(no subject)
I can imagine the solace that a belief - however unfounded in reason or fact - in some "higher" purpose or "power" can indeed provide. Counterproductive (content people rarely do what is necessary for a better tomorrow, for themselves or others), perhaps, but comforting.
That my health took a huge shock some years back, has steadily deteriorated, has gained more idiosyncracies with time (if, in fact, later developments are not causally related - directly, in one injury tending towards another, or indirectly, in that I'm inhibited or prohibited from preventing the onset of other effects), etc, and the bulk of what would actually help to stave off, reverse, fix, and prevent these (and future) problems is not covered by my insurance... if I saw purpose or intent, I could readily see that a belief that I were being tried or tested (or persecuted?) would be a crutch.
I remain in the real, however uncomfortable, world.
Studies show that greater religiosity goes hand in hand with greater rates of poverty, illness, "delinquency" (teenage pregnancies, crime, etc), etc, where in the US especially the more vocally "religious" voices oppose social solutions to these: welfare programs, health care reform, sex ed, programs to reduce crime, whatever.
There are complicated relationships there - not listed, for example, is education, which is strongly connected to all of the above, religiosity included, and there may be other factors I just haven't thought to list at this time - but there are really two major factors in play:
Lack of knowledge, and lack of opportunity. Ignorance and misfortune.
Lacking education, especially some level of competency and literacy in a modern technological society with maddening interconnections and interdependence, is a surefire way to be on the losing end of an economy, of health matters (prevention especially), and while lack of education may not cause religiosity, greater education does tend to lower religiosity. Less education, leading to less economic opportunities, also leads to financial troubles - and crime.
Misfortune is more complicated. Sometimes, fortune is good, but life hits you with a whammy - say, a pickup truck to the head. If I hadn't had prior good fortune (my own traits and abilities, including a strong intelligence and insatiable will to learn and do - but among the more important matters, a solid family, a firm financial footing, etc), I'd have been far worse off than I was, when I actually did take the pickup to my head.
But sometimes, it's generally bad - institutional, societal. A country where millions of citizens - a substantial fraction of the population - struggled daily against financial ruin, barely afford home and food, have little (often costing steeply) or no opportunity as far as choices and options for education, health care, etc - is a country decaying from the bottom. Poverty, hunger, etc, turn into very real wrongs, both in themselves, and in the effects they have upon individuals (affected by them or not), and a society.
I realize far too often how lucky, all told, I remain. Wide swathes of the USA - the richest country in the world, the country most able to solve all of its problems, had it the political will - never had, and never will have, the advantages I had. Billions elsewhere face, and will continue to face, far worse circumstances than I should ever wish to imagine.
And I only wonder just how much better the world would be, if, in lieu of insisting that misfortune (and sheer wrong) exist for some "higher" reason, we looked at Life, the Universe, and Everything, as nothing more than they themselves - no gods, no personalities, no anthropomorphism, no reasons, no meanings.
Just life. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Someone content to believe that the poor are poor because they somehow deserve it, that the poor are poor simply because they're lazy - that the poor are poor for any reason other than the institutional situation they're shoved into - are content to act by doing... nothing.
People aren't poor, tired, weak, weary, sick, to serve as examples, or as a test, or because they're any manner of plaything to the so-called supernatural. People are poor, tired, weak, weary, sick - and dying - because we're arrogant egocentric apes who learned to walk upright and haven't actually learned all that much of substance since then.
(And we have a strong tendency towards killing off the people who best show us the type of ape - compassionate, rational, mindful, etc - we should strive to be.)
That my health took a huge shock some years back, has steadily deteriorated, has gained more idiosyncracies with time (if, in fact, later developments are not causally related - directly, in one injury tending towards another, or indirectly, in that I'm inhibited or prohibited from preventing the onset of other effects), etc, and the bulk of what would actually help to stave off, reverse, fix, and prevent these (and future) problems is not covered by my insurance... if I saw purpose or intent, I could readily see that a belief that I were being tried or tested (or persecuted?) would be a crutch.
I remain in the real, however uncomfortable, world.
Studies show that greater religiosity goes hand in hand with greater rates of poverty, illness, "delinquency" (teenage pregnancies, crime, etc), etc, where in the US especially the more vocally "religious" voices oppose social solutions to these: welfare programs, health care reform, sex ed, programs to reduce crime, whatever.
There are complicated relationships there - not listed, for example, is education, which is strongly connected to all of the above, religiosity included, and there may be other factors I just haven't thought to list at this time - but there are really two major factors in play:
Lack of knowledge, and lack of opportunity. Ignorance and misfortune.
Lacking education, especially some level of competency and literacy in a modern technological society with maddening interconnections and interdependence, is a surefire way to be on the losing end of an economy, of health matters (prevention especially), and while lack of education may not cause religiosity, greater education does tend to lower religiosity. Less education, leading to less economic opportunities, also leads to financial troubles - and crime.
Misfortune is more complicated. Sometimes, fortune is good, but life hits you with a whammy - say, a pickup truck to the head. If I hadn't had prior good fortune (my own traits and abilities, including a strong intelligence and insatiable will to learn and do - but among the more important matters, a solid family, a firm financial footing, etc), I'd have been far worse off than I was, when I actually did take the pickup to my head.
But sometimes, it's generally bad - institutional, societal. A country where millions of citizens - a substantial fraction of the population - struggled daily against financial ruin, barely afford home and food, have little (often costing steeply) or no opportunity as far as choices and options for education, health care, etc - is a country decaying from the bottom. Poverty, hunger, etc, turn into very real wrongs, both in themselves, and in the effects they have upon individuals (affected by them or not), and a society.
I realize far too often how lucky, all told, I remain. Wide swathes of the USA - the richest country in the world, the country most able to solve all of its problems, had it the political will - never had, and never will have, the advantages I had. Billions elsewhere face, and will continue to face, far worse circumstances than I should ever wish to imagine.
And I only wonder just how much better the world would be, if, in lieu of insisting that misfortune (and sheer wrong) exist for some "higher" reason, we looked at Life, the Universe, and Everything, as nothing more than they themselves - no gods, no personalities, no anthropomorphism, no reasons, no meanings.
Just life. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Someone content to believe that the poor are poor because they somehow deserve it, that the poor are poor simply because they're lazy - that the poor are poor for any reason other than the institutional situation they're shoved into - are content to act by doing... nothing.
People aren't poor, tired, weak, weary, sick, to serve as examples, or as a test, or because they're any manner of plaything to the so-called supernatural. People are poor, tired, weak, weary, sick - and dying - because we're arrogant egocentric apes who learned to walk upright and haven't actually learned all that much of substance since then.
(And we have a strong tendency towards killing off the people who best show us the type of ape - compassionate, rational, mindful, etc - we should strive to be.)