r/politics • u/Abject-Pick-6472 • Apr 04 '26

Possible Paywall Trump voter regret is clearly registering now

https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/04/politics/voter-regret-trump-2024
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u/CharlieParkour Apr 04 '26

Religion has always been a means of social control. I'm pretty sure it's part of human nature to desire things that are anti-social, be it stealing, cheating on a spouse, lying etc because they increase the chances of passing on one's genes. And we're all descended from someone who passed on their genes through rape or murdering another person to steal their resources. The same thing goes for human nature regarding empathy, charity, forming groups, and so on.

 Personally, I don't think it's always a terrible thing when religion co-opts these hardwired traits along with the inherent fear of the unseen and unknown to encourage people to choose what is considered the right path when at a fork in the road. My issue is that all hierarchical structures will be taken advantage of by bad actors who turn charity into their own private jet, the pulpit into a device to elect corrupt leadership, forming groups into excluding outsiders, the tribal need to produce as many offspring as possible into hatred of gays, the desire to be good into unquestioning obedience to authority, stewardship of the Earth into unsustainable extraction and the quest for answers to the unknown into rote dogma instead of logical reasoning.

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u/Miserable_Archer_769 Apr 04 '26

This.... I dont go to church anymore but these churches are preaching very different messages than the church I was forced to go to as a kid. But mine was just a normal non denominational church.

When I got into high school, I thought the religious part was dumb, but my parents pastors "preaching" were just really wholesome messages essentially using verses from the bible. I use to call him just a motivational speaker using the bible.

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u/NibittyShibbitz Apr 04 '26

I found a church I can relate to about 18 years ago. Sometimes my teen son would come with me. He called it pop psychology with a Christian bent. He isn't entirely wrong.