Public Service Announcement
I am going to say some things that may make people upset. If you do not have thick skin urn away. Also, in order to understand what I am saying, it requires objectivity. One must pull themselves away from their belief system in order to fully grasp and appreciate what I may say. As we call it in anthropology, you must learn to implement some cultural relativism.
I had a discussion about religion: in my head.
I am dead serious. It was triggered by one of my roommates saying that he does not believe in God. Then I tried in my head to formulate arguments in my head for and against. I then asked him why. I di dnot hear his answer because I ended up doing something else. But then when I tried to sleep it hit me and I had a mini-dialogue in my head:
When someone tells me that they do not believe in God and that God does not exist, I ask for one thing: why. I ask that person to tell me why they believe God does not exist. I do this just to play Devil's advocate. I am also genuinely curious. Here are some answers I commonly get
1. Religion is bad.
2. Science has proved God does not exist.
3. I do not believe in God because of my parents made me believe in God.
1. I am going to start with number one. Religion is humans' interpretation of what they think God is like. Since people are not perfect, we may have it wrong. You just never know. Also, religion in and of itself is not bad. Religion can provide the social fabric of a culture. Actually, it does. Religion keeps people in our society from doing really crazy ish. Religion become "bad' when it is used to oppress people. But you cannot say God does not exist because humans manipulate religion to do wrong to others. That just is not good logic (good in the sense that it does not work, not whether you agree or not).
2. Science has not disproved God. It has oly disproved what we thought were the mechanisms by which God has created the world. Maybe God did use evolution to brning about life (gasp!! blasphemous I know!!). Science has not provided definitive evidence about whether or not God exists. Any scientist who says that God has already been disproved or proved by means of science is a quack.
3. This last reason I find to be bullshit. I tell people that once you become of age, research what you think is your faith is. Disbelieve something because you think it is wrong, not because you want to rebel against mommy and daddy. All I can say is grow up and be mature. Your parents' belief does not dictate God's existence.
Now these are not the only arguments but these are the most common ones I have heard from my peers. I will present the other side at another time. This ish hurts my brain even though I enjoy thinking about it.
5 comments:
"Your parents' belief does not dictate God's existence" wow! droppin that fiyah knowledge! love it!
Keep that up, you'll be on the tour with us...
I took so much joy is bad mouthing peoples' belief in God and their faith for soooo many years, shredded every reason for faith to pieces...in my own mind. When you have it, it's like love. Only you know what it feels like and what it does for you. You can never describe it accurately enough for someone else, only your actions do the real telling. Just like 'love'.
Interesante, I particularly think it important that you pointed out the fact that all our beliefs need to be our own. They might not originate with us, but I hope we always evaluate their place in our lives.
Although I believe that something had to have created us and everything else, I always wonder who created that something.
Post a Comment