What are some costs of religion?

[Leucosticte]

Part of the problem with religion arises when you live in a society where people aren't very religious, and aren't required to follow religious norms. For example, let's suppose your religion says, "Observe the Sabbath; don't drink or use drugs; and don't swear." Well, now you're the odd man out if the people you know, either socially or from the workplace or wherever, violate the Sabbath and like to drink, use drugs, and swear. It can hold you back in your career and keep you from enjoying yourself with your friends and colleagues.

I'm really struggling to see the point of religion for the individual, other than as (1) a place to meet a nice church girl, or (2) some kind of temporary way to get people to think you've reformed after you've gotten in trouble.

It's true that in some of the more hardcore religions or denominations thereof, there are some church girls who are heavily sheltered by their dads and thus still virgins, and therefore theoretically could make a good mate. (If a church girl has a single mom, forget about any possibility that she's gonna choose a nice church boy, or stay a virgin till marriage; it won't happen.)

Those hardcore religions, though, are kinda like STEM programs at school. They're rigorous, and it's gonna be hard to survive. You're gonna have to study your ass off, and even then you might not succeed, because the expectations are so high. Not everyone's cut out for it.

But aside from that, if you're kind of a loser (e.g. can't hold a job), the church is not going to fix that for you, or help you work around it somehow to still be able to have a family. So it's actually kind of a catch-22. If you're a successful man with a career, you're probably too busy to study the Bible much; but if you're a loser with lots of time on his hands to study the Bible, then in that scenario too you're not eligible to have a family.

Btw, trying to use religion as a "get out of jail free" card after you get busted for some crime, or for being an Internet misogynist or whatever, is probably only gonna help you when it comes to dealing with your mom. Your mom will be impressed by your conversion, but she's the only one. Everyone else will still give you a hard time.

These manosphere guys who turn religious and delete all their old content are basically announcing to the world, "I had to move back into my mommy's basement."

Another catch-22 is that if you did live in a society where people were religious, and religious norms were upheld, then your being religious would not make you special; the churches would be packed with lots of other guys competing for those same church girls you want.

 

[Admin]

One potential benefit with religion is that if it's constructed well there will be instructions in your bible that will give people an advantage when it comes to survival and reproduction, this is often the case even if some of the rules are flawed. Unfortunatily even if you do have some rues such as "dont consume psychoactive substances" people will do it anyway (sometimes in secret) because they lack the discipline to strictly follow it.

Strictly avoiding contraceptives will also give you a significant advantage and you tend to be better off strictly following than than to use exceptions even in cases where it seem to be justified (such as extracting resources from men).