Turns out it was the devil's fault. The pope even went and labled satan 'the great accuser'.
But don't worry guys, he's gonna pray real hard to get the devil to go away, that'll work, right?

This is one of my problems with religion. It gives people the feeling of helping without actually doing anything. The catholics are all gonna chant 'devil go away! Devil go away' and then do nothing to actually help the kids.

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It’s also a refusal to be accountable for their actions, which, you know, is repugnant. That’s not a problem with just religion but it sure is a huge thing in this case.

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I'd say misleading thread title because this apparently counts as "taking action" now, but I guess just passing the blame is still taking an action, so...

Dating a Christian must be pretty nice because you can cheat and do all kinds of vile shit but you can just say it was the devil taking control and you're free from worry.

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The title is sarcastic.

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This is one of my problems with religion. It gives people the feeling of helping without actually doing anything.

I'm not going to defend empty prayers, but I think it's worth noting that you don't need religion to do that. I'm sure you've noticed the increasing prominence of people posting hashtags or changing their profile pictures to support specific causes, without doing anything useful like volunteering or donating money. It's basically the exact same thing; people wanting to feel like they are helping without expending the effort required to actually help.

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>I'm not going to defend empty prayers
>Defends empty prayers.

Okay. Also I'm curious is there's any substantive prayers that do work?

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>I'm not going to defend empty prayers
>Defends empty prayers.

I did not. I only pointed out that people do not need religion in order to feel good about themselves while doing nothing. That would seem to indicate that religion is not the root cause; rather, it would appear to be human nature.

Over time, we have gotten extremely good at exploiting feelings and instincts that were once vital for our survival for the sake of enjoyment. We eat when we aren't hungry, we have sex when we don't want kids, we do things that scare us without putting us in real danger. And what is one of the best feelings there is? The feeling of helping other people. The only problem is, helping people is hard. And that's where thoughts and prayers come in.

Okay. Also I'm curious is there's any substantive prayers that do work?

Even if I were a religious person, I would not believe in the efficacy of prayer because I am not arrogant enough to think that the creator of the Universe would be focusing so closely on one planet out of trillions.

There is some potential value from the placebo effect, I suppose, but the same is true of sugar pills.

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Yeah, you're right. People just typing hashtags as a response to problems is also bad. I absolutely agree with that.

Can you imagine if there were large, powerful organizations that went out of their way to actively teach people from birth that tweeting #endtheproblem was the best way to deal with things? Can you imagine if there was some big crisis and like, Trump or whoever, did nothing but tell people to type #endtheproblem? Or like, imagine if there was a philosophy that took hold in your country where hashtag activism was a central, important part of it that lots of people, including people with power, took very seriously?

I think I'd be justified in condemning those organizations DESPITE the fact that the church does pretty much the exact same thing and thus these organizations are not the sole source of the problem, right? I could even go as far as to say that the underlying philosophy of this idea was wrong on this point... despite the fact that religion is similar. Right?

I guess it's possible that you're not actually attempting to use whataboutism to give religion another free pass, and I apologize if that's the case, but lately I've had very low tolerance for people giving religion a free pass for everything so forgive me for being paranoid here.

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Lel I know, I was just being overly-literal-

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#PraiseJaysus

I never liked Christianity or any monotheistic religion, mostly due to the prayer mentality and #God'sWillBeDone, or any crap like that. If talking to a big head in the sky who never talks back is what gets you out of bed in the morning, so be it, but as they say "Actions speak louder than words."

^Relavent

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Old meme format but

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it's called the Placebo Effect

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It can also have a nocebo effect I guess, but what can't. Also not sure how a placebo is supposed to fight crime. Unless like, one of the child molesters hears has being spiritually attacked and has a panic attack or sonething.

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If he truly believes it's the devil's work, then clearly there are priests and bishops letting him in. I'll wait here for the excommunications for associating with the Evil One.
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…Still waiting…