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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