(May 12, 2023 at 4:42 pm)The End of Atheism Wrote:(May 12, 2023 at 4:34 pm)emjay Wrote: I can't speak for everyone of course but in my case, I don't seek that sort of dependence any more. I did while I was a Christian, but now my perspective is very different, based around a kind of Stoic/Buddhist philosophy of not trying to control my environment so much as my own mind. So in other words, no longer constantly praying to a god or any other external thing to change my circumstances... to do that would just seem to create an endless state of 'learned helplessness'... but instead learning to accept whatever comes my way.
While this is a respectable pov, you're being unfair to religious people. Their very religion (I mean any major world religion) teaches them to accept whatever comes their way, with the additional promise of other worldly happiness.
Why not do both ? why not nourish a comforting belief in a caring being, while also doing everything you can to improve your life ?
From my POV, the main thing it teaches is the wrong attribution of responsibility, both in the sense of theists not giving themselves enough credit for their own achievements, ie 'god give me strength'... well maybe that strength was in you all along, and you alone are responsible for your achievements...and likewise, 'god please help me'... someone intervenes of their own free will to help and the next thing it's 'thank you god for helping me', what about the person who helped?. Basically misattribution of responsibility either way IMO, and in such a way that true self-esteem is never fostered not just because of this lack of responsibility, but also because of the supposedly inherent sinful nature.
