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RE: Religion may not be the enemy.
December 16, 2014 at 8:20 am
(This post was last modified: December 16, 2014 at 8:31 am by Nope.)
People join and remain in religion for emotional reasons. Instead of creating a religion, why not find out what people get from religion and create ways for them to get the same needs met in nonreligious ways. For example, many people join churches for the social aspects of being in a group. You could start and promote a group of secular humanists devoted to doing charitable works.
Perhaps your group could incorporate some types of rituals to teach its core concepts? Kwanzaa is a nonreligious celebration, for instance, that teaches many positive values. I am not suggesting that you steal Kwanzaa but it is a good example of using ritual(the lighting of the candles) in a nonreligious fashion.
Hey and if you can create some new atheistic holidays that we can take off of work or school, that would be great! Maybe we could have a holiday in which we eat spaghetti in honor of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Actually, wouldn't it be nice if people had a day devoted to doing good things for one another but in secret? And you can give the reason for that holiday as humans can be kind to one another without a god.
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RE: Religion may not be the enemy.
December 16, 2014 at 10:04 am
More than religion itself, I think the problem is dogma. Good things happen with and without religion. Shitty things happen with and without religion. And as theists are so fond of throwing out, there have been horrific things that have come out of atheistic regimes as well. In these cases, however, I think it is the dogmatic beliefs (so akin to those of religion) that are to blame. A select group of people are in charge; they know all; and to question their authority is to seek death. I don't hate religion. I hate much of what has come out of it, but I think the source is the dogmatic mindset and not the religion itself.
In this way, it would serve no purpose to create a 'new religion' of atheism because that is an entry into dogmatic beliefs. We have science. We have compassion. We have love. We don't need to bog that down with extra crap.
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RE: Religion may not be the enemy.
December 25, 2014 at 5:18 am
(This post was last modified: December 25, 2014 at 5:24 am by Smaug.)
Isaac Asimov described a religion somewhat similar to what you propose in his Foundation series. This religion was invented by a would-be political superpower to spread their influence over barbaric degenerate worlds. It allowed science and technology but only to an extent and only interwinded with religious beliefs based on a universal deity to maintain rigid control over heathen worlds through awe and superstition. It worked for a period of time and brought some results but had to be discarded eventually (trough a very painful and rather bloody transitional period).
Such a scheme may have worked in a similar manner in the real world but it has the same major flaw as every other religion: divine authority. And such concepts as blapshemy, apostasy and heresy go hand in hand with divine authority. So sooner or later there are going to be sects infighting over, say, divine interpretation of Schrodinger's wave functions. It won't be principally different from the intelligent design or old-earth creationism we have now. Divine authority takes away the very basis of science: the ability to adapt and evolve in light of critical thinking. The ability to consider new facts, to create theories to supplement and replace the old ones.
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RE: Religion may not be the enemy.
December 25, 2014 at 11:07 am
The biggest problem with "divine authority" is the lack of communication.
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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