need help with some pointers, I'm against it but I have no luck with any research. Was wondering if any of you guys can help.
You might browse through our religion and politics forum. A post I wrote about the movie "Contact" touches on this. Basically, religion and science compete to answer a few philosophical questions. Like: Why are we here? How was the universe created? How does everything work? For the longest time, religion had the only answers. Science now has most of the answers, IMO, but there are still questions that religion or God are just as good an answer as any.
I think religion is an construct created by man to provide answers that explain our existence, moral guidance, and comfort for a creature with elevated awareness to deal with the idea that "they" will not exist forever.
The internet will spur many non-believers. I have one thing to say to those non-believers... "DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE A HEART OF A CHAMPION"
IMO. Religion is just what we used to settle with when we couldn't Explain anything. When man Discovered Fore they probably thought it was another Being A.K.A God. same with everything, but that said i don't disrespect any particular Religion and I do respect their beliefs.
I agree in that religion is the early Theory of Everything and as our knowledge of the universe and its mechanisms grows, our need for superstition and ritual is diminished (supposing there was a need for it originally). I don't think religion is natural or innate, though. Superstition is an easy answer to appease our simple chimp minds.
I recommend reading some essays on religion by the philosopher bertrand russell, including "Why I am Not a Christian."
Religion for me, is mostly based on "right in my face" life experiences. I respect atheists, etc., of course though.
Well time is a way of measuring where we are in relation to our position around the sun, as well as the rotation of our planet. So I'm going to disagree based on the fact that other planetary bodies are in motion as well (with the measure of time being different as it is a relative measurement).
Religion's just an easy, lazy way to explain shit we don't know. It gives false hope, and a false sense of security. It makes crackpots seen as great, amazing, possibly even "God-like".
I find that truly random events that have some small (but positive) statistical probability are often described as "God's Will." There's an obscure branch of mathematics that examines the probability of coincidences, such as the probability of running into an old friend 30 years after you last saw him, in the very same store. It happens more often than you think, but it is often described as "God's Will." But that's different from the question of whether we're naturally religious. I think religion and civilization go hand in hand. People need order, they need rules, they need a set of moral and ethical standards to follow (including establishing a health code, like what to eat and when to bathe)--and, for many people, they need to be threatened with some Ultimate Punishment to follow those rules and standards. I thus agree with Russell that religion has a lot to do with fear, but unlike him I also believe that many people NEED fear in order to give structure and meaning to their lives. I see religion as a tool for people to achieve the proper mindset to interact in a civilized society and to give them the impetus and drive to actively achieve things in their lives. However, not everyone needs such external motivation, and it is disingenous for religious individuals to believe that everyone needs religion in their lives, and to mistrust those that do not follow thier particular religious code. Also, the base purpose of religious groups gradually became corrupted, as some religions branched out and began regulating other parts of people's lives (like sex).
Did you know that the Air Force has to constantly update the clocks on the GPS satellites because time runs slower in space than it does on earth? If they didn't, the GPS info would drift by 15 miles a day.
That seems like a pain, you'd think they'd be able to calculate some proportionality constant if they were in orbit at a set altitude. Of course I'm sure this would have been thought of, so I guess they're not constant.
also, i've talked before about the Myers-Briggs personality test (which I strongly believe in), and how it categorizes people into 16 discrete groups base on how they process information, make decisions, and interact with others. I think there have been studies done on whether some brain types are more inclined to be religious than others. I don't know the answer, but you could do a quick internet search and try to find out.
People already fear death, pain, suffering, loneliness, abandonment, embarrassment, etc., etc.. There is (absolutely) no need for anyone to fear eternal damnation or negative reincarnation. A life guided by fear of divine personal punishment is a selfish one--in this mindset, no matter how worthwhile a charitable or honorable act is, it is still self-serving. No act can truly be selfless. Also, I would contend that religion is subversive and dangerous and frequently counterproductive to a civilized society and to personal motivation.
I'm not religious myself. I do see it as a mixed bag. Religion was essentially the government for hundreds of years. Whatever good society did for people was done by the Church. A lot of our science did indeed come about from the Church. Mendel was a monk, for example, and he is the guy who figured out genetics. The Church was the publishing system for centuries. They hand copied manuscripts of all the great works, and of course the Bible. The structure of the Church is upside down from government, and is probably the better model for caring for society as a whole. They collect money in the neighborhoods and feed the poor in those same neighborhoods, yet find a way to funnel large sums back to the Vatican (for example). I look at the 10 commandments outside the context of religion and figure if everyone lived by them, the world would be a pretty good place. In other words, it does provide some good moral values (what's right vs. what's wrong). There's the negative aspects, too. Superstition, the burning of heretics at the stake, holy wars, etc.
