RE: Why is religion especially Christianity so widely practied?
February 12, 2019 at 9:03 pm
(This post was last modified: February 12, 2019 at 9:04 pm by HappySkeptic.)
(February 12, 2019 at 4:24 pm)Acrobat Wrote:(February 12, 2019 at 3:30 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Religion was a placeholder for science. Unfortunately it became vacuum-welded to society.
No, religion never was a placeholder for science, anymore so then great novels, art, poetry are placeholders for science.
People cling to religions for questions regarding meaning, how one ought to live life, how things ought to be. Religions are about dealing with suffering, our desire for community, about the values and virtues we ought to embody. None of which are scientific questions, since all science provides us is answers to how things are.
Religion fashions stories that provide meaning to those who believe in them.
These stories start with the big questions of "what exists", to which the bible answers "A God, who created a Heaven and an Earth, and designed and created Man and every living thing, and want's Man's obedience". From that foundation, we get stories about fictional characters in Jewish tradition, that attempt to explain the interaction of this God with mankind.
The question of "What exists" is a scientific question, for the most part. Science can only explain so far, but nothing we have discovered has anything to do with gods, or with any supernatural causes for anything.
Religion's basis is incorrect, so how can the stories about this God's interaction with man be useful? How can the book of Job tell us anything moral? It says that God and Satan made a bet, and killed Job's family and took away everything. The only answer to "why" is that it "glorified God" (and Job gets given a new family -- too bad for the old one). Well, considering that God doesn't exist, how does that little gem come to be useful?
The stories of bronze-age sheep farmers, in a world infested by gods of opposing tribes (but their god is stronger), is pretty much without value. I would much rather read the ancient poets and philosophers than the religious authors.
As for religion being about community, and a search for meaning and values, I agree. But unjustifiable beliefs in ancient stories only get in the way. How can one find meaning in what is factually untrue? How can one find values in the commandments of a god that never existed? Sure, sometimes authors have useful thoughts, but no more so than any other writer in history.
