Religion...again

Going back through this blog, I'm surprised just how much of it relates to religion in some way.
Anyway, that's got nothing to do with what I intend to talk about.

Recently, I got involved in a discussion with an American Christian Fundamentalist about what is right and what is wrong. As expected of a Fundamentalist, especially an American one, they were very assertive about what is right and what's wrong and that there is no such thing that's neither good nor evil. As we all know, if a Fundamentalist tells us something then that must be true...
...Do I really need to state what should already be very clear to you?
It's this sort of person that made me actually think about my religion before realising just how stupid it was, and subsequently renouncing it.
Moving on to the point at hand; this person was adamant that what they believed to be right and what they believed to be wrong was applicable to everyone in the whole of existence, and not just them. In the typical American Fundamentalist way, they then contradicted themselves saying that everyone had to draw their own line about what's right and what's wrong.
They're the sort of person who would call some one who stole food to feed their starving family evil, and then call some one who had killed many people, with an utter disregard of any family they might leave behind, to defend their country good.
A rational person would state that neither of those are good nor evil. What both of those examples are doing is, what would be considered to be, evil, but the motives for doing those things are good. Such deeds can not be classified by anyone as good or evil.
I find it depressing that in this age of Scientific discovery and rational thinking, there are still people who think themselves high enough others to be able to tell everyone else what is good and evil.
In my earlier post about my own religion, I said "I don't think that Religion causes more harm than good". I don't know why I said that. I haven't believed that since renouncing Christianity three years ago. Religion definitely causes far more harm than it does good, especially now. One reason why it seems more harmful now could be that religion is dying out. The people belonging to religions would, understandably, be a bit less considerate about other people when defending their beliefs.
In another post, I talked about how Humanity has, through the ages, used religion and magic to explain the things that they weren't able to understand. That fact is, undoubtably, true. Now Science and rational thinking is explaining those things, the gaping holes of incorrect statements within holy scriptures (for the record, I'm mostly picking on Christianity here) are being pointed out...and laughed at.

Accurately, and mockingly,
Lord J

EDIT: I forgot to include a couple of my favourite things that the Fundamentalist said in the discussion. He was calling us "blind" for being able to see things as they are, and that we'd "become open to corruption" and "evil". [sarcasm]Everyone knows that Humanity isn't fundamentally corrupt and certainly not evil[/sarcasm]. Whether any member if Humanity would be willing to admit those facts, on the other hand, is highly unlikely.

Re: Previous Blog

As I was saying in my previous blog post; no similar species to humanity shoud have been able to last as long without some form of divine protection. Unsurprisingly, I'm not the only one who's had such thoughts and there's actually a very interesting documentary on BBC Radio 4 iPlayer about the human need for religion. Another thing the documentary's about is whether believing in the supernatural provided an evolutionary edge for humanity. If you live in Britain, and are at least vaguely interested in this particular subject, then I would reccomend listening to "God On My Mind: Evolution".

One theory that cropped up is that it's in the DNA to believe in the supernatural. That's a stupid idea that can be immediately disproved by taking your head out of the fluffy pink clouds and talking to actual people. In the heritage and tradition; perhaps, but definitely not in DNA.
Apparently, superstitions and supernatural explanations only exist in an attempt to work out how the world works and how individuals fit in. That's why children are more inclined to believe in the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas. It's part of humanity to provide explanations for everything, even if there's no known explanation.
Another point raised is that religions can't die because they'll be reborn the next time a child is born. Obviously, this isn't true practically. It could happen theoretically, but only if the child in question happens to learn about beliefs from the dead religion.

One thing that I liked with this documentary is the brief talk about fake beliefs. Looking back, the main reason I was bullied in school was the fake belief that I had no emotions. Unlike humanity, I wasn't coming up with explanations about everything around me, and I've never been able to truely express or understand my emotions. Even some of the teachers felt uncomfortable about that. Only one of them ever caused me grief over that and their death within a year of the first instance just made the pupils scared of me. I found it quite amusing that they believed I had somehow placed a curse upon the teacher that caused their death. The real explanation was that they had cancer, but the fact that the other children around me came up with the belief that I was able to curse the teacher and cause their death proves that humanity always has to find an explanation for everything that's around them, even if they have to make one up to avoid knowing they haven't got an explanation.

This is getting a bit longer than I intended, so I'm going to cut it off here. I might continue on with this another time, but the chances of that are fairly low so if you are intersted, then don't keep your hopes up.

Cursedly,
Lord J

Hell

There are a lot of opinions about "Hell". In Christianity, it's the place where people who have sinned get punished. In Norse Mythology, it's where those who didn't die a warrior's death went and was a lesser heaven. I feel there's an obvious connection between the two that's passed down through the ages and "evolved". Christianity has had a habit of picking things up from other religions during it's time, such as Easter and Christmas which were Pagan holidays. I can't remember where they got Satan from, but that was from another religion that was "assimilated" into Christianity.

Anyway,I think that no religion has got hell correct. If there is a Hell, then it is what humanity has to live through every single day. Life's just a dull, monotonous routine for pretty much everyone. Most choose to delude themselves that it isn't, but every day is pretty much the same no matter what they tell themselves. As I've said before; humanity has reached it's peak. There's nothing left for it now. Sure, they're making technological advancements, but it's just the same stuff with improvements. There's not been anything new for several decades. We're just going round in circles, but making those circles prettier.

I just find humans to be insignificant. They have no real purpose, but they've still managed to survive thus far. It's understandable why they believe there's a God watching over them. No other similar species could have lasted this long without something as powerful as a god preventing them from extinction.



Reading through this post, I realise that I've referred to humanity as part of them and as another being observing them. Both are technically true. I just thought I'd let anyone reading know that I am aware of that fact.

Observedly,
Lord J