Or at least so I have always thought. But lately I'm beginning to think it may not be all bad. I guess my main issue with religion is it often promotes stupidity and closed mindedness amongst people. People generally seem to be quite happy to start acting like sheep instead of self thinking beings, and go along with whatever some religious figure or book claims, or what ever their ancestors did instead of thinking for themselves or using their best judgment.I guess my other main issue with religion is that it seems to divide people. It seems like the easiest way to create or promote a war or conflict is to separate groups of people into different religions. Religion has got to be one of the main promoters of conflict.
This is somewhat ironic and illogical considering most major religions are founded on principals of peace. The funny part is that most religions are aware that religion can promote conflicts, and their proposed solution is for everyone to convert to their own religion. This cannot work given both religions in the conflict desire the other to convert. Even within the same religion most of the bloodiest wars in history have been fought between different sects.
My final issue that I'll add to this blog is just the plain illogical stupidity of it all. Granted there are some religions that make actual sense, but most have so much mythical hocus pocus they are hard to take seriously. Most religions have some god or group of gods and corresponding mythology that if told to grown person that was not brought up being brainwashed by the stuff would be as believable as the tooth fairy. Also religions are so condescending and hypocritical of other religions, especially older "pagan" religions, thinking them naïve and unbelievable, when their own is no less far fetched. I don't see how someone could believe in one religion, and yet not believe in the 1000 other equally far fetched (but completely different) religions that mankind has invented since the dawn of time, and since they all contradict each other, I don’t see how anyone could believe in anything.
So, that’s enough of religion bashing, and on to what I really want to talk about. Which is that lately I have begun to think religion, which I would dare to define as a belief system, is not such a bad thing. After all, the alternative to believing in something is to believe in nothing, and where is the fun in that. Can humanity really be saved, or expected to not march merrily to its own doom, without some kind of common belief system? If you ignore the fluff of most religions, and look more closely what they, or at least their prophet preach, they seem pretty ok. Most preach things like compassion, humility, caring, love, honesty, generosity, passivity, ethics and even common sense. Without religion, or some belief that it is our duty to be good, what direction do we have in our lives?
3 comments:
Your final paragraph is puzzling. "Believing in nothing" is exactly what religion is, because god is nothing. I'm an atheist and I believe in -- well, everything except the nonexistent and the irrational. I also think that founding hospitals and feeding a few homeless people is nowhere near enough to absolve religion of all the blood shed in its name down through the centuries.
I'm sorry, but I really disagree with most of your last paragraph. Although I will agree that religion in not necessarily a bad thing.
1. "The alternative to believing in something is believing in nothing". Not quite. If I don't believe that the sky is blue, there are many other colors I can choose from. An atheist can believe in anything, just not a god or gods.
2. Does humanity need a common belief system? What if people were just a little more skeptical and used logic and rational thought? There's your common shared system.
3. "Most religions teach compassion, humilty", etc. Yes, but they also have passages about war and that their belief is the one true path. By advocating bad things as well as good, they are effectively neutral.
4. "Without religion, or some belief that it is our duty to be good, what direction do we have in our lives?" Wow. No offense, but you really need to read some. I suggest "Unweaving the Rainbow" by Richard Dawkins. Certain studies of mathematical game theory give credence to the idea that it is inherently beneficial to survival to be altruistic. i.e. the majority will tend to be good because we evolved that way.
Your comment completely overlooks people like Crick (co-discoverer of DNA), Bertrand Russell (philosopher & writer (check out his book on mathematical philosophy)), Penn & Teller (entertainers and skeptics), James Randi (magician and skeptic), and the tons of other atheists who lead fulfilling lives.
I do not think religion needs to be eliminated from society. The more diversity in our culture, the wider range of ideas that can be created. I just wish that people would be a little more logical and rational thinking. I think religions can present an easy slippery slope that can lead us to disaster.
Thank you very much for your detailed comments.
You are correct that some of my wording may be too liberal. When I refer to believing in nothing, I am not just talking about belief in gods, but belief in beliefs (i.e. religion). There are many religions that do not require the belief in gods (Buddhism, Communism, Confucianism, Taoism ...), one can be atheist and still be religious. However I am atheist and agnostic, I do not believe in believing in anything, and perhaps that is empty.
I will try better to justify religion in my next post, “Evolution and Religion, best of friends”
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