Hi Yuyutsu,

I agree with what you say, //or have they in the main instead become social institutions//. Where does the line between the religion and the social institution begin and end. How much influence has the teachings of the religion had on the social institution of the church, for both good and bad. Jesus reportedly said help the poor, is the direct manifestation of that the St Vinnies Society of today, or would have people of good will got together and helped the poor anyway, without the influence of the Jesus religious teachings.

Mr Opinionated,

Of course it does. That doesn't make it true: narratives abound which are patently untrue, at least to a sceptic or non-believer - or a believer in another narrative. The multitudes of narratives compete, even though, to believers, their one-and-only narrative is so obviously the only true one. Take a hint.

Joe

Dear Loudmouth,

So you are one of those who believe religion makes sense.

Can you explain why?

There is certainly a strong hatred for Christianity. Christians are the most persecuted and murdered people in the world, despite the constant claims of victimhood from Muslims.

Thank You to all the contributors thus far.

This discussion is going along nicely - and there have
been so many valid points raised for which I am
grateful.

Sociologist Emile Durkheim was impressed by the fact
that religion is universal in human society, and he
wondered why this was so. His answer was that religion
has a vital function in maintaining the social system
as a whole.

He believed that the origins of religion were social
not supernatural. He pointed ou that whatever their
source, the rituals enacted in any religion enhance
the solidarity of the community as well as its faith.

I'll repeat what I wrote earlier, consider such
religious rituals as baptism, bar mitzvah, weddings,
Sabbath services, Christmas mass, and funerals.

Rituals like these serve to bring people together, to remind
them of their community group membership, to re-affirm
their traditional values, to maintain prohibitions and
taboos, to offer comfort in times of crisis. And, in
general to help transmit the cultural heritage from
one generation to the next.

In fact Durkheim argued, shared religious beliefs and the
rituals that go with them are so important that every
society needs a religion or at least some belief system
that serves the same functions.

Dear Paul,

Institutions for the teaching and support of religion are loosely called "religions", but any institution, including these, deteriorates and decays in time. Buddha for example predicted that his own institution of religion will decay after 500 years. Unfortunately we have no record on how long Jesus predicted his church to last without corruption.

On the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee there is a chapel with a rock embedded in its floor where Jesus told Peter: "on this rock I will build my church". Well I was there and saw with my own eyes that this rock has cracked. This is the nature of time for anything physical.

That said, I don't think it black and white, but "religious" institutions today are a mixed bag - in part religious, in part social. Proportions vary.

Charity was already a religious practice among the Jews at the time of Jesus. It may be that the teachings of Jesus helped in spreading it to other places.