RE: Why is religion especially Christianity so widely practied?
February 13, 2019 at 1:46 pm
(This post was last modified: February 13, 2019 at 1:47 pm by HappySkeptic.)
(February 13, 2019 at 12:17 pm)Acrobat Wrote: No these stories don't start with the questions of what exists, they start with the question of what is the meaning of what exists. Which is not a scientific question at all. Hence why what proceeds are narratives and stories with morals and meanings, and not some bland mechanistic explanations. Hence why they read like the sort of moral stories we tell children, like the three little pigs, or the ugly ducking.
Atheists like yourself make a very stupid assumption, that these texts share more in common with science books, then things they actually parallel. They also make a silly assumption, that people in the past lacked any real self-awareness, or understanding of their own limitations, such as their lack of ability to explain the mechanical origins of the universe. Most people don't even care about these questions, let alone raise them to level of importance often associated with religious beliefs, they're just trying to find something to live for.
Your own scientific curiosities, desires to understand science, are less driven by some primordial biological urge, and more driven by your own unique historical contexts, living in age where we have the tools to explore such questions, and is more or less a hobbyist pursuit for the most of us. To apply it to the ancient world, is just anachronistic.
My argument is that science has much to offer religion, and religion has zero to offer science.
I'll rephrase. Religion does not start with "what exists", but theology does. Religion does indeed start as a personal need for answers and meaning. But, the answers get woven into theology, and then get passed down as revealed 'knowledge' to the next generation.
Principles such as 'love your neighbor' are valuable, but it is found in almost every culture. People don't need theology for that. Theology brings in commands, and gods, and worship, and blood sacrifice, and obedience, and a story of eternal torture or salvation. Theologies are built on a foundation of "what exists". They need gods and the interaction of prophets with the gods, as their first principles.
Without an actual god, Christianity is left with a few parables (some of which I dispute are actually good), and a few lessons in the culture of the times (not many of which we value today).
