Quote Originally Posted by bmolsson
What Papewaio said....

Bottomline, religion is a powerstructure that is in direct conflict with the principles of democracy.
The family unit is an undemocratic powerstructure... Anytime you get humans together, you've got a power structure. Quite often, these are not democratic. The corporation, the armed forces.

My parent's church (just as an example) votes on issues of policy. They attend the church because they all have certain articles of belief in common.

Doesn't sound terribly counterdemocratic or oppressive to me.

Again, I think that these generalisations apply more to the theocracies and right-wing fundamentalist societies of the world... and the pages of history.