Hello everyone, time for another post. I will keep this one simple and straightforward, so, here it goes:
What is your opinion about the national religious institution/church (or dominant religious institution/church, in case there is no national one) in your home country?
Do you think that it is affecting the way your country functions and, if yes, in which manner?
the religious institution in my country is very self contradictory.
it seems to me that there is not one concept of the Dogma, but any one who serves as a priest or higher, priaches their own opinions.
dangerous opinions of sexism, racism, divine punishment through men’s hands, come to have a platform through religion, thus social growth is severly slowing down.
moreover, hate speech , which is an actual crime, seems to be tolerated by the state when in preaching.
the state seems to be incapable to impose politics, especially in matters of an emergency like the COVID-19 epidemic.
faith is used as an argument in matters of public health, law inforcement and even foreign politics.
I firmly believe that religion weakens the state.
In my oppinion the main (or any) religious institution of a country shouldn’t either have any power as far as it concerns the political field, or any influence on the decisions the goverments make because people vote politicians to make the decisions and piests should only preach their beliefs to those who seek them and advise only those who asked for their advices and even if a goverment member asked for advice, that should be ONLY for his/hers personal matters.
In my country, Greece, the priests are getting paid as if there were civil servants but they belong in church which is a totally different organization. I think it’s not right for people who don’t belong in this religion or any religion to indirectly pay the priests through the taxes they pay. I leave a link containing an article on how priests are getting paid in Greece and some common misconceptions about that matter. Unfortunately the article is in greek and I’m not able to translate it in english. https://www.romfea.gr/epikairotita-xronika/25039-oi-klirikoi-plironontai-apo-to-dimosio-alla-den-einai-dimosioi-upalliloi
Church and its higher members influence many people, so politicians are afraid of losing voters if they stripped priests of their power. Times change, I hope these things change soon.
Στην Ελλάδα ζω. Μας κρατάνε σαν κοινωνία 200 χρόνια πίσω. Ευτυχώς χάνουν έδαφος μέρα με την μέρα. Δυστυχώς το λαβωμένο ζώο είναι το ποιο επικύνδυνο.
This is part of the human power search.
I must be in control, because I know better and I will guide us toward a better future. (In these lines of thinking this falls, according to myself).
This is not something bad nor is it something good, it is just the want to have a certain degree of influence over the things going on around you. The region where I come from in the Netherlands is filled with different churches having different explanations of the same book (the bible). All of them are lead by a person who dictates and explain these rules. These churches give a sense of community and a sense of security, as you who follows the rules is allowed to go to heaven, while those that do not will be punished by a trip to hell (both are totally misunderstood concepts in my eyes).
The churches also function as a house of gathering (a communal building), a place you speak to and see other members of the community around you.
As a firm believer of the generalizing principle ‘As above, so below’ and as a observer of humankind and can conclude that these small religious communities function in roughly the same way as a greater state institutionalized religious organization would. Except the differences in scale and the nuances that brings.
In short, institutionalized religions are a stick that keeps the populace that adheres them in line while it grants uniformity and security for said populace. I see some merit in them, I see some fault with them. And in the end I do not truly like them as they try to monopolize the truth.
And how do they affect the country. Well, we have Trias Politica, a seperation of governing powers. So they only affect the governing powers in indirect ways as they should not have any direct influence over said powers. So only when choosing legislation people will make a choice that is in line with their beliefs while it should not come directly from said beliefs.
hey there, a response from greece here. well, i could say that religion and more specifically christian orthodox church is highly involved into people’s lives. it starts from an earle age when baptism is super ”recommended” and children that are not baptised apparently smell weird or something…while we live in the 21st century religious people think that they can express their faith wherever they are but non religious are supposed to stay silent in order not to offend the first ones. i don’t blame the average uneducated greeks who are easily to be affected, but the members of the church who take advantage of them and treat them excactly like sheep. brain wash is an extremely dangerous weapon as history has shown. lot of people want state-church separation and not only for economical reason but it seems very unlikely to happen soon, cause greece is a country that is consisted from high level of senior people who have a very religious background.
The Orthodox church of Greece is simply the worst when it comes to it’s relation to the state. There has been no real division between them at all, the church here is still acting like they own everything. They are very involved with education, and practically brainwash children from a very young age in school and now they are even taking an official stance against sexual education.
They also affect politics in a very direct manner, when they should not have a say at all. It’s really like they own the Greek state, which is sad because many of them do not represent the people at all – they are far away from what the common folk has to say. We often also have religious leaders saying very hateful things on the news, like Ambrosios – who was saying that we should spit on gay people and also some very bad things about the refugee crisis. During the financial crisis, they did nothing to bail Greece out. They just sat there silent and kept getting paid by the state. It is horrible.
I really agree with all the comments above, the church in Greece is truly an abomination.
I believe that the Greek church is very/too powerful in Greece. They have huge influence on policy-making and every aspect of the social-public life (education, health care etc). Moreover, they do not pay any taxes and we have the highest percentage of priest/per percentage of the population in Europe which is crazy, since we do not have enough doctors/teachers etc
Yes, religion most definitely affects legislation and everyday life even if the number of active believers keep going down. Imagine what would happen when all of a sudden Christian holidays are no longer recognized by employers for instance. In Belgium particularly, there’s still a very large political party associating itself with so-called “Christian values” and is largely supported by the senior citizens. The Catholic church still has many properties and is still very much involved in education, politics and even finance. Same goes for Islam, it’s through politics & foreign financial influences that it managed to manifest itself in the Western world the way it has. Organized religion is a method of exercising and accumulating power, make no mistake.