Fair enough. It’s the appeal to an authority that can’t be accessed or questioned (because it doesn’t exist) that’s insidious. Much of my own personal philosophy is based in Zen (though I don’t consider myself a Buddhist because I regard reincarnation as a fantasy), so I can appreciate where you’re coming from. I’m not fundamentally anti-religion. I was raised in a very lax Protestant household, never really bought the myths when I was old enough to think critically, dabbled in non-religious theism in college for about a year, and then became agnostic about the existence of any Higher Power and atheist about the existence of the assorted humanmade deities.
I will point out that my sarcastic little skit didn’t take a position on whether religion was a net good or bad. I readily concede it has plenty of both. Not killing your brother is a pretty good rule. Not eating pork is a dubious rule at best. No sex until your family is paid a dowry, bad rule. It’s the appeal to deific authority that’s always bad because it’s delusional, and thus a poor foundation for morality.
Anyway, if we’re going to continue this discussion, we should make a new thread or take it to messaging, as we’re drifting off-topic and I’m too pretty to be dragon food.
I’d say most religions, and small wonder given that most religions are based on argument from authority, whether authority from scripture of from a person who claims to be, or speak for, authority. Because of this, dogma is innate to most religions.
That appears true for most organized religion, but I would say that the distinction is important. Just like how most people who play sports are not in organized sports, and most who make movies don’t do it in Hollywood. Even well-meaning people will often point out an “industry” and give it primacy over the more numerous examples elsewhere.
I would even go so far as to say that the entire concept of “authority” has outlived its usefulness by several centuries. Priests were classically scribes who comprised a rarefied elite of literate people, and were so able to act from a role of cultural gatekeepers. They were literally “the authority”, the authorship of the codes of the society. How long since that has been the case? In an age of mass literacy and decentralized discourse, authority describes the average person in many places.
