Religion and all that jazz...
Hullo...
I've not written in here for a while... Essentially this journal doesn't really serve much of a point other than it seems a place where from time to time I vent my angst and those negative thoughts that I don't really like to articulate towards the people I probably should. Today however is a little different.
I've made a decision that these negative and often self destructive entries don't really deserve a public outlet. So instead I am going to use this space to keep a record of my musings on life in general.
To kick this off I've decided to try and express my opinions on religion, spirituality and the seemingly innate quality of humanity to require a belief in something more... So yeah a biggie, but I spent nearly my entire bus ride home thinking about it so I should have plenty to say, because thinking about something for 20 minutes has provided me with more insight on a subject that has baffled philosophers and theologians for nearly the entire span of human existence... I'm just that awesome, or possibly glib...
I'm not religious, nor have I ever described myself as spiritual. I happily think of myself as atheistic. But as with a lot of atheists I find religion interesting. maybe it's just I don't really get what others get out of it and that drives me to want to understand, maybe. So not being religious, what then has inspired me to write on the subject. Earlier to day I was approached on the street by a hare krishna monk. I got in to a talk with him about his religion, what he got out of it and why he adheres to this belief structure. I found it interesting and then got on my bus and found myself unable to stop thinking about the whole idea of religion. Also he gave me a book... I like books...
To my mind it is obvious that all religions do essentially the same job, they fill a gap in the human consciousness by explaining the big question of "why?" or at least trying to explain it. Normally by responding "the big bearded guy in the sky says 'because'" or "the blue multi armed guy in the sky says 'because'" or "the essentially imperceivable nature of the universe says 'because;". But really religion is an attempt to desperately cry out against the vastness of the universe that there must be more than just this life. It is escapism, a way to not only think but to actually believe that not all things are transitory, that somethings can and must be eternal. Of course in reality all things are transitory, we all die, all things end, relationships, emotions, universes, hell even existence itself. And that is a scary thought, it's hardly surprising that people want to grasp on to an idea that makes it all not so, to purposefully delude yourself that the nature of nature itself isn't the way it is. To some extent we all live with this delusion, it is a necessity because if we didn't we wouldn't do anything because of the sheer monumental futility of it all.
So religion in it's purest form is a way to define this delusion to give it shape, to allow us to say that "NO!!! THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE IS NOT WHAT IT IS BUT WHAT I SAY IT IS." in easy to swallow fun sized bites. And this is true, your reality is entirely based on your perspective of it, the way you see your world is the way your world exists. Your religion allows you to see the universe the way you want. Religious bigotry and conflict basically boils down to the fact that in an attempt to achieve the same thing as you someone else is trying a different way and it is human nature to never accept we can be wrong. It is this inability to be wrong that drives not only fundamental religion but also to my mind aggressive atheism too, but it's cool because even if we don't vocalise it, we all secretly believe that whatever we think is right and the other person is always wrong.
So lets talk a little bit about happiness and its relationship with religion. I think its true to say that we all want to be happy. And we all have different things that make us happy or at least to get to that point of happiness. For some it might be booze others might find a creative endeavor does the job for some it might be having a rip roaring argument, some people are happiest when they're miserable. Happiness then seems to be almost indefinable. Except we all experience it. I genuinely think that happiness is when we totally give in for a little while to our delusion of an eternal never endingness, it is those moments that we forget the transitory nature of all things and find ourselves so focused on this one thing, whatever it might be, that it briefly fills our existence. So happiness then is a result of the delusion that religion attempts to make easier to swallow. So the aim of religion is to make us happy, but it fails.
The failure of religion is inevitable really organised religion doubly so. All religions begin with one persons delusion, this delusion works for this one person, so they think "Why can't everybody see that my delusion is the real truth." So they attempt to spread it in a desperate attempt to prove themselves right and the rest of humanity wrong. For some people the delusion works and they set about trying to be righter than everyone else. Eventually it becomes a necessity that you must follow a religion or subscribe to a belief system or an unbelief system (just threw that in for the atheists). The problem is that everyones delusion is different just as everyones morals, ethics, outlook and fantasies are different. And so religion enforces its own delusion and forgoes the individual delusion. And that just doesn't work...
So yeah... Basically this is what I was thinking on the bus and about as far as I got... But I think I got my stance on religion covered. Also this entry is getting a bit long and my hangover is killing me so I'm going to go lie down for a bit.
I've not written in here for a while... Essentially this journal doesn't really serve much of a point other than it seems a place where from time to time I vent my angst and those negative thoughts that I don't really like to articulate towards the people I probably should. Today however is a little different.
I've made a decision that these negative and often self destructive entries don't really deserve a public outlet. So instead I am going to use this space to keep a record of my musings on life in general.
To kick this off I've decided to try and express my opinions on religion, spirituality and the seemingly innate quality of humanity to require a belief in something more... So yeah a biggie, but I spent nearly my entire bus ride home thinking about it so I should have plenty to say, because thinking about something for 20 minutes has provided me with more insight on a subject that has baffled philosophers and theologians for nearly the entire span of human existence... I'm just that awesome, or possibly glib...
I'm not religious, nor have I ever described myself as spiritual. I happily think of myself as atheistic. But as with a lot of atheists I find religion interesting. maybe it's just I don't really get what others get out of it and that drives me to want to understand, maybe. So not being religious, what then has inspired me to write on the subject. Earlier to day I was approached on the street by a hare krishna monk. I got in to a talk with him about his religion, what he got out of it and why he adheres to this belief structure. I found it interesting and then got on my bus and found myself unable to stop thinking about the whole idea of religion. Also he gave me a book... I like books...
To my mind it is obvious that all religions do essentially the same job, they fill a gap in the human consciousness by explaining the big question of "why?" or at least trying to explain it. Normally by responding "the big bearded guy in the sky says 'because'" or "the blue multi armed guy in the sky says 'because'" or "the essentially imperceivable nature of the universe says 'because;". But really religion is an attempt to desperately cry out against the vastness of the universe that there must be more than just this life. It is escapism, a way to not only think but to actually believe that not all things are transitory, that somethings can and must be eternal. Of course in reality all things are transitory, we all die, all things end, relationships, emotions, universes, hell even existence itself. And that is a scary thought, it's hardly surprising that people want to grasp on to an idea that makes it all not so, to purposefully delude yourself that the nature of nature itself isn't the way it is. To some extent we all live with this delusion, it is a necessity because if we didn't we wouldn't do anything because of the sheer monumental futility of it all.
So religion in it's purest form is a way to define this delusion to give it shape, to allow us to say that "NO!!! THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE IS NOT WHAT IT IS BUT WHAT I SAY IT IS." in easy to swallow fun sized bites. And this is true, your reality is entirely based on your perspective of it, the way you see your world is the way your world exists. Your religion allows you to see the universe the way you want. Religious bigotry and conflict basically boils down to the fact that in an attempt to achieve the same thing as you someone else is trying a different way and it is human nature to never accept we can be wrong. It is this inability to be wrong that drives not only fundamental religion but also to my mind aggressive atheism too, but it's cool because even if we don't vocalise it, we all secretly believe that whatever we think is right and the other person is always wrong.
So lets talk a little bit about happiness and its relationship with religion. I think its true to say that we all want to be happy. And we all have different things that make us happy or at least to get to that point of happiness. For some it might be booze others might find a creative endeavor does the job for some it might be having a rip roaring argument, some people are happiest when they're miserable. Happiness then seems to be almost indefinable. Except we all experience it. I genuinely think that happiness is when we totally give in for a little while to our delusion of an eternal never endingness, it is those moments that we forget the transitory nature of all things and find ourselves so focused on this one thing, whatever it might be, that it briefly fills our existence. So happiness then is a result of the delusion that religion attempts to make easier to swallow. So the aim of religion is to make us happy, but it fails.
The failure of religion is inevitable really organised religion doubly so. All religions begin with one persons delusion, this delusion works for this one person, so they think "Why can't everybody see that my delusion is the real truth." So they attempt to spread it in a desperate attempt to prove themselves right and the rest of humanity wrong. For some people the delusion works and they set about trying to be righter than everyone else. Eventually it becomes a necessity that you must follow a religion or subscribe to a belief system or an unbelief system (just threw that in for the atheists). The problem is that everyones delusion is different just as everyones morals, ethics, outlook and fantasies are different. And so religion enforces its own delusion and forgoes the individual delusion. And that just doesn't work...
So yeah... Basically this is what I was thinking on the bus and about as far as I got... But I think I got my stance on religion covered. Also this entry is getting a bit long and my hangover is killing me so I'm going to go lie down for a bit.