: Religion: Why?
Because people need to believe that there is order in the world, and that they can somehow control their lives and circumstances. They want a reason for life. They want a reason for the misfortune which befalls them and those they love. Some even want a reason for the good fortune which befalls them. Most want a reason for the good fortune which befalls their enemies.
Life isn't fair. Religion gives people a way to explain that. Religion tells people how to live. Those who live that way are 'good'. Those who do not are 'bad'. Good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people.
BUT it doesn't work that way, no matter how religious one is. So then there must be a secondary reason. For the Greeks and Romans the gods were capricious. And they had all of the foibles of human beings; jealousy, anger, pride, greed. And human beings were just pawns in their ongoing games of one-upmanship. Woe to he that is favored by a god, that god gets into a fight with his sister and the favored one suddenmly wakes up with the head of an ass.
The Jewish religion generally explained thir misfortune on the fact that god was punishing them for not being pious enough. They could never be pious enough. That's how the story of Job came about. What if someone who is obviously truly and sincerely pious is suddenly beset with tragedy? Oh, didn't we tell you, God sometimes makes bets with Satan and lets Satan torture the pious to see if he can break them and get them to curse God. We're all just pawns and woe to him who is favored by god. Same song, different culture.
So Christianity comes along and says that you will get your reward in heaven, after death. Good plan, no one can dispute that. Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. But you can still pray while you're here and ask that your misfortunes be lifted. It just so happenes that someone times god says no. For no apparent reason, because god works in mysterious ways.
It's a good con. A good con is one where the mark never even knows that he or she has been conned.
And that is what has to be understood about religion. Religion is all made up. All religion is myth and fairytale, whether it be based originally on some historical person or event, or not.
Without religion, is there only despair?
Without religion, is there no meaning to life?
How can I, who holds this view of religion, call myself a Catholic, and go to mass, and perform the rituals without feeling like a fool?
Because I do believe that there is a supernatural power which created the spark of life, which created me. Like Descartes, I believe that even if everything else around me is merely a creation of my own mind, then my own mind, must still exist. And I did not bring my own mind into being. Something else did. Something greater than me. Something else exists.
And, I believe, because of experiences I had with my dying father primarily, but also experiences related to me by others, that there is some sort of continued existence after death. The spark of life when it leaves the corporeal body is not extiguished but continues on elsewhere.
I do not know what this supernatural power is, nor where the spark of life goes when the body dies. Neither does anyone else. They may choose to believe in this religion or that, and convince themselves that they 'know' these things, but they do not know the unknowable. It is impossible to know the unknowable. So why not celebrate this supernatural power in the Roman Catholic tradition within the story of Jesus with which I am so familiar and by the rituals, hymns and holidays that I love so much?
Has the supernatural power visited us in the forms of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Isis, Kali, Lao-Tse, Zeus, Corn Woman, The Little People, Gilgamesh, Legba or any other religious personage? Or if not as they themselves, but visited with them and conferred certain knowledge or blessings or powers upon them?
Who is to say? Only those arrogant and narrow-minded enough to cling to their own religion, out of fear that if they, for one minute consider another view their god will punish them, perhaps eternally.
Because people need to believe that there is order in the world, and that they can somehow control their lives and circumstances. They want a reason for life. They want a reason for the misfortune which befalls them and those they love. Some even want a reason for the good fortune which befalls them. Most want a reason for the good fortune which befalls their enemies.
Life isn't fair. Religion gives people a way to explain that. Religion tells people how to live. Those who live that way are 'good'. Those who do not are 'bad'. Good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people.
BUT it doesn't work that way, no matter how religious one is. So then there must be a secondary reason. For the Greeks and Romans the gods were capricious. And they had all of the foibles of human beings; jealousy, anger, pride, greed. And human beings were just pawns in their ongoing games of one-upmanship. Woe to he that is favored by a god, that god gets into a fight with his sister and the favored one suddenmly wakes up with the head of an ass.
The Jewish religion generally explained thir misfortune on the fact that god was punishing them for not being pious enough. They could never be pious enough. That's how the story of Job came about. What if someone who is obviously truly and sincerely pious is suddenly beset with tragedy? Oh, didn't we tell you, God sometimes makes bets with Satan and lets Satan torture the pious to see if he can break them and get them to curse God. We're all just pawns and woe to him who is favored by god. Same song, different culture.
So Christianity comes along and says that you will get your reward in heaven, after death. Good plan, no one can dispute that. Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. But you can still pray while you're here and ask that your misfortunes be lifted. It just so happenes that someone times god says no. For no apparent reason, because god works in mysterious ways.
It's a good con. A good con is one where the mark never even knows that he or she has been conned.
And that is what has to be understood about religion. Religion is all made up. All religion is myth and fairytale, whether it be based originally on some historical person or event, or not.
Without religion, is there only despair?
Without religion, is there no meaning to life?
How can I, who holds this view of religion, call myself a Catholic, and go to mass, and perform the rituals without feeling like a fool?
Because I do believe that there is a supernatural power which created the spark of life, which created me. Like Descartes, I believe that even if everything else around me is merely a creation of my own mind, then my own mind, must still exist. And I did not bring my own mind into being. Something else did. Something greater than me. Something else exists.
And, I believe, because of experiences I had with my dying father primarily, but also experiences related to me by others, that there is some sort of continued existence after death. The spark of life when it leaves the corporeal body is not extiguished but continues on elsewhere.
I do not know what this supernatural power is, nor where the spark of life goes when the body dies. Neither does anyone else. They may choose to believe in this religion or that, and convince themselves that they 'know' these things, but they do not know the unknowable. It is impossible to know the unknowable. So why not celebrate this supernatural power in the Roman Catholic tradition within the story of Jesus with which I am so familiar and by the rituals, hymns and holidays that I love so much?
Has the supernatural power visited us in the forms of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Isis, Kali, Lao-Tse, Zeus, Corn Woman, The Little People, Gilgamesh, Legba or any other religious personage? Or if not as they themselves, but visited with them and conferred certain knowledge or blessings or powers upon them?
Who is to say? Only those arrogant and narrow-minded enough to cling to their own religion, out of fear that if they, for one minute consider another view their god will punish them, perhaps eternally.