does your god belief make life easier for you?
it's one claim that's always being presented to me: that without god, we would have no concept of right and wrong. we would have no hope. we would live a life without meaning. there would be no comfort in times of need, no love in times of despair.
i would jest that, yes, some things are easier, particularly in our society, if one bears total solidarity towards their religion. it is, unlike many other things, above a level of scrutiny. your faith is protected and sacred--whereas my criticism would seem tactless and disrespectful. is it so much to ask that such a thing could be scrutinized as harshly as anything else? we expect our cars, our airplanes, and our prescription drugs to be thoroughly studied and tested to the fullest, to ensure the integrity of the product. somehow, i doubt you'd be impressed if the pilot of the plane you'd about to fly on bore no credentials or license, and tried to win your confidence by only his "belief" that he could fly.
but that is exactly what you are expected to do, and what you expect of others, when it comes to your blind faith.
and in this society, it is easier, in many ways, to just believe. you will rarely, if at all, experience religious persecution. you will earn the trust and love of your family, if they too are believers. you will take comfort, if you could in such a thing, that there is a celestial force above you, who created the universe for the sole reason of placing you in it. you could even become president.
disregard infinite space, black holes, supernovas, thousands of galaxies with meteors and planets which bear no life, and the one we now live on which barely does that, and which will not some day in the future. this was all for you.
and probably most importantly, you can take comfort that death is merely an illusion...a passing towards eternal servitude in heaven with all your loved ones and your creator. for many, this is enough, if you go for that sort of thing.
in these ways, your belief in god can help you, whichever you happen to choose (yes, you have thousands of options, thus forcing you to be an atheist towards the rest.)
but what are the downsides? many struggle with original sin, and never being able to achieve a fascist standard set beyond human ability. you would have to squirm every time you read another scientific discovery, and either completely discredit it or contort until it somehow becomes compatible with your ancient dogmas. you have to justify the common wickedness of your holy books into either allusions or the (gasp) evolution of one's own creator from angry to loving (islam has yet to make this transition.) you have to accept miracles and supernatural events can occur, and yet wonder why they never happen in your neighborhood. if you are a woman, you have to accept a spiritual pecking order that believes menstruation to be "unclean" and a broken hymen to be even more contemptible. you would have to believe that every embryo that spontaneously aborts from a mother's womb was sentenced to limbo for being unsaved (or where ever else.)
as a non-believer, i simply don't have to consider such issues, and have them weigh heavily as society advances and makes it seem all the sillier, and having to defend it and keep my faith in a vacuum untouched by technological advancements. (i am, however, quite sure that in a moment of physical distress at a hospital, you'd rather find an evolutionist with a clipboard than a creationist with a holy book.)
it is not that a non-believer does not consider such issues of morality. in fact, we do even more so, and have a long history of philosophy concerned with it. we simply do not need a celestial surveillance camera, and i simply detest anyone who claims they are only moral because of it. it is not the kind of person i would want to live next to.
and for many, asking such questions as i have laid here, would be a sin in itself. many households keep religion for sunday, and the rest of the time it is stricken from conversation.
what an grand assumption about existence to bear so nonchalantly!
could it be, for the fact, that many embrace the social benefits of religion, but in secret know that it is truly mythology propagated by fear and social control? and even as i have rid myself of such a thing, i have received a level of resistance that i'm sure women received when asking for suffrage, or blacks when asking for freedom, or homosexuals when asking for acceptance.
what wickedness, what utter cruelty do we bear in silent obedience, as we shuffle in and out of our pews, to treat our wives to subtle misogyny, our children totalitarianism, our enemies a refined sense of entitlement.
to rid of it all, to live not as a hypocrite but as a human being in a world of wonder and greatness, is a breath of fresh air i wish everyone could experience, instead of toiling in servitude to a celestial being that simply mirrors mankinds worst deeds and deepest fears.
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4 comments:
I didn't really want to jump into this, seeing as you and I have hashed out most of the things you've been bringing up in that conversation on Justin's board a while back (and in person at Jed's). Yet I couldn't resist this one point.
You said,
"to rid of it all, to live not as a hypocrite but as a human being in a world of wonder and greatness, is a breath of fresh air i wish everyone could experience, instead of toiling in servitude to a celestial being that simply mirrors mankinds worst deeds and deepest fears."
Wow! This is amazing, because that final prescription of yours sounds like a pretty good description, at least in part, of Christianity as I understand it. I'm glad we at least agree there, as well as on the fact that fundamentalism is a very serious danger and problem in our times.
Actually, a change of plans, I will ask one serious question now -- this is, after all, something we haven't really talked about much. I'm quite curious, what do you think of a person like me, someone who is disturbed by religion as you described it in this past post, yet still has their own different sincere religious experience? Someone who also fully embraces science/evolution/etc., has no problem questioning anything (including their faith, which they realize is a faith), and is (or at least thinks she or he is) more than willing to reject parts or all of their faith if they ever find enough reason to (as for example, I've rejected certain ideas that I was taught early on as a Christian but now consider to be close minded and untenable)?
I ask because my impression from the times we've talked about this is that you and I are at a standstill. You can't really prove God doesn't exist. I can't really prove God does exist. But where do we go from here. Well, I go on believing (recognizing my faith) and you go on disbelieving (relying on "probability" to try denying a faith of your own? I'm not really sure). In the end though, I'm wondering, is it wrong for me to still believe in a God? Am I someone that can function in society despite having a faith, or is this faith of mine still a threat to you and everyone else, a threat that needs to be squashed out just like the faiths of the religious fundies? What do you make of a person like me? Where do I fit into your picture? Do you feel the need to exorcise my faith too before there can be peace on earth? Or am I not a threat, but merely not realizing my full potential? What's the doctor's diagnosis and prescription here?
(Sorry about the length there, but it's a question with many layers...)
Steve, rebuttal?
These discussions are always interesting to read, thanks for not waiting to talk about it at Jed's again, Mac.
I should add that I really do appreciate these posts -- they're definitely challenging me to think about things in new ways. At the least, your questions and concerns have played a significant role in doing two things for me that I think you'd be glad to hear of: (1) they've played a partial role in my ever-increasing concern (especially for the past 2 years) regarding the dangers of fundamentalist and ideological thinking that cuts off reasoning; (2) they've played a significant role in raising my attention to the disadvantages that atheists often seem to have, particularly in the United States.
All I can say to that is thanks and keep it up!
From the blog sidebar,
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you’d have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion." -Steven Weinberg, 1979 Nobel Laureat in Physics
One last thing, since I think these present conversations may be shortlived (Why? Because I really don't have time right now to respond to every post put up, and I seem to be the only one that is willing to converse to begin with), I have to ask about the above quote. Do you really think it to be true, that only in religion do we find "good" people that can do evil things.
As far as I can tell, a simple statement like this sounds more like a catchy rhetorical attack meant to inspire those who already dislike religion, rather than a genuine intelligent remark. It makes little sense when examined more closely.
After all, putting aside for now the also important question of what is meant by "good things" and "evil things" in the statement, we can still ask the following: what does it imply for anybody that does an evil thing for a nonreligious reason? Does it mean they clearly had no intention to do good and can never be doing any good things whatsoever for the same nonreligious reasons?
Honestly, I really am trying to follow the statement through, but it just doesn't seem to do justice to the complexities of good and evil human experience. And frankly, I'm surprised at how someone of such seemingly high intellectual caliber can still hold a view so simplistic and black and white. However, this only affirms my ongoing belief that anyone can potentially become ideological and fundamentalist at anytime in their lives. And it doesn't have to be in all areas of thought -- the subject matter can be quite narrow in scope at times. Of course, that doesn't take away from the fact that it's still a bad thing...
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