>From: "john grigg" <starman125@hotmail.com>
>
>Robert, thank you for putting so well into words the value of religion in
>human lives. You can say things so much better then I can. Religion can
>be a healthy and powerful structure to achieve mental discipline and try to
>reach out to something greater then oneself.
<snip>
I am a former fundamentalist Christian, turned humanistic-rationalistic
agnostic. What does that mean? It means I’ve come to realize that there is
no possible way of rationally satisfying myself that “God” exists and so,
for me, his existence is irrelevant. My efforts now center on trying to
figure out a rational basis for my moral judgment and ethical behavior (no
easy feat). On the one hand I am thankful for my years of religious study
and training, as I believe it has imbedded in me some values that I find,
well, of value. Stuff like loving your neighbor has become second nature
for me, and I’m glad about that. However, when I think of all the time I
spent in church and studying what amount to ancient fairytales and behaving
in a way that I hoped would be pleasing to God, rather than doing more
constructive things with my time, I do feel robbed of a good deal of my
life.
When I think of the collective time and energy we spend behaving in ways
that are not rationally ideally suited to deal with modern human
circumstances simply because that behavior conforms to the not-necessarily
rational Judeo-Christian ethic, again I feel that we are being robbed. For
instance, why all the fussing and fighting about gay marriage, teenage
contraception, abortion, euthanasia and legalizing marijuana (which
unquestionably has medicinal benefits and is less harmful than either
alcohol or tobacco)?
So, in some ways for me personally religion hath both given and taken away.
But, all things considered, I wish religion would just go away so that we
humans could do what we do best...use our cognitive skills to solve our
problems, rather than modifying our behavior to suit the whims of a
non-existent Old Man in the sky.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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