Religion: The Art and Science of Being Right
Of all of our human weaknesses, the one most assisted by religion, in my opinion, is our need to feel as though we are on the right side, that our way is the only way, that we are right and fortunate and everyone else is wrong and unfortunate.
In all fairness, I know people who benefit from organized religion, and I'd like to recognize that their experiences are real and valid.
Now I feel the need to be right much of the time without the assistance of religion, so I'm really not one to talk, but I will anyway. This is a common pitfall for much of organized religion, if you ask me.
Anyone who claims to have the last word on what God says or believes is not credible, in my view.
I took an entire class in college on the way people in positions of power manipulate religion to suit their ends.
Militant Islam condemns "non-believers" and calls the USA "The Great Satan," ironic, since a majority of Americans are Christian in one form or another and would probably not believe that we are a nation of Satan-worshipers.
Some Christians feel that those who don't believe the way they do are condemned, and I imagine that some Jews look down on us "un-chosen ones" as inferior or unfortunate.
There are no absolutes, though, because these conflicting beliefs cannot possibly all be true at the same time. This argues in favor of subjectivity, which feels safer to me, rather than "if you're not for us, you're against us" line, which Bush is so fond of saying. *shiver* Fundamentalism is the refuge of the small-minded.
In all fairness, I know people who benefit from organized religion, and I'd like to recognize that their experiences are real and valid.
Now I feel the need to be right much of the time without the assistance of religion, so I'm really not one to talk, but I will anyway. This is a common pitfall for much of organized religion, if you ask me.
Anyone who claims to have the last word on what God says or believes is not credible, in my view.
I took an entire class in college on the way people in positions of power manipulate religion to suit their ends.
Militant Islam condemns "non-believers" and calls the USA "The Great Satan," ironic, since a majority of Americans are Christian in one form or another and would probably not believe that we are a nation of Satan-worshipers.
Some Christians feel that those who don't believe the way they do are condemned, and I imagine that some Jews look down on us "un-chosen ones" as inferior or unfortunate.
There are no absolutes, though, because these conflicting beliefs cannot possibly all be true at the same time. This argues in favor of subjectivity, which feels safer to me, rather than "if you're not for us, you're against us" line, which Bush is so fond of saying. *shiver* Fundamentalism is the refuge of the small-minded.
Comments
In religion, there's dogma and there's the spiritual and they're not the same. Too many people get stuck on the dogma part. And yet, the same people sometimes find their way back to the spiritual side and they wonder what their anger and frustration was all about.
What religious people want is not to be right, though that happens, but to have meaningfulness in their lives. Sometimes that meaningfulness is delivered prepackaged and that can lead to dogma and the feeling of being right. But, for many people, religion means searching for that meaningfulness and that path oftens includes doubt; and doubt can be a powerful instrument when it leads to the spiritual.
Religion is not the only path that can lead to meaningfulness in one's life but it is a path.