RE: Did you ever believe?
May 17, 2011 at 3:49 am
(This post was last modified: May 17, 2011 at 4:15 am by Anomalocaris.)
I had a strong satisfaction in science since i can remember, and always felt that in comparison to science religion was extremely immature, unconvincing and awkward contrivance concocted by people who lacked a diligent willingness to do honest work to find out, and absent that, a becoming willingness to not make shit up in order to pretend to know. I always felt religion was garbage, and Christianity and Islam to be unusuallly vile even for it's kind.
I've since had some very close relationships with people who subscribe to different religions, ranging from pentacostalism to buddhism for different reasons. I have in each of those relationships grown to feel religion had in someways made them intellectually, morally or socially handicapped, and limited them to less than they could have been. In some cases the person that remained was still an extremely fine individual, but in others what was left was a sad shell of what had been. The governing factor behind how much religion damage a person is not so much the religion itself, but how clearheaded a person is about what he wanted from his religion.
Even in people whose commitment to their religion is most guarded, and who are most clearheaded about exactly what they wanted in return from their religion, I can see a gradual erosion of skepticism and the slow but incremental embracing of some of the more mindless tenants unbecoming an educated person. In cases where the individual made an open ended commitment to embrace whatever her religion is said to teach, and expects enlightenment, divine revelation, or, heaven forbid, so to speak, a relationship with god, the result is invariably and rather quickly a walking intellectual mummy that is pitious and sickening to behold.
I've since had some very close relationships with people who subscribe to different religions, ranging from pentacostalism to buddhism for different reasons. I have in each of those relationships grown to feel religion had in someways made them intellectually, morally or socially handicapped, and limited them to less than they could have been. In some cases the person that remained was still an extremely fine individual, but in others what was left was a sad shell of what had been. The governing factor behind how much religion damage a person is not so much the religion itself, but how clearheaded a person is about what he wanted from his religion.
Even in people whose commitment to their religion is most guarded, and who are most clearheaded about exactly what they wanted in return from their religion, I can see a gradual erosion of skepticism and the slow but incremental embracing of some of the more mindless tenants unbecoming an educated person. In cases where the individual made an open ended commitment to embrace whatever her religion is said to teach, and expects enlightenment, divine revelation, or, heaven forbid, so to speak, a relationship with god, the result is invariably and rather quickly a walking intellectual mummy that is pitious and sickening to behold.
