[PLUG-TALK] Religion is not bad...

glen e. p. ropella gepr at ropella.net
Sat Oct 31 20:00:52 UTC 2009


Thus spake David Mandel circa 10/31/2009 02:36 AM:
> I have read various humanist writings and find a lot of good in them;
>  but I simply do not understand anyway to justify the existence of
> human rights or even ethics without the existence of a god of some
> sort - be it the Creator or Yahweh or some other god.

There are many quite competent hypotheses for how such feelings arise.
I've found Michael Shermer's books reasonable.  There's a great book on
a (neuro-)biological basis for ethics called "Looking for Spinoza" by
Antonio Damasio.  And there is no shortage of (often flaky) research on
the origins of altruism.

There are plenty of candidate mechanisms at all scales of biology, from
the effects of hormones like oxytocin all the way up to the theories of
group selection in evolution.

It's true that, when we're ignorant and incapable of formulating
testable hypotheses, we resort to metaphysical constructs like gods,
crystals, magic, space aliens and such.  But it is just as metaphysical
to prematurely and arrogantly claim that no testable mechanism CAN be
found as cause for things like human rights and ethics.  I.e. it is the
ultimate arrogance to claim that we ALREADY know everything we need to
know about how such things arise, and we should just chalk it up to a
belief in supernatural beings.

A more humble approach is to admit our ignorance and say something like:
 "Well, for now, given my ignorance, I believe in God.  But if someone
shows me a _better_ explanation or if I'm ever smart enough to see
beyond my current ignorance, then I'm open to the future."  And this is
the essence of freewill and the wisdom behind the concept of continual
temptation.  You can NEVER be arrogant enough to assume whatever belief
you currently hold is the TRUTH.  Faith is always required, as is
humility.  The temptation is the type of arrogance and conviction shown
by people like Michael Robinson.  That is the devil, not an open-minded
approach to the future.

One of the reasons I'm still quite fond of the Roman Catholic church is
precisely because they tend to hold this humble position.  E.g. Yes,
perhaps there are phenomena we currently find mysterious that will
eventually be explained by science.  But as long as there is SOME
mystery left, I'll attribute that to God.  And, the inherent wisdom in
the deeper Catholic teachings is that there will _always_ be mystery;
hence there will always be a useful and healthy role for metaphysical
constructs like God, magic, space aliens, etc.  The fact that the Roman
Catholic church monitors, participates, and evolves with that is
actually quite wonderful and distinguishes it from many other churches.

And that's true even if many of its followers are ignorant, violent,
hate-filled morons.  Of course, the same can be said of the Satanic
church and the Temple of Set. ;-)  "Satan, please protect me from your
moronic followers!"

-- 
glen e. p. ropella, http://ropella.name/~gepr




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