Key aspects of Religion
Religion is an attempt to answer the big questions, Why are we here? What happens, if anything, to us after we die?
Religion is often entrenched with culture…a way of life, values, rituals…a way of building pan-tribal communities.
I sometimes wonder what we would happen if an advanced alien species lands on our planet, what would we show them that was of any worth. Would we present these ancient religions that almost seem like doomsday cults, or can we show them something better…something modern, based on science that makes sense and evolves based on our current understanding of the world. Should priests be dogmatic * or should they be inquisitive paragons that continually explore the universe searching for meaning like the crew of Star Trek! I don’t want to downplay the wisdom of some of these ancient quasi-historical mythological works, but shouldn’t we take them with a grain of salt and sift through them for values that make us a better, more sustainable race? One that isn’t driving over the cliff of *. None of those works have any fundamental basis inherent to the universe. They weren’t written in the stars, or found in the motion of atoms…they appear to be books written by people that act like books and change over time with different interpretations and values, so maybe if they look like books, and act like books, then they are just books. Stories written down from oral traditions that were our best explanations of how we thought the universe worked at the time with values that changed and evolved with the cultures and societies that kept them.
There can be no doubt that man seems to need religion…an explanation for how the world works and our place in it, different societies have been coming up with explanations for as long as mankind has been around, but most current religions are based on values that are thousands of years old that don’t have any basis in science. This isn’t to say that ancient values can’t have any basis in science…my own experience with my tribe’s beliefs and the beliefs of other tribal people’s that I have met can be said to actually have some basis in science. “Everything is connected” “Animals and plants are our brother’s and sisters” “When you plan, plan for the seventh generation” “Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation” – The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation (The Great Binding Law)
Shamanic ritual of only allowing fishing after the fish run has reached a certain point
Most religions today are based on ancient books that appear to be a mixture of history, culture and mythology. They look like books, act like books and in my opinion are probably just books. They weren’t written mathematically unchanging into the stars, or found inscribed by the motion of every electron. There’s very little, if any advanced science in any of these books. The common Native American belief that all creatures are related…brothers and sisters of a sort, or that everything is connected has more scientific validity than any of these ancient books. DNA is the building block of all species on our planet and the story of our evolution is written there…we literally appear to be related to all creatures great and small, and when we view our environment, the relationships between soil, microbes, insects, and all of the other creatures that make up our habitat we can see all of the dependencies and inter connectedness of all these things. I like to think of it as a giant game of Jenga that’s continuously stabilized by the evolutionary process with species adapting into ecological niches. Environmentalism isn’t really about saving any particular plant or animal it’s about the stability of our Jenga tower and since humanity is at the top of this game of Jenga it’s about a love for humanity. The process will always work, adapting to environmental disasters, extinctions, etc. As long as some niches exists some species exists they will eventually adapt into it, but if there’s too much change, too fast, humanity may not be able to stay at the top of this tower or adapt quickly enough to changing circumstances to avoid its own extinction. This seems highly unlikely since we are very adaptable creatures, but at the very least our current civilization is at risk.
Science isn’t about denying religion, you can be a scientist and religious, but a rational approach assigns the appropriate about of belief based on scientific probability. Going the other way results in fanaticism and extreme beliefs [that lack empathy and sustainability]. As Voltaire said “Those that believe in absurdities are capable of committing atrocities”.
[logic argument]
Axioms, derivations, and conclusions
Modus Ponens
The Big Questions Are scientifically discoverable
There is no limit to what Mankind can know scientifically
If the Big Questions are Knowable and there is no limit to what Mankind can know, then we have to last long enough as a species in order to find these answers
If Humanity can learn and the answers to the big questions are learnable then if we last long enough we can find the answers to the big questions
I remember reading Descarte’s Meditations in college and his method to establish a rational foundation was to doubt everything that could be doubted, with the idea that anything that remained, and which could therefore not be doubted, must be certain. His analogy was to treat all of your beliefs as apples in a barrel that you would need to empty, and then exam each belief and put back the one’s that you knew were not open to doubt. As a young philosopher I have to say this left me with very few apples. I’ve had some time to think on this
Many organized religions tell us they already have the answer to the Big Questions, but that they will never be scientifically knowable. They essentially present a version of reality that can’t be proven until after we die….picture it like a coin flip where they assure you it’s absolutely going to land on heads, but you won’t find out until you pass on to the other side.
We live in a modern age. We don’t have to accept the mythology from thousands of years ago as gospel. We can create our own religion and pick and choose our stories and rituals so that we as a species last long enough to find the answers to the big questions. That means we have to live sustainably.
How do we compete with the locusts? Empathy vs fear, pride and consumption.
Religion as an artificial tribe….and utilizes our natural tribalism to promote empathy
we’ve seen a rise in extremism across the globe…extremism is related to fanaticism….a beliefs that are scientifically unlikely that are held as highly likely.
You can hope that your holy book is true, or believe that it’s possible, but in order to be rational that belief should be measured by it’s scientific likelyhood, as any other belief
The only absolute is that we think we exist…as we stare out of our eyes…listen, smell, feel the world, or just run around in our heads.
Diversity is what makes us great because it makes us more adaptable