SeymourButts and tetrapod: I totally agree! Good posts.
Since it is obvious all religion is wrong why do so many believe?
by jwfacts 64 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Qcmbr
Seymour, Tertapod - I disagree.
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Qcmbr
Hehe sorry Tetra - I just love to misspell your name .
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PopeOfEruke
Everything that humans do, say, make, or believe in, in controlled by our DNA, in our genes. All our past times are stored in the redundant sections of the DNA as well (or so it has been suggested).
It's possible that in the far distant past our ancestors were set apart from the other beings on the planet by some desire or interest in a deity (maybe just the moon or sun perhaps at the time). This imprint is stll within us, and, irrational as the belief in a deity it may be, it's probably assisted our survival and advancement over the millenia.
So my $0.02 worth of answer to the question "why do so many believe?" is : we are genetically programmed or imprinted to do so.
Pope -
tetrapod.sapien
Q,
actually, it's tetragod. that would be Mr.TetraGod to you.
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tetrapod.sapien
pope,
religion has helped us with our tribal survival, and monotheism has helped us develop the world we now have. no doubt. natural selection (and artificial selection when one thinks of murdering those who do now believe what you do) has left us with a predisposition to believe without evidence. faith, i believe, is what other humanoids refer to it with pride, as.
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Daunt
Never forget about memes when describing the advancment of human beings. Genes can only explain so much of what we are now.
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SeymourButts
It all seems so totally unfair. As members of the species we refer to as human: Some will starve to death before we have even learned to walk, while others, will live out their lives to a ripe old age and do so surrounded by opulence and splendor. We can be born into many varied situations...an abusive family or a much hated ethnic group. We may start out with some sort of disease or disability. We embark on this voyage of life with a deck that has been stacked against us, and then we die, and that's it? Not even so much as a dream in the endless sleep we refer to as death? Where does the justice lie in all of this? This is cold, brutal and heartless. Shouldn't we be given a second chance on a playing field which has been leveled? Wouldn't we all like to be born again with circumstances that take into account the record of how well we played the part in our previous existence, regardless of how the deck had been stacked against us then? Or, if after we die, there was a period of judgement which, as long as we performed well with the life we were given and performed our faithful and humble duties, we should be rewarded with a wondrous and gleeful everlasting life in an exclusive refuge far removed from the woes of the material world? Societies that teach ones to be satisfied with their current position in life, based on an expectation of an after-death reward, in some ways vaccinate themselves to revolt. A culture that teaches the idea of an afterlife for heroes, or even for those that just did what authority instructed them, might gain a competitive edge or advantage. The idea that some part of us, our spiritual nature, survives in some state after ones death, becomes an easy sell for religions and nations. It's not something that will invoke widespread skepticism. People want to believe, even when the evidence is minute or non-existent. When large and powerful institutions insist upon an afterlife it should be of little surprise that dissenters are few. Even when applied sensitively, skepticism can come across as arrogant, heartless, and dismissive of the feelings and deeply seated beliefs of others. Some skeptics will apply this tool as bluntly and with as little finesse as possible. Sometimes it even appears as if the skeptical conclusion was arrived at before the evidence was examined. We all hold dearly the beliefs in which our faith is drawn. When someone challenges those beliefs as being insufficiently based or asks embarrassing questions that we hadn't thought of, or demonstrates our sweeping of underlying principles under the rug...it becomes more than just someone searching for knowledge. It feels much more like a personal assault. An assault on our intelligence and reasoning ability. There always seems to be the attitude of US vs Them....the sense that WE have the monopoly on truth....the others who put their faith in all of those silly doctrines are idiots.....if you are intelligent and sensible, you will believe what we say..... and if not, you are beyond redemption.
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jwfacts
All may be a gross generalisation, though the contradiction that exists between religion show they do not explain truth in any absolute sense.
Anyway littletoe, as you appear to be a philosopher I am interested to you providing an answer of sorts, rather than more questions. -
jwfacts
Q that is quite a stir, the point is interesting but questionable. It tends to hold to some of the JW assumptions.
Religion is not necessarily about having high control 'because we are right about everything and so will never change'. Many Christians believe it is about accepting faith in Jesus as our Saviour. Therefore they can be vague about doctrine and change with the times. As long as the members show love to each other and believe in God.
The next step to that sort of belief is that we can show love and believe in God without religion. That appears to me to be a step in the right direction, and is already happening in a lot of educated countries.