Setanta wrote:husker wrote:Set - do you look for a reason to believe? And if you find it, or is it out of the question?
No, Husker, i do not look for such a reason. I consider that theism is rather like the anxiety of orphans who don't know where their parents are gone--only it's all the grown ups who are gone. So they make up childish fairy tales to account for being alone and the anxiety it inspires. The problem i see with that is two-fold. The first is that it is long past time for the human race to have grown up.
The second is that it is the ultimate abdication of personal responsibility. If there are no deities (and i know of no good reason to think there are), and if there is no afterlife (and i know of no good reason to think there is)--then i am immediately, personally and perpetually responsible for the quality of my life, and the outcome of my actions. No pie in the sky, no god moves in mysterious ways, no when the roll is called up yonder. I am immediately and completely responsible for every aspect of my relationship to the cosmos and everything and everyone in it upon which and whom i impinge, and which and whom impinge on me--for so far as i am able to act.
I consider theism as childish fantasy and a cop-out--the ultimate evasion of responsibility, the complete opposite of a moral stand. It is not out of the question that i might one day have "a reason to believe," but saving the cowardice of senescence, and facing death, i cannot now imagine it.
While I understand your perspective here Setanta I need to just make a few comments if I may. Maybe you are right, it is quite possible that religion is not much more than a made up fairy tale to relieve the anxiety that being alone inspires. Some people need that though. Everyone in this world is so different. I know a lot of people see the religious people as being weak in many aspects, unable to cope. I don't believe all who are religious are this way or remain this way though. I know I was. I don't mind admitting that. There was a time in my life that I didn't believe in myself enough to have even wanted to try to get out of or change my circumstances.
I needed to believe that someone else believed in me. Saw hope in me. Because in my own eyes I was a worthless piece of crap and I didn't have the slightest clue how to even begin to change that perspective. In my world no one could be trusted. No one. I had been failed so many times by everyone that came into my life that I just finally gave up. I needed something that wasn't going to fail me. Jesus was the anchor in my life. He was the one who loved ME. Who I am on the inside. He was the one who saw beyond all the outer layers that had been added on to me because of the things I went through, and saw something beautiful. Something to be treasured, not abused.
So yeah, maybe it was all a fantasy, and maybe living that fantasy makes me a weak person in some peoples eyes. And you know what? That's ok. But it was real to me. It was what I needed. It taught me how to believe in myself. The problem I've seen with religion is when it takes over a persons ability to think for themselves. To make decisions for themselves. To, as you said, take responsibility. There are so many idea's and concepts of what "God" is. How to live a "righteous" life, how to be a good "christian". But it's all a worthless pile of crap if people don't really live what they say they believe.
It is so easy to spout off and tell people how they should live their lives. It is so easy to sit back and be critical of others because they don't live up to your standards. But it is so hard sometimes to take a look in the mirror and see if you are really living up to the standards you set for others. That is the greatest fallacy that I see within religion. To think that you have the right to tell someone else how they ought to live when you can't even live the way you are telling them to yourself.