I'd like to try and tackle this from a philosophical perspective, however, please forgive me if it goes astray.
It seems that there are a lot of members of this board, that publicly identify themselves as athiest or agnostic. I count myself among them, although it's not always black and white, and I'm sure that goes for everyone too.
I know I'm not the only person that thinks this, but I've always had that idea in the back of my head. This idea being, that things such as faith, spirituality, and religion, were invented, so people would be happier to accept the fact that really shitty things happen, and that they are going to die some day.
There are some people out there, who don't believe in the existence of an afterlife, that are perfectly content with the knowledge that one day, they will die. To put that into perspective, one day a person will cease to exist, and they will never be again. I think deep down, most of us accept this fact, but a great deal of us (me included) fear such an event, or at least believe it to be unnecessary and unjustified, and hope to find a way to avoid it in some manner or another (I guess you could call me a transhumanist). I do envy the people who are content with the idea of "ceasing to be", because they've obviously discovered a level of inner peace.
Religion fuels that inner peace, but at the same time, I feel that many religions promote self-denial. How often have you heard the adage from religious communities, that prayer can help you?
Exactly how different is prayer to an invisible and silent figure, to creating an imaginary friend? I perceive the fundamentals of prayer to be nothing but a corruption of the teachings of self belief. It gets worse, particularly with areas such as Christian Science, in which people lose their lives, because they refuse treatment in favour of the power of prayer. A person CANNOT will themselves out of a serious illness or injury, without any treatment.
I'd like to point out, that in the early years of my life, I was raised "light-Christian". What that means is, that I attended church on Sunday and learned the various Christian fundamentals, along with the undeniable truth, that "God and Jesus exist!!".
I suspect I've always disputed those ideals, as I have a scientifically geared mind. Nonetheless, the idea of there being a God, was still with me until I was around 16/17 years old. Nowadays I don't personally believe there is a God, based upon the evidence, however I'm an open-minded person, so I'm not going to say something is completely impossible, especially when there is so little that we truly understand about the Universe.
In the last few years, I've steadily seen some people, that were very close to me, die. I've also seen some pretty horrible things happen, as have we all. But as a result of this, I've opened my mind to the world around me and seen the miracles of humanity itself. What took me so long to just accept the likelyhood that there is no God, was that someone I loved dearly, was very religious and died when I was a child. I guess maybe I felt I would be betraying their memory by embracing the nagging atheism, in the back of my head. Don't get me wrong, this person wasn't a zealot, or somebody who preached and tried to distort other people's beliefs. Rather, they were a person who lived their life by the morals, specified in the bible. A person with a strong belief in Christianity, who had a lot of faith - to the point that they accepted their terminal illness in a way, that even the church vicar had never seen before!
I take comfort in the idea that there is a "part of every person I've lost" in me and all the other people that they've touched throughout their lives. That's an element of faith I suppose. Maybe religion was once a good idea, perhaps those people who are interpreted as prophets, were actually hoping to do some good, and not create a system in which to influence and control. And that's what it comes down to, the fact that there is religious concern about a variety of things, from stem cell research to space exploration. The fact that the biggest world religions, are so influential, that humanity itself, is held back from progressing.
I'm happy to let the various religions go with the answers they've received through faith and spirituality, so why can't they be happy to let me seek my answers through science and humanity?
Does anybody else here, believe that there is an element to denial with faith and spirituality? And where does everybody else stand on these matters?
It seems that there are a lot of members of this board, that publicly identify themselves as athiest or agnostic. I count myself among them, although it's not always black and white, and I'm sure that goes for everyone too.
I know I'm not the only person that thinks this, but I've always had that idea in the back of my head. This idea being, that things such as faith, spirituality, and religion, were invented, so people would be happier to accept the fact that really shitty things happen, and that they are going to die some day.
There are some people out there, who don't believe in the existence of an afterlife, that are perfectly content with the knowledge that one day, they will die. To put that into perspective, one day a person will cease to exist, and they will never be again. I think deep down, most of us accept this fact, but a great deal of us (me included) fear such an event, or at least believe it to be unnecessary and unjustified, and hope to find a way to avoid it in some manner or another (I guess you could call me a transhumanist). I do envy the people who are content with the idea of "ceasing to be", because they've obviously discovered a level of inner peace.
Religion fuels that inner peace, but at the same time, I feel that many religions promote self-denial. How often have you heard the adage from religious communities, that prayer can help you?
Exactly how different is prayer to an invisible and silent figure, to creating an imaginary friend? I perceive the fundamentals of prayer to be nothing but a corruption of the teachings of self belief. It gets worse, particularly with areas such as Christian Science, in which people lose their lives, because they refuse treatment in favour of the power of prayer. A person CANNOT will themselves out of a serious illness or injury, without any treatment.
I'd like to point out, that in the early years of my life, I was raised "light-Christian". What that means is, that I attended church on Sunday and learned the various Christian fundamentals, along with the undeniable truth, that "God and Jesus exist!!".
I suspect I've always disputed those ideals, as I have a scientifically geared mind. Nonetheless, the idea of there being a God, was still with me until I was around 16/17 years old. Nowadays I don't personally believe there is a God, based upon the evidence, however I'm an open-minded person, so I'm not going to say something is completely impossible, especially when there is so little that we truly understand about the Universe.
In the last few years, I've steadily seen some people, that were very close to me, die. I've also seen some pretty horrible things happen, as have we all. But as a result of this, I've opened my mind to the world around me and seen the miracles of humanity itself. What took me so long to just accept the likelyhood that there is no God, was that someone I loved dearly, was very religious and died when I was a child. I guess maybe I felt I would be betraying their memory by embracing the nagging atheism, in the back of my head. Don't get me wrong, this person wasn't a zealot, or somebody who preached and tried to distort other people's beliefs. Rather, they were a person who lived their life by the morals, specified in the bible. A person with a strong belief in Christianity, who had a lot of faith - to the point that they accepted their terminal illness in a way, that even the church vicar had never seen before!
I take comfort in the idea that there is a "part of every person I've lost" in me and all the other people that they've touched throughout their lives. That's an element of faith I suppose. Maybe religion was once a good idea, perhaps those people who are interpreted as prophets, were actually hoping to do some good, and not create a system in which to influence and control. And that's what it comes down to, the fact that there is religious concern about a variety of things, from stem cell research to space exploration. The fact that the biggest world religions, are so influential, that humanity itself, is held back from progressing.
I'm happy to let the various religions go with the answers they've received through faith and spirituality, so why can't they be happy to let me seek my answers through science and humanity?
Does anybody else here, believe that there is an element to denial with faith and spirituality? And where does everybody else stand on these matters?
Last edited:
