Hey Bugsy,
I appreciate where you are coming from in your post above. I believe that a very profound dynamic is at work here--meaning in life. Viktor Frankl developed a psychotherapy called "Logotherapy," which can be summed up in his statement: "This striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man." (From the book, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl)
Humans are desperately searching to find meaning in their lives, and they will ultimately do anything to find it—including religion. Here is a portion of an article I'm writing dealing with existentialism. I think it answers why people will believe and do things that they otherwise would not.
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Are You Looking for the Meaning of Life in the Wrong Place?
Since the dawn of humanity, billions of souls have struggled and searched for answers to the meaning of life. Moreover, billions of times, the search for answers to the "Big Three" questions ("Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going?) has stopped at the same brick wall: "I don't know."
For millennia, philosophers of varied cultures and beliefs have embraced the challenge of answering the riddle of life's meaning, and again, all have failed. And the reason is simple: there are no available answers.
Of course, human curiosity and determination are unstoppable and therefore, no stone has been left unturned in mankind's search. From the earliest of times, and continuing along until the present day, humans have devised and constructed self-acceptable answers to the meaning of life when concrete and supportable answers do not exist or are not available.
Religion and religious writings are a prime example of humanity's efforts to answer unanswerable questions. Widely held and popular religious beliefs range from going to heaven or hell when a person dies, to reincarnation, to a state of non-existence.
And while I completely respect and accept another individual's right to believe as he or she wishes, I find it difficult to accept the traditional religious answers to life's meaning because I always have to take it on faith—I don't know it firsthand for myself. The bottom-line and absolute reality of the matter is that we simply do not know why we are here, where we came from, and where we are going.
So, the search continues.
Futility and the Meaning of Life
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Religion has long been a means of answering difficult meaning-of-life questions. And, admittedly, answering difficult meaning-of-life questions in the absence of religious views and writings is impossible. This does not in itself confirm the validity of religious views concerning the meaning of life, it simply proves that a hypothesis or philosophy was constructed to address these questions. Again, no verifiable answers are available—either from inside or outside of religion.
When a person recognizes and accepts that no concrete answers are available, he or she might conclude that life is therefore futile. Futility is the same as hopelessness, and humans need hope. Without hope, it is difficult—if not impossible—to find any meaning in life.
This human need for hope is so strong, that humans will stop at nothing to fill that need. This includes devising new philosophies—religious or otherwise—to answer unanswerable questions. I contend that religion in general was developed to establish a digestible platform in which to answer impossible meaning-of-life questions. By so doing, futility is averted, hope is created—regardless of the true reality.
Long ago, and over a period of hundreds or thousands of years, religious views and writings took on a life of their own, until they were accepted as sacred truth by the population at large. This viewpoint continues at present.
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The full article will be published at http://www.empowerthespirit.com soon.
I always enjoy talking to you!
FreePeace
"The World is my country, and to do good, my religion." --Thomas Paine
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TruthQuest: http://www.geocities.com/freepeace2000/Truthquest/TruthQuestx.html
Empower the Spirit: www.EmpowerTheSpirit.com