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Jan. 5, 2006 Pain wrote this article in response to this one by Robert Paul Reyes. While I side with Robert's piece, I do agree with Pain in part; I think he came close to several realizations, but missed the mark – his vision was tangential to the truth as I see it. The truth is ugly to many, it sits there like a big bright smirking circle. Pain raced towards it, touched it, but never really dug in. Pain says this, and I agree to some extent: It is not coincidence that disparate cultures separated in ancient times by mountains and oceans still individually and universally came to believe in a deity. It is an inherent human trait to believe in something; it is a necessity for our mental stability. This is, in my opinion, a much more enlightened view then the oft cited notion, “All faiths used to be Bible-based, but some human cultures lost their way”. That arrogant, “all of your cultures belong to ME!” fundamentalist view is historically inaccurate and one that I'm sure raises Robert's blood pressure as it does mine. Tom's view is much more rational and pragmatic, but he ignores the ugly ramifications. One of those ramifications is that it does not, in fact, matter what someone believes. This implies many things uncomfortable to most, not the least of which is relative morality. Was it a sin for a Victorian woman to show her belly? It it a sin today? Is it a sin for a Muslim woman to show her face? To drive a car? Does the nature of sin change depending on the age and the location? Sure. "Sin" is therefore not universal. The sanity that belief systems bring to cultures applies to all cultures, not just Western cultures. Morality is whatever we humans make it to be. Stare that one in the face and get used to its smirk. It really isn't so ugly once you come to grips with it. Even the belief that no deity exists is a belief for this purpose. Without any belief system, a person becomes a sociopath and any psychologist can testify on the rarity of that human condition. Most power-mad evildoers are sociopaths – do you get the connection? This I can also accept. Atheism is a belief system, as everything is. It is not, however, a religion. Everyone also has a philosophy, whether they realize it or not. The humanist philosophy matches Tom's criteria for something to believe in to keep us sane and to meet what I agree is our need in this regard, but it also happens to match the truth of the world as best as possible, something religion has been unable to do. We humanists draw our morality from empathy, from biology, from science and avoid the supernatural [1]. How is this different or better? Well, I'll connect the dots in a moment. Tom also said this: And this segues into Mr. Reyes’ shallow deduction that it is religion that is responsible for most of the world’s evil. No, Mr. Reyes, religion is but the tool of history’s evildoers. It is the selfsame power madness that’s running amok in our legislatures that commands the greatest evil in our world. Religion is not directly at fault, I would again agree with Tom. But I won't exactly disagree with Robert either – faith is responsible for most evil in the world. When I was a new atheist, I was disgusted with organized religion and all of the religious-wars in history. Closer inspection reveals that those wars are not actually about religion to the ones pulling the strings, they were about all of the usual things, power, resources, influence, etc. The masses actually participating, however, were lead by their faith like horses by carrots. Faith is defined as believing in something without evidence. In other words, faith is a recipe for disaster. Anyone that believes that a Pope is infallible, for example, sets themselves up for exploitation. Faith indeed does give people comfort, but it also turns them into non-intellectual drones, ready to accept the most ridiculous notions for their blind belief. Believing that an early fetus has a soul is as ridiculous as believing that suicide will take you straight to bliss. Faith allows persons to become mentally lazy – to have someone else or some other idea do the thinking for them. Faith isn't always limited to religion – those that blindly follow secular dictators, or US presidents, are also dangerous. Having solid morals is a messy and complicated affair. It's not always easy to tell right from wrong, and I'm sure this is part of the reason why the very religious tend to live longer. They do it at the expense of the rest of us, however, which is selfish. Anyway, to tie this back together, humanism is morality without supernatural faith, which is perhaps the best, safest, and most accurate ideal for living right that humans have yet invented. [1] There are theistic humanists out there, some of these groups are technically religions, but adhere to non-dogmatic principles and consider doing so a virtue. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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