This should have read as "The STATED intention of religion is to offer the truth" Your later commentTB, you are deeply misguided if you think that 'religion' is a truth seeking system. What an incredible blanket of a statement.
in fact supports my view. My poorly worded statement did not imply either, that religions ARE truthful or successful in offering the truth, merely that they did seek/offer it as a mission. In some cases they might actually be seeking other things, like money, or sex, however their public mission statement remains pretty constant.In my opinion most religions seek to promote their own versions of 'truth' to control followers
The above should not be read that I am either for or against religion as a concept or any particular religion itself. My interest is around their role in society and what it tells us about human nature.
I strongly agree with your point that these organisations offer power to those with hungry egos, however this I believe to be fairly common to all organisations. Power seeking is a defining force in biology to which humans and all our social edifices are subject to, SES not excepted.
I would further add that religion differs from science in its defined truth seeking. Science is more focused on the 'how', religion on the 'why'. Our exchange of opinions also highlights ineffective communication as being a major barrier to understanding, so thankyou for your criticism.
Please support your comment
How do you define 'fundamentalist belief systems'? Are you restricting this to religion/cult or would the same apply to the world of fashion, business, education etc who, I believe, have fundamental beliefs.parents should do everything they can to protect their children from fundamentalist belief systems, whatever the parent may believe themselves.
You also imply that parents are responsible for guiding their children in these things. How do you support this view? Please do not interpret my questions as michievous or critical of your view, I am simply trying to understand if your views are intuitive or reasoned. The debate rages between parents versus society/school etc roles in guiding children, St James/SES being one such battlefield. I have my own intense prejudice against social structures and their moulding of individual natures and am possibly unable to set it aside, yet my intent is to gain better understanding of the process and how it affects people.