Atheism is an evidence-based faith. There's no getting away from faith, even if you make despair into one. Small scale societies are less religious than larger ones, with less emphasis on afterlife, world rejection and salvation. The small group has less resources for a parasitic priest class. Generally, as societies have progressed through farming, the archaeological evidence is that life got tougher for those not in control. The daily number of hours worked got longer, nutrition deteriorated, infectious disease and body wear increased and life span shortened. Descriptions of the plight of the poor in the industrial revolution are truly dreadful. Social stratification and inequality all increased from our hunter-gathering days.
So we ask what the role of religion in this has been. The story is long and unpleasant. Currently, religion is much stronger in poor countries (80 to 99%) where GDP is less than $10,000 per capita and down to 71-43% where GDP is above $30,000. Though we can see why there should be some kind of division of labour, we are not at all sure this should be based on religious traditions or the increasingly avaricious allocation class. Machines are now doing most of the hard work where peasantry has been abolished, and we wonder about religious roles in work ethics. We want a more rational materialism. In this we reject the comforting aspects of religion, seeing them as materially achievable. We don't reject spirituality, other than as a control mechanism, a governing of the soul through fable and intolerance through claims of absolute authority. -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
