I was taught and brought up as a Roman Catholic, but as I've grown older (wiser???), I've become increasingly sceptical about the rationale and validity of "religion". It's true that many people gain much comfort and reassurance from their honest - but blind - faith in their "God", but as none of us are in a position to prove - or disprove - the existence of a supernatural deity, that's fine as far as it goes. However, the issue for me is more about religion rather than a person's faith. Let me explain.
In my own humble opinion, belief in a "God", whatever name you choose to give 'Him', should be a personal choice made freely by each of us. It shouldn't be forced upon us when we're too young to understand. As children, we're warned about the physical dangers around us (hot fire, sharp objects, busy roads etc) and in the same matter-of-fact way, we're taught that there's a God. We get scalded by a hot fire or cut ourselves on a sharp object, so we learn and believe that what our parents told us is therefore true. So God must be true as well. This is blind faith, only because it's what we've been told by those we trust.
Over the centuries, so much grief and human misery has been caused (and still is) throughout the world in the name of one religion or another, robustly supported by what its perpetrators claim is the official word of God, be it the Bible, Qur'an, Talmud, Book of Mormon or whatever. This can't be right. Religious institutions are among the richest organisations in the world, especially the Roman Catholic Church, but their followers are often amongst the poorest in the world. This also can't be right - or fair. It seems to me that these institutions simply thrive on this blind and unquestioning faith of their followers.
For me, it's not about what or who we believe in, but rather how we live our lives from day-to-day. If we treat each other with respect and dignity, regardless of sex, race, creed, colour, religion or sexual orientation, even though we might not necessarily agree with another person's opinion, then we won't be going far wrong. In other words, treat others as we'd like to be treated - common sense really.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
Your "-common sense really" is at the core of the religious/god/mankind discussion.
Before the god/religion/faith culture took hold of the world there was an innate sense of right from wrong, humanity is naturally imbued with, at work bringing man together and allowing societies to emerge and thrive. He is a herding animal, after all. He is predisposed to a morality that is, as you say, based in the familiarity of pain and the absence thereof. Don't hurt me and I'll return the favor, so to speak.
Then, the god/religion/faith culture arrived and man was robbed of the morality he is predisposed to. He is now told that his knowledge of morality is the work of a deity alone who graced him with such a gift. He must recognize and worship that deity as the salvation for his own life, yada yada zippity doo-dah, amen.
So, we see a departure of man's innate goodness with the arrival of deities. The reversal of this is slowly taking hold and the resistance to it is to be expected as whole industries thrive on the religious culture's good health. It's a money thing. The Catholic Church is the world's largest land owner. We can talk shop all day long at the ethical/moral level of religious implications, their multitudinous forms of belief systems and even the pinnacle source of it all, Gawd Hisself, but money talks and bullshit walks.
In order to make religions stick with naturally curious people who ask for proof, you have to persuade them that a gawd is observing them to decide if immortality in comfort will be theirs or an eternity somewhere else less hospitable. If it simply takes a few prayers and a couple pennies how cool is that to secure the former? The carpetbaggers pushing immortality by creating a god to hold dear or to fear is an easy and lucrative gig at just a few alms per subscriber. It becomes a meme.
Then comes huge organizations (Catholic church, et al) all sporting the immortality meme revolving around the one story (bible) and the indoctrination over the centuries stamps an indelible image of gawd and all the biblical trappings. Silly, stupid, sad and demeaning to watch an entire species of an otherwise intelligent animal fall victim to himself but it is what it is.
The god had to be created to give credence to the religions, and the religions feed upon the immortality meme of the god. Full circle, self perpetuating and all based in fear.
test