there are some straight up sociopaths that only behave because of the fear of hell, but the fact that they totally believe they’re one of Jesus’ special little buddies makes me think that makes the issue even worse.

      • Nalivai
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        8 hours ago

        There is no evidence that this actually true. Religious leaders say this true, but then they turn around and cover atrocities that their religious underlings are doing, so they’re themselves are the counterpoint to their own bullshit.