If I were to create a religion, it would look like this:

[nasu_dengaku]

I’ve often thought about how the leading vocal atheists have the wrong approach to religion.  They spend plenty of time making fun of the contradictions in leading religions and warning of the dangers of fundamentalism, but they don’t think about why people are attracted to religion to begin with.  Simply poking a stick at religion won’t win many

Comments

[plymouth]

This bears some resemblance to my assertion that my religion is Chaos Theory. Chaos Theory, to me, describes the oneness of the universe, how small patterns are repeated at large scale and large patterns are repeated at small scale. How we are all interconnected and seemingly small inconsequential actions can have long lasting effects. When I first read about Chaos Theory back in high school I had am epiphany that is the closest thing I've ever felt to how others describe their religious awakenings. Suddenly everything just MADE SENSE. It was awesome. In the original sense of the word awesome.

[nasu_dengaku]

That's a good point.

[plymouth]

I'm not sure that's concise enough to count as a "point" - it's really me babbling off the top of my head. But if you thought it was good, uh, yay? :)

[nasu_dengaku]

Hmm... "That's a good blunt intellectual object"?

[zunger]

Of course, a religion is a lot more than just a central doctrine. A religion needs powerful narratives, rituals, social gatherings, community outreach programs, and more.
True, but what you've described here seems to have a healthy aspect of narrative in it as well.

I recently had some extended conversations with a leading vocal atheist who was very much in the mold you describe. I was struck by the extent to which his argument for atheism seemed to boil down to "look at all the stupid people who believe in a religion; people should be atheists because everyone else is dumb." And alas, he expressed himself with only slightly more tact than that, in a public forum to boot.

What I noticed from this was that he wasn't advertising any positive virtue of atheism, or any reason why a person's life would be better if they were atheists; his argument was entirely about why not being an atheist is bad.

I like what you're saying here; this is a positive statement of why these beliefs are good.

[nasu_dengaku]

Thanks!

It's true I have the outline of a big over-arching narrative. What I meant when talking about narrative was the set of personality archetypes and moral parables that flesh out more specific scenarios. The Bible has plenty of these, some of which are kind of fucked-up. (If a teacher gave elementary-school kids a book to read in which a father tries to kill his own son because he heard voices in his head telling him to do so, many parents would probably be outraged... unless it's the Bible).

[zunger]

That sounds like an assumption that you should follow the models of Christian sacred texts as the most effective way to convey these ideas. Is that necessarily true?

[nasu_dengaku]

Not necessarily. I do think it's important to have a good collection of stories, especially for kids trying to make sense of the world and how they should behave in it. However, as you point out it can be packaged in a variety of ways.

Re: Yes.

[ferrouswheel]

I don't think ever-spreading should be the goal, but I think the point was that being confined to a single planet leaves us vulnerable to a whole host of extinction type events. Even if we spread to another planet it'd make self-awareness that much harder to be randomly extinguished by a cosmic or terrestrial event.

Re: Yes.

[nasu_dengaku]

Hey, I'll settle for self-sufficient human civilization on two planets for now. :-)

[doublefeh]

That sounds just similar enough to some thoughts I've had along the same lines that we could probably have some great sectarian wars over split hairs. You game?

[nasu_dengaku]

Hey, the existence of at least one competitor is usually seen as a signal of the validity of a new market sector. Sure, bring it on!

[zunger]

So when atheists do this, is it considered an "unholy war?"

[doublefeh]

I prefer to think of it as an "aholy war".

[veleda]

This makes me want to kiss you.

:)

We <3 Matt.

[veleda]

I have had an idea of starting a cult that approaches the universe in a similar manner.

[nasu_dengaku]

Awww... I wouldn't object. :-)