Quote Originally Posted by ahabion
What I'm confused about is the notion that just because we believe in a certain religion or belief that it somehow "limits" free thinking... I'm confused. Please somehow enlighten me. That's like saying because you join the military, you're no longer capable of free thinking or if you join IA, that it somehow limits your thinking.

Herd mentality or group think can be associated with almost anything, please drop it. Heck, IA is an example of herd mentality. Everyone thinks of CARS... oh noes! Somehow that stifles free thinking...?
note that i said SOME religions. not all but SOME. the very nature of how religions are set up tend to create a dependency between the leader of the religion and his followers. basically you go to church every week to receive instruction from the same leadership about spirituality. i've been to churches where the pastor spoke for over an hr without even opening his Bible or mentioning scripture to verify or validate what he was saying. that's ridiculous. this is a situation that can be very easily abused, and we see it happen all the time.

and you're right...herd mentality can be associated with almost any organization with centralized leadership. hell, look at how many ppl on IA or honda-tech are quick to call any teg or civic that doesn't have a clean OEM look or has wheels bigger than 16s RICE. lol. ppl get lazy and if the leadership doesn't encourage the members to think for themselves...they'd rather kick back and let the leader tell them what to do. we have the same problem with government but that's a different discussion lol.

the DIFFERENCE with religion though is that the stakes are much higher. it's not fads or trends...it's ppls lives we're dealing with.