What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

OY I hate sports, for one reason and one reason only. They are all overpaid for playing a game. This world is entirely F'd up when some mope can throw a ball in a basket with a hole in it and make tons more money than some guy putting his life on the line everyday to protect everyone. I also hate Organized sports, what the heck happened to the days when a group of kids got together and played a baseball game with rocks for bases and made up rules? Kids don't know how to have fun on their own anymore, sad sad days.

 

Burritos, you resurrected a really old one here! :huh:

 

I'm not worshiping sports anymore - the Cows forgot how to score against the Redskins.

 

Atheism is also some sort of religion, a religion based on the UNPROVED believe that there is no God. Although it may be not that organised like the various churches.

Just consider this in set theory of simple math: if we "intelligent" human beings are subsets of the superset called "universe", and since a superset must have all that the subsets have, doesn't that deduce that the universe must be "intelligent" too? Call it "Universe" or "God", there's no denial that there ought to be a super-intelligent "being" as our superset. I'm quite sure this super-being does not look like an old man.

Don't get me wrong. I am not pro-religion at all. Every religion are saying "My God is holier than thou god." similar to silly kids fighting about "My dad is stronger than your dad." Have you ever consider that they might be all praying to the same one and only God, ie., the Universe?

Just read the history books. Almost all the atrocities were conducted in the name of one religion or the other. If read by an outsider of this universe he must have thought that all churches were/are the followers of Satan.

I am saying you can believe in God, but you DON'T have to believe in the churches. Believing in God DOES NOT mean you have to have total trust in the churches and priests. If people kept this skeptisim they might not have submitted their children to the abuse of the perverted priests, or the imams who turn the children into suicidal bombers.

 

That's why I'm an Agnostic. Saying "There definitely is no God" is as stupid as saying "There definitely is a God".

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

Of course you wouldn't say that if in fact you had a conversation with Him everyday.

 

Talking to nobody and saying its somebody, is like talking to the wind and saying it talks back because it makes the wind chimes ding.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

Perhaps, but you really have to stretch the definition of "religion" to do it. It would be equally valid to call breading cocker spaniels a religion.

No it doesn't. The logic in this statement, as it were, is completely wobbly.

This part is true. You don't have to believe or support any church or religion to believe in a god, gods, or The God. Such is the nature of belief. The same holds true if I were to say that I think you are ugly. We can debate whether others think you are ugly, but you can't debate what I think (I don't know teeasal, so I actually don't think about his looks. This is just an example.)

Tom

 

fffor many it seems the Prius chat room is first

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

Oh yeah. Teasel is definitely ugly. Just ask any ecologist in the tall-grass prairie ecosystems. Oh, you're talking about teeasal, not teasel. Sorry, my bad.

Some would say environmentalism is a religion. In fact, some members of my former church didn't like "those environmentalists" because they supposedly put nature above God, and therefore they can't be Christians. I pointed out that the Bible says we're supposed to be stewards and care for the Earth, but I don't think I was really heard.

Regarding the thread's title, at the time that Karl Marx said "Religion is the opiate for the masses", opium actually had positive connotations, being a useful pain-relief medicine among other uses.

Regarding sports, playing it is fine, but professional sports is a waste of time and money, IMO. Why should my tax dollars go to build yet another colossal sports arena because a bunch of millionaires are bored with the one they have and so they can charge even more addicts large sums of money to come and watch and buy overpriced food and drinks? If the prices were family-friendly, that's one thing, but not like it is today.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

Everyone needs to believe in something.

I believe I will have another beer.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

I know the world wasn't created by some old white man with a long, flowing beard. I know whatever created the world doesn't care if I eat bacon or have a a clergyman put cookies in my mouth. I know whatever created the world never talked with a single human being.

However, I do believe the world was created (not on purpose. probably.) simply based on the fact that I'm here. If you don't believe the Earth exists, that's your own problem.

Since I know the world exists, and since I have no idea what created it, I'm Agnostic.

 

The amazing thing is the huge money coming into sports from TV in the cable age, which accounts for the multi-million dollar salaries of so many athletes. Most people think it comes from advertising. It really comes from those $100 a month cable bills. ESPN, the sports channel, for example, takes a sizeable chunk--even if you don't watch it. It's part of the system where you have to sign up for channel packages to get the few channels you watch. What it does is make the cable companies rich.
Thank you, Congress, for cable reform which didn't reform.

These mega million dollar athletes, their agents, etc. are crying out for a surtax. There ought to be a higher tax for everybody who makes more than a million dollars--used to be something like that--before those nasty Republicans destroyed the tax system.
Imagine. The media is saying they are going to take over the Congress again. God help us all. They almost destroyed us last time. Blame it on those wimpy Democrats, who have a real communication problem telling the public how they saved them from oblivion.

Some people think this country is showing definite signs of Rome-type decadence.
Big debt, wars, nutty politics. religious strife.
Ever seen that fake wrestling on TV? With the kids in the audience? And the fans decked out in warpaint at the pro football games? Makes you wonder what the Coliseum was like.
A lot worse, sure, but...

Wonder what the Romans would have done about Global Warming? They didn't have negative TV advertising in those days to put the fear of Zeus in the masses.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

I don't know about breeding cocker spaniels, but "breading" cocker spaniels definitely is stretching it. On the other hand, "bedding" a ... oh shutup, me

I merely suggested the revered members of the forum to "consider" my wobbly logic. I'm not sure I believe it as a "religion" myself. I'm simply wondering if the universe is like an enormous main frame running the (in)famous operating system of Windows, and us lowly humans are like little applet windows popping up here and there feeling snug about our "intelligence" but in fact every deed we do are just making system function calls to the system kernel in the universal OS.

Thank you for your praise! If denouncing the atrocities conducted by various religions over the whole human history makes me ugly, let me be the ugliest one on earth. Thank you, thank you very much.:rockon:

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

Yes, this is so addictive and that's why I can do without both religions and sports.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

What about those millions and billions of $ they spent to build those extravegant churches and mosques. Where do those money come from, if not from scraping the bottom of the empty pots of the starving peasants who were fear-mongered about their life after death.

 

Re: What's the bigger social opiate, organized sports or organized religion?

How DARE you call this beautiful creation of God "ugly"! (kidding)

Now that is ugly. (not you, I mean those who didn't hear you)

Yeah, it was so "positive" that the "Great" British Empire invaded India, used it to be their grow-op site, and trafficked the opiate to China for profits using their mighty army, and eventually beat-up the old and useless Ching dynasty empress and demanded China to give up the beautiful harbour of Hong Kong as "compensation" for their efforts.

Now that is REALLY UGLY!

Wait till these sports teams keep loosing and their star athletes keep jumping ships to bigger money offerings.

ugly, Ugly, UGLY.