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June 25, 2005 So how come the humanists didn't think of this?
They are supposed to be so logical, so reasonable, and
so scientific. Maybe it's because they are so
emotionally labile, and/or so chronically depressed or
chronically addicted. They need to use some special
substance to make it through the day. This is just an
hypothesis.
John, your piece, “A Disciple Of Darwin Defends Both Religion And Natural Science”, made some interesting points, but you had me lost when you said the above. My substance of choice is coffee ;) I've read in one of John's other articles that a humanist has been emailing him; for the record, that person is not me. Before the above bit, your premise made some sense, but you need to extend it further and you will actually show humanism, not God. In your piece where you start off with, “If evolution is a real process, and if I've made no error in thinking, it's clear that a healthy human child has an inborn need to believe in a very powerful God.”, you give a naturalist explanation on the origin of religion. I could scarcely do it better myself. You correctly said, “a God” instead of just “God”, but, “a god” would be more accurate – note the lower-case 'g'; this is key. These ideas have been studied, and the “god center” of the brain has even been identified; not surprisingly, it's closely tied to emotion. Also not surprisingly, the nature of the god doesn't matter – Allah will do just as well as Jesus. Prayer is healthy, but it makes no difference what you pray too and replacements for prayer work just as well, relaxation techniques, meditation, etc. If this theory is correct, persons who do not
believe in God are missing something that evolution by
natural selection put in all human brains.
No, we have a pretty good idea of which components of religion are healthy. These say nothing about the existence of supernatural forces, by the way. However, much can be said about the dangers of belief in the supernatural, deity-based religions or otherwise. Elements of religion may be present, but religion itself is not required[2]. The myth of Christ satisfies that natural need
in the person that lack of religion simply couldn't
ever fill.
Well, it satisfies a need for some, but one could argue if the overall effect is positive or not. Ignorance is historically tied to religious movements; ignorance and scientific stagnation may well mean the end of the human race, I give a few examples of space based dangers here; others abound. Think of humanism vs. religion, like Splenda vs. sugar[1]. Splenda attempts to take what's best about sugar – the ability to sweeten, and throw out what's bad, the extra calories. This is possible because we have a good understanding of the various components; we now know enough to see the molecule and identify which sub-parts are responsible for which effect. Humanism, likewise, tries to take some positive virtues of religion and organize them into a philosophy: ethics, unity, the need to belong to something bigger than yourself, perhaps a “point” to life for some people. Rather than the greedy point of many religions, gaining immortal life [which does fit in perfectly with evolution, I agree], humanism has as goals the success of all of humanity. Religion promises personal immortality, humanists strive for species immortality. Science is key to this, of course. Humanism throws out faith, but not hope, and this is important. It also throws out ignorance, dogma, idolatry and racism. [2]Humanism works in terms of evolution as well. Consider this - evolution wants us to survive; religion provides an answer in the supernatural – living forever as a spirit, while humanism provides and answer with science: greatly expanded life spans in the future, folks living as data in advanced computers, folks having mostly artificial bodies which can live for millions of years with a never ending supply of artificial replacement parts, and, survival for the entire human race by first spreading humanity to other worlds in space. You are 2/3 there, John. Some atheists think that religion plays a key role, keeping people in line that might otherwise act like undisciplined barbarians. I've read some interesting scifi with similar views, one story has to do with a very long journey through space. The generation leaving would not be the same arriving, so in, order for a safe journey without the illogical humans killing each other, a very strict fundamentalist religion was invented. The ship was controlled by a sentient computer, which reinforced the religion, making itself known as god from time to time, and even punishing the most dangerous “heretics”. We are in a unique position in history. Once we began to remove religion from government, mankind prospered like never before. Religion is incompatible with a global society and the need for scientific advancement, in my opinion; it's time to replace it. Humanism gives humanity a set of morals/ethics, without the racism inherent in religion. Islam is the fastest growing religion, both in America and world-wide. I see the clash between the two major world religions intensifying, as each try to outdo the other at turning back the clock on progress and increasing the chances that mankind won't make it. That's sort of a worst case scenario. A best case scenario would be for these two faiths to cooperate with each other; a very humanistic principle that would be. Other science investigations of religion that I've read about over the years that are of interest include near death experiences. For many, these are personal evidence for God. The trouble is, folks of all faiths have these, and it's not the same god. Further, this brain-induced phenomena can be created artificially in the lab. Drugs, astronauts in centrifuges during training, near starvation, deep meditation and even rhythmic drum beats can induce this state. Reported symptoms include euphoria, the feeling of a presence and not being alone, etc. The infamous tunnel with the light at the end is also reported. Another interesting experiment had to do with heart patients who “die” for brief periods as their heart stops. Of course they aren't really dead, as they still have brain activity. Anyway, folks sometimes report that they are floating above the operating table, where they see the surgeons working. To test this, simple and easy to see signs were placed on the tops of cabinets in the rooms of critical heart patients. The idea being, that if any die and float above the room, they would easily see these signs and then talk about it once awake again. Last I checked, no one had reported seeing any signs. Finally, back to John's piece – what makes you think that humanists are emotionally troubled, in any case? I doubt we have any real data, and I think you mix atheist with humanist too easily. There aren't all that many admitted humanists, not as a percentage of all of us anyway, though many people share those same basic ideals and don't associate it with humanism; I for one have never been polled or surveyed. Above, when I say “humanist” I mostly mean “secular humanist”, but i've talked to quite a few theists that are very humanistic. Some modern Jews that I know are basically just humanists with more pomp, circumstance and tradition thrown in, and some very enlightened catholics fit the bill as well, not to mention the Unitarians. Many of those examples are theistic humanists, but many are secular in that they don't like religion mixed into government. Usually, 'secular humanist' refers to atheist humanists such as myself, but there are theistic humanists which also advocate secular public policy. We could spend a whole day on this ;) [1] with my luck, Splenda will turn out to be real bad for us, just like the other sugar substitutes have, wrecking my analogy. I hate Splenda, so I'm starting to think that my analogy was really bad ;) ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. 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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