Religion And Why I Don't Play: Part 2
A slight programming note before we get started: I had no intention of this being a 2 part entry, but after some of the conversations I have had in the wake of the first post, I have come upon further points worth exploring. I won't bother re-capping the previous post or its comments, we'll just get straight to the new ideas which came from face to face discussions of the idea.
The single common thread that binds all religions together is that they are the single greatest de-valuer of human life. That is a bold statement and makes little sense on it's own. I'm sure you are thinking something along the lines of, "No way, my walk with Christ fills my life with meaning as I journey to have a closer relationship with him." Replace the keywords as needed to fit your flavor of religion, but the sentiment remains unchanged. The fact is however, that the end result of you doing the things your religion requires is what I will call Ultimate Reward (UR). UR is something that is overwhelmingly valuable that nothing in our current lives can even compare to it. If you see where this is going feel free to skip ahead, if not, follow along. Examples of specific URs are very dependent upon your religion, but the basic idea is that it is typically a level of existence that is without pain, burden, sorrow, or really, anything bad, IE. Heaven, Paradise, and Nirvana. Whatever your religion calls it's UR, it is so much better than your current life that in comparison, your current life holds no value. To put a point on this, imagine that you have 2 cars sitting in your garage. One car is a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix. In pristine condition probably worth about $15,000, hardly a worthless vehicle on its own. Your other car is a Bugatti Veyron, also in pristine condition, worth about $1,500,000. Suddenly your Pontiac doesn't seem worth very much does it?
When looked at one-at-a-time, you can probably make a decent case for just about any religion. When you look at the entire spectrum, or even just 3 or 4 at a time, there is no decent way to decide what is what. As anyone who holds a religious belief will tell you, extra-ordinary things that happen become their "evidence" of religious truth. So lets play this scenario out further. You are on a small plane going from Chicago to Atlanta, their are only 3 people in the plane, the pilot who is busy flying the plane, you (a member of religion X), and the person sitting next to you (a member of religion Y). The pilot comes over the intercom and says "If you have a "god" you better start praying because we are going down". So you both start praying to your respective deities, and 15 minutes later the plane is on the ground and everyone walks away. You thank your god and chalk it up as "evidence" of his power, he thanks his god and does the same, and neither of you self righteous pricks thanks the pilot for making a successful emergency landing in a corn field.
Solicitors. I'm not saying that all religions are guilty of this, but if you belong to a religion that goes door to door trying to "sell" me a religion, I hate you. You don't see groups of atheists running around around clutching copies of A Brief History Of Time, knocking on peoples doors going "Hi, I'd like to talk to you about Science today", or "Have you accepted Science into your home yet?" Though now that I think about it, that might be helpful given that the US is falling behind in Science and Mathematics scores.
This point is less about why I'm not religious and more about why I can't stand some religious people. I sit here and take the time to pour out my own personal thoughts, and come up with my own anecdotes, to make my point about why I don't play. Religious person X comes along and refers me to their religious text. While I will claim ignorance on most religious texts, if you try to tell me about something from the Bible, odds are I've already been there and rejected it. "Whatever you do, don't read the Bible for a moral code: it advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition, and murder. Read it because: we need more atheists — and nothin' will get you there faster than readin' the damn Bible." That was Penn Jillette, one of the more vocal atheists out there. You see, most people didn't grow up atheist, we grew up into religion, and left because we decided it didn't make sense, so preaching your religion at us won't bring us back, it just reminds us why we left. Also, having come from religion, I know that if I left the right one that I'm as good as dead, AND I STILL LEFT. You still think you can "bring me back into the fold"?
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-13/national/35491519_1_new-atheism-atheist-groups-new-atheists
I'm not a big fan of just pointing out the work of others to make my point, but when it comes to hard numbers, I don't have the ability to poll thousands of people from across the world. The numbers don't lie, religion is on the decline world wide. A victory for science. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to end this post, but as always I encourage any and all comments that are based on building a constructive dialog, and thank you for taking the time to read more of my Musings.
The single common thread that binds all religions together is that they are the single greatest de-valuer of human life. That is a bold statement and makes little sense on it's own. I'm sure you are thinking something along the lines of, "No way, my walk with Christ fills my life with meaning as I journey to have a closer relationship with him." Replace the keywords as needed to fit your flavor of religion, but the sentiment remains unchanged. The fact is however, that the end result of you doing the things your religion requires is what I will call Ultimate Reward (UR). UR is something that is overwhelmingly valuable that nothing in our current lives can even compare to it. If you see where this is going feel free to skip ahead, if not, follow along. Examples of specific URs are very dependent upon your religion, but the basic idea is that it is typically a level of existence that is without pain, burden, sorrow, or really, anything bad, IE. Heaven, Paradise, and Nirvana. Whatever your religion calls it's UR, it is so much better than your current life that in comparison, your current life holds no value. To put a point on this, imagine that you have 2 cars sitting in your garage. One car is a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix. In pristine condition probably worth about $15,000, hardly a worthless vehicle on its own. Your other car is a Bugatti Veyron, also in pristine condition, worth about $1,500,000. Suddenly your Pontiac doesn't seem worth very much does it?
When looked at one-at-a-time, you can probably make a decent case for just about any religion. When you look at the entire spectrum, or even just 3 or 4 at a time, there is no decent way to decide what is what. As anyone who holds a religious belief will tell you, extra-ordinary things that happen become their "evidence" of religious truth. So lets play this scenario out further. You are on a small plane going from Chicago to Atlanta, their are only 3 people in the plane, the pilot who is busy flying the plane, you (a member of religion X), and the person sitting next to you (a member of religion Y). The pilot comes over the intercom and says "If you have a "god" you better start praying because we are going down". So you both start praying to your respective deities, and 15 minutes later the plane is on the ground and everyone walks away. You thank your god and chalk it up as "evidence" of his power, he thanks his god and does the same, and neither of you self righteous pricks thanks the pilot for making a successful emergency landing in a corn field.
Solicitors. I'm not saying that all religions are guilty of this, but if you belong to a religion that goes door to door trying to "sell" me a religion, I hate you. You don't see groups of atheists running around around clutching copies of A Brief History Of Time, knocking on peoples doors going "Hi, I'd like to talk to you about Science today", or "Have you accepted Science into your home yet?" Though now that I think about it, that might be helpful given that the US is falling behind in Science and Mathematics scores.
This point is less about why I'm not religious and more about why I can't stand some religious people. I sit here and take the time to pour out my own personal thoughts, and come up with my own anecdotes, to make my point about why I don't play. Religious person X comes along and refers me to their religious text. While I will claim ignorance on most religious texts, if you try to tell me about something from the Bible, odds are I've already been there and rejected it. "Whatever you do, don't read the Bible for a moral code: it advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition, and murder. Read it because: we need more atheists — and nothin' will get you there faster than readin' the damn Bible." That was Penn Jillette, one of the more vocal atheists out there. You see, most people didn't grow up atheist, we grew up into religion, and left because we decided it didn't make sense, so preaching your religion at us won't bring us back, it just reminds us why we left. Also, having come from religion, I know that if I left the right one that I'm as good as dead, AND I STILL LEFT. You still think you can "bring me back into the fold"?
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-13/national/35491519_1_new-atheism-atheist-groups-new-atheists
I'm not a big fan of just pointing out the work of others to make my point, but when it comes to hard numbers, I don't have the ability to poll thousands of people from across the world. The numbers don't lie, religion is on the decline world wide. A victory for science. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to end this post, but as always I encourage any and all comments that are based on building a constructive dialog, and thank you for taking the time to read more of my Musings.
Comments
Post a Comment