Livening things up -- my approach to religion
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:57 am
I recently posted this on the apollohoax forums. I think it might be out of place, and I suppose I sound like I'm preaching, but I think I have some pertinent things to say.
The post was made in reply to Gillianren, who basically said,
Here's what I posted (the reference to Jay is Jay Utah, who argues with Jason, a Mormon):
The original post here: http://apollohoax.proboards.com/index.c ... 0&page=15#
I don't think I expressed myself as well as I could have; I'm not really in the best mindset to write an essay right now, but well, there ya go.
The post was made in reply to Gillianren, who basically said,
But I wonder how all those "all religious people are idiots" types would respond if they knew Jay's religious. I know my faith doesn't tend to impress them much.
Here's what I posted (the reference to Jay is Jay Utah, who argues with Jason, a Mormon):
I don't think religious people are idiots. In fact, I respect Jay's faith, because he's able to avoid absolutism and can keep it from deciding things for me. Also, I can see that he thinks it through and can keep science, religion, and state matters separate.
But no, your faith doesn't "impress" me, depending on what you mean by that. At the very least, I have no desire to convert to any particular faith. Part of this comes with a bit of personal belief, though; given the huge size of the universe and the existence of such great amounts of death and suffering on Earth, I believe that any cosmic force that had any amount of consciousness would not care about the Earth; in fact, I consider people arrogant to think that the Universe would look at them with any greater respect than, say, I would to fleas. Believing that some Cosmic Force cares about you so much that it deigns to speak to you, judge you, and tell the "right path" personally, seems to stem from the same ego that made us assume that the sun revolved around the Earth, and that the Earth was the center of Everything. In fact, I consider Lovecraft to be more likely to be correct than any major religion today.
Considering the long track of things we got downright wrong (not understanding genetics, our ideas that the sky was "a dome", astrology, alchemy, etc.) -- I'm not sure why I should assume we "get it right" when it comes to something more... cosmic. In fact, even the famous astrophysicists get things wrong; Einstein stuck with the idea of a cyclically Big Crunch and Big Bang, which is now being revealed to be wrong. Copernicus was obsessed with his idea that there was a "perfect geometry" that would be a key to understanding God, but couldn't get it right.
But that's just the way I see things.
That's not a scientific decision, though, and cannot be empirically defended. I realize that, and respect that. To an extent, I can see belief in a cosmic force; but when people start telling me that this cosmic force cares about me because of some arbitrary reason (like the gender of someone I have sex with, or if we have sex without a random band of metal around my finger), I demand a hell of a lot more than, "Well, because that's what I believe". Of course, you would only need to defend such a belief if you were trying to push it on me... like trying to make that sex or marriage illegal.
If people kept their religion away from me, I'd be fine with that. Similarly, I'm not calling for the abolishment of churches or prayer.
The original post here: http://apollohoax.proboards.com/index.c ... 0&page=15#
I don't think I expressed myself as well as I could have; I'm not really in the best mindset to write an essay right now, but well, there ya go.