RE: Are some people truly better off believing?
May 20, 2015 at 4:20 pm
(This post was last modified: May 20, 2015 at 4:22 pm by FatAndFaithless.)
You don't need fairy tales to help discuss the world or people or morality or society. There's nothing that religion adds to one's understanding of the world that isn't either A) entirely attainable through actual scientific verifiable soruces or B) false or unsubstantiated.
I really really dislike the argument that 'some people' just need religion, as if one could possible test that hypothesis. No, I don't think that there are 'some people' that just couldn't function in this world without their faith except in the sense that their faith is the thing that makes them think that in the first place.
There's so much to appreciate in the world that requires absolutely no appeal to supernatural ideas or entities, and the things that are upsetting about the world (suffering, inustice, etc) isn't something that I would want to have explained away by some master plan ("Oh, those 14,000 children starving to death in Africa every day is just 'part of the plan', don't worry"), it only emphasizes our duty and ability to make the world better ourselves for its own sake.
In short, no, I don't wish any of it were true, and I certainly don't think that people are "better off" with fairytales except in the most basic, simple, ignorant, narcotic, short-termed sense.
I really really dislike the argument that 'some people' just need religion, as if one could possible test that hypothesis. No, I don't think that there are 'some people' that just couldn't function in this world without their faith except in the sense that their faith is the thing that makes them think that in the first place.
There's so much to appreciate in the world that requires absolutely no appeal to supernatural ideas or entities, and the things that are upsetting about the world (suffering, inustice, etc) isn't something that I would want to have explained away by some master plan ("Oh, those 14,000 children starving to death in Africa every day is just 'part of the plan', don't worry"), it only emphasizes our duty and ability to make the world better ourselves for its own sake.
In short, no, I don't wish any of it were true, and I certainly don't think that people are "better off" with fairytales except in the most basic, simple, ignorant, narcotic, short-termed sense.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
