Thoughts on Religion
A friend recently prompted for some thoughts on religion. Here is my response...
On August 16th, 2007 01:00 am (local), causticus commented:
Okay, so here are my thoughts.
I like to describe myself as a very grounded, science-minded, logical person. To me, religion does not fit that description; it is something where you have to just put your faith into an unverifiable idea. In my opinion, the term "Christian Scientist" is an oxymoron. The scientific method is the practice of taking known and verified ideas and applying them in a verifiable and reproducible way to support a new idea. This, by definition, cannot occur with faith, and therefore fails to be scientific.
With this as a basis, I cannot believe in the existence of a soul or spirit. We are merely animated meat, a collection of cells working together to form a successful super-organism. When the system breaks down, the cells no longer working together, we experience death, a biological failure. There ends our story, with only our genetic legacy (if propagated) and our intellectual legacy (if sufficient to have affected significant portion of our evolving culture) to survive us.
Life has no real meaning.
I accept this as sooth. The fact is, we live to live. We find what pleasure we can and, if at least a little narcissistic, try to make our mark on our society, whether locally or on a larger scale. Some may ask, "Why bother?" The only real reason is so that we may enjoy our time during this life. This is generally assisted by assisting others with enjoying their life, too - the basic principle of, "Do unto others as you wish done unto you."
The Christian bible is a work of fiction, likely with some threads of original fact, but highly embellished and transformed by multiple translations and re-interpretations. For a person to point at an English-language bible and say, "This is fact," is ludicrous. Our modern day bible has been reinterpreted and twisted and who knows what too many times to reach its current incarnation for it to hold any real validity even as a historical work of literature. Though I hesitate to make assumptions, it seems likely that this is true for any other equivalent religious book.
Religion serves the purposes of the individual and the group.
Religion is the magical cure-all answer to the unknown. Don't know why there's a huge object traveling the sky, changing shape day by day? It must be the Gods. Don't know why your crops are withering and dying? The Gods are displeased. Don't know why the cart broke and fell on you, breaking your leg? (or can't accept that you should have checked the cart axles that morning and need someone to blame?) It was God's will to server His purpose. Yet, all this and more is explainable… now.
Religion is a source of power for a select elite to keep the masses in their place and doing what they are told. Historically, religion has been significant source of power and has guided many cultures, giving power and often wealth to those that hold the reigns. In more modern days, even though the religious texts are no longer in flux, the heads of religious organizations choose to interpret their respective religious texts as they see fit to guide culture as they perceive it should be.
Religion is a personal psychological crutch. Many people just can't handle the thought that life has no real meaning, they need a reason to live, a reason to get up each day and go to that crappy fast food job, or deal with that screaming step-mother, or some how accept the abuse of peers at school or elsewhere. They need to feel that, no matter what, Someone is there, watching and guiding and ready to help them when they falter. This also goes back to the cure-all answer to the unknown in that, if something is not going well, it is all part of Gods purpose.
Okay, that's all for tonight, I need sleep. I hope you will find my perspective and thoughts of interest.
On August 16th, 2007 01:00 am (local), causticus commented:
Okay, so here are my thoughts.
I like to describe myself as a very grounded, science-minded, logical person. To me, religion does not fit that description; it is something where you have to just put your faith into an unverifiable idea. In my opinion, the term "Christian Scientist" is an oxymoron. The scientific method is the practice of taking known and verified ideas and applying them in a verifiable and reproducible way to support a new idea. This, by definition, cannot occur with faith, and therefore fails to be scientific.
With this as a basis, I cannot believe in the existence of a soul or spirit. We are merely animated meat, a collection of cells working together to form a successful super-organism. When the system breaks down, the cells no longer working together, we experience death, a biological failure. There ends our story, with only our genetic legacy (if propagated) and our intellectual legacy (if sufficient to have affected significant portion of our evolving culture) to survive us.
Life has no real meaning.
I accept this as sooth. The fact is, we live to live. We find what pleasure we can and, if at least a little narcissistic, try to make our mark on our society, whether locally or on a larger scale. Some may ask, "Why bother?" The only real reason is so that we may enjoy our time during this life. This is generally assisted by assisting others with enjoying their life, too - the basic principle of, "Do unto others as you wish done unto you."
The Christian bible is a work of fiction, likely with some threads of original fact, but highly embellished and transformed by multiple translations and re-interpretations. For a person to point at an English-language bible and say, "This is fact," is ludicrous. Our modern day bible has been reinterpreted and twisted and who knows what too many times to reach its current incarnation for it to hold any real validity even as a historical work of literature. Though I hesitate to make assumptions, it seems likely that this is true for any other equivalent religious book.
Religion serves the purposes of the individual and the group.
Religion is the magical cure-all answer to the unknown. Don't know why there's a huge object traveling the sky, changing shape day by day? It must be the Gods. Don't know why your crops are withering and dying? The Gods are displeased. Don't know why the cart broke and fell on you, breaking your leg? (or can't accept that you should have checked the cart axles that morning and need someone to blame?) It was God's will to server His purpose. Yet, all this and more is explainable… now.
Religion is a source of power for a select elite to keep the masses in their place and doing what they are told. Historically, religion has been significant source of power and has guided many cultures, giving power and often wealth to those that hold the reigns. In more modern days, even though the religious texts are no longer in flux, the heads of religious organizations choose to interpret their respective religious texts as they see fit to guide culture as they perceive it should be.
Religion is a personal psychological crutch. Many people just can't handle the thought that life has no real meaning, they need a reason to live, a reason to get up each day and go to that crappy fast food job, or deal with that screaming step-mother, or some how accept the abuse of peers at school or elsewhere. They need to feel that, no matter what, Someone is there, watching and guiding and ready to help them when they falter. This also goes back to the cure-all answer to the unknown in that, if something is not going well, it is all part of Gods purpose.
Okay, that's all for tonight, I need sleep. I hope you will find my perspective and thoughts of interest.