In light of the attacks in Paris this week, I wanted to post some thoughts. Many people are blaming religion, saying that religion is the problem, that if we get rid of religion the world will be a better place.
Much of what I am seeing comes in response to many religious people saying things like pray for Paris. Many are responding back that religion IS the problem. As a non-religious person, who does not believe in any God's, I'd like to agree with that, but I can't. No, religion is NOT the problem, it is a symptom of the problem, it is how the problem most often finds expression, but if we address the symptom, and not the problem, we fix nothing. The problem is rigid, dogmatic, black and white thinking and it exists outside of religion too. Peter Boghossian has written an excellent book that was titled "A Manual for Creating Atheists" Although I understand that from a marketing perspective, I really wish it didn't have that title but perhaps instead "A Manual for Creating Thinkers" as I think that is what it really helps to do. It helps people question faith, dogma, things that they have accepted without too much thinking. It encourages people to question why they believe what we believe, to challenge our dogma, our rigidity. We ALL need to do that, not just those who are religious. And if we don't do that, if we just blame religion for the worlds ill's we miss the root of the problem. And dare I say it, science also shows we most people tend to be religious and if we do away with all religion, we also miss the good that non-dogmatic, evidence based, thinking, religion could potentially offer.
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It looks like I haven't posted in a while, I need to do this more. But today on my birthday I am reflecting back on my life a bit. Yep that picture is me 53 years ago, I was a cute little thing, although I did look a little pouty when this picture was taken! Like everyone else my journey has had it's up's and downs, but I am thankful for the family and society that I was born into, that gave me my start. Sometimes I look back and wonder how my parents ever managed to provide for us the way that they did, both are gone now, but both lived well into their 80's. While I am thankful for that, and know that out of the whole universe and of all of time how lucky I am to have been born to the family I was, in the society I was, at the time that I was. BUT, I am also thankful that I was able to go a separate way from my family, and the beliefs that I was raised with. I am thankful that I had the courage to be able to question and challenge the beliefs I was raised with. This has made my life even better and richer in every way. And thus I have a challenge for you. Beliefs are really not very good if they can not stand up to sincere challenges and questions. Don't settle for unquestioned beliefs, question everything, it's amazing how much richer that can make your life. The best part of my life by far has been since I got the courage to challenge and ask questions of my life, it taught me that I can stand on my own two feet, thus I still see my best days as being ahead. And I intend to get the most out of it, in my own way. Remember the wisdom of the ancient philosopher Socrates "The unexamined life is not worth living." Make your life worthy of living, challenge and put to the test your beliefs, see if they hold up. I don't know about you but I only want to believe that which remains after my beliefs have been put to the test of evidence, reason, and logic. David I saw the above meme on my Facebook wall yesterday (without the red X) and had to respond. Of course this is the classic Pascal's Wager which assumes if there is a God, he is a really stupid one that can be fooled by people hedging their bets, but my initial response was this:
“If there is a god who is just and loving it won't matter, if a god would send someone to eternal torture simply for not "loving" him, there is nothing in me that could cause me to love such a god or want to spend eternity with such a vile being.” Then I was called lost and blind, etc. Blind? Really? I'm the one who is blind? I had to get a bit more serious and responded with this: “For most of my life I believed as Steven, Allen and millions of others do, breaking free of that was the hardest thing I ever did, but I am so glad that I did. I have no intention of arguing or getting in a debate, but perhaps I can ask a few questions to remove the blinders of faith from your mind. If you are a loving and just being who created a life that is self aware would you not even more than a mother giving birth do everything to care for, nurture, and protect that life? Would you not be more real to them than the earth beneath their feet, the sun in their face, or the wind in their hair? Or would you remove yourself from them, except for communicating in ancient writings (and “feelings”) that you love them but they will tortured by fire forever if they don't love you back? And that brings the question of what is loving or just punishment? Certainly that is different for different crimes, but I know of NO crime where a just, let alone loving punishment would be the eternal torture of hell fire, let alone for someone simply not believing something such as they by birth are deserving of such a punishment if they don't believe. Such a belief is to me now deeply offensive and vile, I am ashamed that I ever believed it. Sadly I did. Do you really have a grasp of what that belief means? If not, I recommend a video called Burn Victims it should be very hard to watch, it should make you sick, it should, I hope it does. A couple years before this video was even made I had asked myself the question it asks and I knew that even if real, and even if it meant I myself would go to Hell, there was nothing in me that could love or serve a god who would send ANYONE to eternal, never ending torture for ANY reason. I hope you are moral, decent, just, loving, and compassionate enough to reach the same conclusion.” Please, my friends if you believe there is a “loving” god who would send anyone to eternal Hell for ANY reason, please wake up and realize how blind you are, and how far from anything remotely “loving” or “just” such a belief is. It is sick, deluded, cruel, and very blind for any compassionate, just, or loving being. I saw a post on Facebook that said: "If someone has to set aside reason and logic in order to believe something, then no amount of reason and logic is going to change their belief." I get what they said but do not totally agree with this, which is why I came up with the revision you see imaged here. The reason I don't agree with the above statement from Facebook is that "setting something aside" implies intentional action. But most peoples beliefs are not arrived at because they "set aside" logic and reason or anything else. There are many reasons people believe things that are in fact unbelievable when you look at the belief through the lens of logic and reason. Key among these are:
It is for this reason that although it sounds completely backwards and idiotic on the surface, if we want a more logic based world rather than one ruled by false and often damaging beliefs that we have to appeal to peoples emotions first. Or as I have often heard in sales training "Facts tell, stories sell" But as the title of this post suggests rationalists often seem to fear emotion, or at least appealing to emotion to help spread rational thinking. (And yes I'll admit that sounds backwards) I know some people have criticized Seth Andrews of The Thinking Atheist for making videos that are "too slick and emotional". But I feel that Seth gets it, that we must appeal to peoples emotions if we are to free people from harmful dogma and false beliefs. I saw evidence of this again this morning as I watched a video of Mark Lynas on his conversion to supporting GMOs. Mark is an author and frequent speaker around the world on climate change science and policy, earlier in his career he was an outspoken opponent of GMO's but as he looked at the science he found that he was wrong. But now there is a challenge, his opposition to GMO's appealed to peoples emotions and fears that was very effective, and the facts aren't much changing that. Emotions are very strong, people will do and believe completely stupid and illogical things because of emotions. If we are to create a world where people understand that, and can step back and take the time to evaluate things more rationally, we have to appeal to their emotions first! And no, this post is NOT a good example of doing that! LOL! |
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