A.P. Lawrence Home
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A.P. Lawrence Home
| Personal | Writings | Philosophy and Religion | Recreation | Humor | Books | Main Site |
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You might think from reading some of this that I'm hateful of religion. Actually, I'm not: I really believe that for most people, and for society as a whole, religious belief is probably a good thing. I don't think it's a necessary element of a stable society, but I do believe that it is generally beneficial. On the other hand, there are some dark sides to it, and there is a large amount of the utterly ridiculous, and it is those aspects that I poke at herein.
If the religious could just always keep in mind that, no matter how certain they are of their beliefs, those beliefs are not fact, and should never be the basis for any decision that affects other people, then we'd get along just fine. Is that too much to ask?
I hate getting into this stuff because people start thinking that their beliefs are being disrespected. In a way, that's true: while I absolutely defend the right for people to have religious beliefs, I can't respect the actual belief. Kind of like their stupid "hate the sin, love the sinner", I respect the right to HAVE religious belief, but still think you have to be a moron to swallow it. That doesn't mean you are a total fool: you could be brilliant in every other ability, but if you have thought about religion and still think it is true, you are hopelessly stupid at least in that one area.
Religion can be horrible - the Middle East is a great example.. But we have some pretty bad stuff here in the Christian religion too: people every bit as crazed who may not be decapitating hostages but who would like to take over the U.S.A. and turn it into a religious state. On the other hand, we have Christians, Moslems, Jews etc. who do wonderful and selfless acts that really benefit all of us. I hope that these things at least balance out.
The problem I have with religion is that it is a dead end: once you say "god did it" there's no point in asking any more questions: choose your prophet and do what they say the god wants. Science, though it can be hindered by people who cling too long to what they want to be true, at least has questioning at its base: there are no absolute truths, and any theory is subject to re-examination as we go forward.
Some of my favorite books
