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

:lol: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 6 2007, 11:32 PM) [snapback]508422[/snapback]</div>

 

I'm with SteveO. I think it's television.

But, why is non-belief misconstrued as hate?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Sep 7 2007, 12:20 PM) [snapback]508634[/snapback]</div>

Perhaps I've been lecturing you. I thought I was pointing out that the phrases used are hurtful and offensive and that it isn't appropriate to suggest they aren't.

I have read a number of your prior posts, and I do appreciate when you've pointed out that some posters should just take their rocks and through them at each other in a different place.

So . . . I've had my rant. I've made my statement about the use of the language. Now I apologize for hitting you with a bat swung at a larger target.

Separate from all of that: I think there is something to consider in the original question about sports (at least TV spectator sports) being something that numbs our minds and hearts and keeps us from paying attention to things of real value and import going on around us.

 

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

The clinical term is opioid, which includes a larger family of opiate drugs. With that being said, organized sports and religion both works pretty well; each one brings in lots of money and requires lots of attention. Each one also allows the indulgent member to discuss their vast pool of knowledge with other loyal members. Each one is capable of giving great joy or misery...just like opioids.
I always wondered if there was a football missionary back at the beginning of time that technology would be farther advanced by now because someone would have been required to invent the instant replay. Go BEAAAARS!

 

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

Religion, nobody's as pompous as the Catholic Church!

PAT KK6PD

 

Opioids instead of opiates? The real thing would have us pondering the true nature of time and whether it actually had a beginning.

 

Sports is like alcohol; it makes you numb and incoherent. Religion is like crack; it makes you paranoid and violent. Both are dangerously addictive.

 

I'd say the biggest Opiate is Gayle, they have been best friends for a long time.

 

The drive to compete and the drive to revere a higher power are both part of the human condition. Neither good nor bad, that's just the way we've evolved.

 

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

Sex is fun too. I gave up red meat because it seemed like the cows and pigs and environment needed a break. Since I'm married I can still indulge in some of life's pleasures. I was always apprehensive, even when attending catholic grade school, of sitting in a small dark room and telling a man dressed in a robe, I was having impure thoughts. Now I just enjoy the impure thoughts and read about the men in the robes sitting in the small booths listening to all those damn sinners!

 

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

If you are going to quote Karl Marx, it would be a good idea to read him first. Here's the full quote. The last part is almost always left out:

"Religion is the opiate of the people: the heart of a heartless world."

Here's the context: In Marx's day the deleterious effects of opium were not well understood. It was commonly available as laudanum, and was used as a remedy for pain and depression. It was widely believed to be a good thing. Our greater modern understanding of opium's addictive nature have obfuscated the original intent of Marx's statement.

Here's where Marx stood on religion: Marx thought that religion was a good thing, though he himself was an atheist. He believed that it provided solace and comfort to the lives of people who worked 14 hours a day for barely enough to live, under filthy and dangerous conditions, and with no assurance of tomorrow's food or shelter. However, he saw the church as a corrupt institution that exploited people and taught them to be submissive to the owners of capital. Thus he advocated doing away with churches, but was not opposed to religious belief.

 

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

If Marx realized how corrupt the lending institutions were to become in this country he wouldn't have been so hard on organized religion in his country. He would have seen greed for what it is....

 

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

No, I think he'd still have opposed religious institutions. I don't remember if he said anything about money lending, but to the extent that it exploits underpaid workers he'd have strongly opposed it.

Marx believed that greed could be eliminated by constructing a society free from deprivation. The concept of the "socialist man," expressed his optimism about human nature. A socialist society would change people for the better, until eventually people would prefer to share equally.

It is notable how accurate was his analysis of the operation of a capitalist economy, and how wrong he was about the evolution of the social structure. Economists still study and respect his descriptions of capitalism, but every one of his predictions concerning the future has been wrong.

 

Churches were once the place you went to borrow and lend money, now it is a business of a different kind.
At least when you buy a ticket to attend a sporting event you get a show, you get 2 teams or some people who are trying to at least be better than the other. In church you get a promise of something that will happen after you die, that's handy.

I fail to understand how people get sucked into this, but they do.

Sport can cause a high, to win a match to defeat a tough opponent can induce a high that I never felt in a church. No, not even on my wedding day. As good as the wedding day felt it would have felt as good in a registry office or garden. performed by a non religious celebrant.

 

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

If there were a god, Detroit would have a better football team than the Lions.

Tom

 

Are you ready...

Are you ready for some football...

It's time to get started...

WOOOOO HOOOOO




Sooo... I vote sports. :rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon::rockon: