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    guttervomit

    • 10

      The End of Faith

      5 Nov 2006

      There’s a favorite quote of mine, attributed to Karl Marx, that I used to repeat a lot during my sociology classes back in college. The unabridged version goes like this:

      Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of aheartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. Itis the opium of the people.

      The key phrase is of course, "the opium of the people." I kept expecting this quote to turn up while reading Sam Harris’ brilliant treatise, , recently, as it seems to line up with most of his opinions on religion.

      Harris believes that in order for civilization to progress, we have to make a collective decision to abolish religion. His reasons are largely pragmatic, and extremely well-argued:

      1. Religion has been at the center of much of the violence we have inflicted upon each other for the last few millenia, particularly this recent "War on Terror." Other examples include the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, and hundreds of other instances throughout history. It is in the nature of a religion to want to protect itself and destroy non-believers. Both Islam and Christianity are fairly adamant about this.

      2. Faith is used too often as a kind of irrational rationalization for things, e.g., God creating the universe in 6 days, Jesus rising from the dead, Mary being a virgin, etc. There is no compelling proof that any of this ever happened, so instead we say, "we believe it was so, because we have faith." This is where religion is at its most dangerous because it encourages belief without justification, and thus becomes a barrier to discovery and the furthering of human knowledge.
      3. Morality is not a product of religious belief, as many churches would like to claim. Therefore, the single most compelling reason to be religious (i.e., it makes us better people) is farcical. Being religious and being moral and ethical do not have to go hand-in-hand, although this is often the case in our laws and policy-making. For example, the only real reason marijuana is illegal is because being in a state of induced happiness is frowned upon by the Church. (Think of it: marijuana has no known lethal dosage, and is responsible for fewer deaths per year than cigarettes or alcohol. Strange that those other two goods are legal, don’t you think?)

      In the face of these obvious problems, what is it that makes religion beneficial to its practitioners? I’m tempted to say "nothing," but I know that a lot of people look to religion to make sense of their lives, as well as their inevitable deaths. Having an afterlife to look forward to, especially one that is as paradaisical as those painted in the Bible (eternal existence in a new Garden of Eden) and the Koran (martyrs will be rewarded with a harem of 72 virgins … geez, is it any wonder these guys turn into suicide bombers?), can be a fairly tempting come-on.

      Of course, the fact that nobody has ever come back from the afterlife and confirmed any of these promises renders the whole issue rather dubious. It is a testament to our great collective fear of death that so many of us can blindly accept claims like this without any concrete proof, and allow our lives to be controlled to such a degree.

      if, like me, you’ve grown up with nothing but questions about religion and its various denominations. It puts a lot of things into a fairly brutal, uncompromising perspective, and is probably the most important book I’ll read at this stage in my life.

       

      10 Responses to “The End of Faith”

      1. Poldo Says:
        November 5th, 2006 at 6:02 am

        To quote a statement from Gil Grissom of CSI:

        Oh, I beleive in HIM (referring to God), what I don’t believe is religion. I don’t believe that I have to kill people to protect my faith.

      2. Tundra Says:
        November 5th, 2006 at 9:34 am

        “Religion has been at the center of much of the violence we have inflicted upon each other for the last few millenia…”

        Ain’t that the truth!!

        “I know that a lot of people look to religion to make sense of their lives, as well as their inevitable deaths.”

        Not that I agree or disagree with you, but you make it sound like a psychological crutch to make one’s reality more palatable.

        I almost feel like giving up on religion entirely, but I think about all the numerous times when my life could have gone to ruin due to the wrong decisions…but didn’t. I’d like to think that maybe, just maybe, some greater entity out there is watching over me in spite of the fact that we’re not speaking anymore. Deep inside me, it can’t be just luck.

        Maybe believing in something unknown is sort of being open-minded in the sense that just because science can’t explain it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. After all, the earth has been around for ages long before man arrived. There are still things science hasn’t fully exlpained yet, and we as a species have a long way to go before making sense of this big universe we find ourselves in. Maybe we should be at least be open to the possibility that the rational mechanisms man have developed throughout history is ill-equipped to justify the existence of the unknown.

      3. luis Says:
        November 5th, 2006 at 8:15 pm

        >Not that I agree or disagree with you, but you make it sound like a

        >psychological crutch to make one’s reality more palatable.

        Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. The thing you have to separate in your mind is the notion that a greater being (that, for some reason, is looking out for each of us on an individual level) has anything to do with organized religion in the first place.

        >Maybe we should be at least be open to the possibility that the rational

        >mechanisms man have developed throughout history is ill-equipped to justify

        >the existence of the unknown.

        Oh, of course. The nature of science is that it is constantly in search for the truth, whereas religion simply hands it to you without evidence or justification. Science has never denied the existence of something bigger than us, but it also cannot confirm it without the appropriate proof.

        In many ways, ancient man’s belief in the supernatural were their efforts to make sense of their world. They couldn’t understand things like bad weather, so they said that that was wrathful Poseidon. They didn’t know what the sun was, so they said it was Aries’ mighty chariot galloping across the sky. It’s the same with Christianity and Islam and all the other religions out there. We’re trying to create explanations for the inexplicable, but we are doing it in exactly the same way as humans 5000 years ago used to do it, by weaving unfounded stories, instead of just admitting that we have no idea what we’re talking about.

      4. cooks Says:
        November 5th, 2006 at 9:44 pm

        Remember that scene in the sci-fi movie the fifth element where the strugling priest stares at the two thugs, pauses and asks, “marriage?”

        I have this gut feeling that after our prudish baby boomer generation completely dies out in the not so far future, that western religion and its zealots will rapidly adjust and compromise to be as digestible as possible to the same youth that it alienated in the first place. Religion fot the majority will probably still exist in the future but it will be more of a casual tradition than a dedicated lifestyle.

        Western though mind you; as for Eastern religions, so long as bombs keep destroying families in the war zones, we’re looking at a fresh batch of angry and dangerously religious youth out there to last us till the next century.

        Im intrigued though by Buddhism which by some way doesnt fit in the same template as Islam and Christianity. So far its the religion I see and appreciate that merely practices what you describe as morality without prejudice; and that doesnt attempt to force feed itself as the only path to salvation. (With exception to the occasional vegan nazi who just thinks he’s a buddhist by not eating meat.)

        Here’s to Buddha in 2050 then

      5. Says:
        November 6th, 2006 at 6:22 am

        God ceases to exist when Man stops beliving in him… So much for spirituality. Hell, with so many proselyting bullshit around, there’s no wonder why everybody’s going “holy” (ehem!!)

        There’s no doubt that organized religions are responsible for almost all of the bloodshed in history. What’s so holy with “holy war”? What’s holy in decapitating infidels? What’s holy in blowing yourself up? What’s holy in imposing your “faith” on a swordpoint? And to think they preach of a “loving and benevolent” God. God help us!!!

        Despite the rituals, the holy books, the dogmas, the pantheon of gods and goddesses (and saints too!), organized religion always lacks one thing: SPIRIT.

        When people embrace religion fully, they embrace blind faith. They lose their spirit and become automatons instead…

        It’s high time we find our true spirituality.

      6. keekai Says:
        November 6th, 2006 at 9:38 am

        too much emotion and too much braincell working overtime… easy, tiger :P

      7. keekai Says:
        November 6th, 2006 at 9:40 am

        too much emotion and too much braincell working overtime… easy, tiger :P

      8. becypher Says:
        November 6th, 2006 at 6:45 pm

        72 virgins in this life is rather achievable than getting this 72 after life. Cumulatively speaking though. Why blow up yerself.

        As for me Id rather live 2 to 3 days of my life living it than going deep and hard on a book. Ill find about the truth in the end anyways. No hurry to learn about where and how we’ll all end up. Just live a good and fruitful life.

      9. guttervomit » Scenes from a Rally Says:
        March 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm

        [...] I’ve said this many times before, but I’ll say it here again for emphasis. People need to stop using religion as a compass for morality and common decency, because religion is far from moral, or decent. But that’s a [...]

      10. guttervomit » Power Distance, or Why I Have to Call You "Ser" Says:
        November 16th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

        [...] Muslim. (Note that the correlation with religion is disputed, and admittedly difficult to quantify. To a non-believer though, it makes a lot of [...]

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    Guttervomit v3 went online in January, 2008. It uses Wordpress for publishing, and was built largely with Adobe Illustrator and Textmate. Logotype and navigation is set with Interstate.