Thursday, November 6, 2008
Social Control
In this TED Talk video Julia Sweeney talks about her transition in understanding religion from the time she turned 7 till now. Towards the end however she stresses the fact that no matter what religion, ultimately some of the ideals that they are based on sound ludicrous. For example, the story of God impregnating the Virgin Mary without the use of intercourse, and giving birth to the son of God. I may believe in this, however pretend you as an intellectual of 18+ never heard the story before. Would you not think of the story as just a myth? Is it another form of Social Control in that as child you were influenced to believe this and ultimately think it to be true? Do we choose to believe in it now because it works? Or do we just have nothing else to believe in?
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2 comments:
I found myself laughing during this video a lot. Towards the end when Julia mentions how if someone had come to her door and told her the story of how God impregnated a virgin girl, Mary, I believe I'd have to the same reaction as Julia. When you think about any beliefs you have and begin to analyze why you actually believe it, a lot of times the reasoning won't make sense. To me religion isn't always something you choose but something you're simply taught from birth. I'm lucky enough to have been raised by a mother whom encouraged us to question everything and anything! Because of that I was able to form my own ideas about religion, and my mom didn't think of it as a negative thing if we didn't agree on all aspects of religion. I find it funny that Catholics (I was raised Catholic) believe in no sex before marriage. If you think about it, when this religion was formed kids were getting married at about 12, so for us as hormonal teens to be expected to resist the urges until we get married is a little crazy (TO ME). The average girl gets married at 25 and guy at 28, so thats a long time to fight those natural urges.
I guess I'm the kind of person who understands why people believe in their religion, but I also feel that if you never ask WHY, then how can you fully believe in that religion.
I agree with Lorraine about this it was a very funny speech...I used to hear about the Mormons they always come to my house too and growing up i was raised in a christian home. Therefore when i heard about this guy who alone was saved it was amazing to me because i never heard about anything like that. Now i am wondering if the story about the virgin is really true because there are so many things and so many gods to believe in..how do we know which is the right one?
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