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act
Have
We Outgrown Religion's Purpose?
by Andrew Mulcahy
The U.S. is easily the most
religious of the industrialized nations - -certainly
more Americans go to church than do the citizens of
any other industrialized nation. And the nation is
awash in spirituality; TV programs and radio
programs abound to bring the messages of faith to
the people; religion plays the role of a powerful
broker in American politics.
Unlike Canadians, for instance,
where one fifth of the people are agnostic or
atheists, and the majority rarely go to church,
there are a mere 13% of non believers in America and
church going is common. Yet Americans kill far more
people than do Canadians Indeed, the rate of firearm
deaths in the United States is eight times that of
any other high income country. The death rate
amongst children under 15 in the U.S. due to
firearms is 15 times that of 25 other industrialized
countries combined.
Religion produces judgmentalism,
encourages contempt and an accusatory attitude
towards others- - it's heinous crime is its
depiction of we humans as evil creatures by nature,
requiring human sacrifice to atone for our sins. It
is that kind of image that has allowed us to so
apathetically accept all this genocide and slaughter
as just further examples of our 'evil' nature.
Meanwhile, our neuro scientists
are discovering that we humans are altruistic by
nature and can only know true happiness by helping
others. See Matt Ridley's book:
The Origins of Virtue
: one of many now dealing with this subject.
Life is but a momentary glimpse
at the wonder of this astonishing Universe and it is
sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual
fantasies
Initially, religion served good
purpose. Lacking the vast storehouse of knowledge we
have since accumulated, ancient man's emerging
intelligence had to try to explain away the
mysteries of natural phenomena as best he could, How
to explain lightning when they had no knowledge of
electricity except in terms of some mighty, enraged,
albeit invisible King?
And for many centuries this
served us well. Why the floods? God is mad at us.
Why are flowers so beautiful? Why does the fox
change to silver in the winter? Because god so
designed it. God explains everything - a nice, neat
solution for all things.
And, if our religious leaders had
only had the decency, the guts, to slowly concede
step by step -- as we humans unearthed ever more
information about this magnificent universe -- the
superstitious parts that no longer made sense, that
were no longer needed, religion could have become
the most unifying and emotionally rewarding force
for mankind.
When we gather in a church and
listen to the hymns, we can feel the empathy that
such a social gathering can emote. We can easily
visualize that some ancient need of our species was
to gather together and thus encourage mutual
cooperation and help. Instead, this powerful force
for unity has been turned into a justification to
slaughter those who do not share our blind dogma.
For the priest's exhortation to
believe without evidence justifies almost anything.
I believe that almost all the most horrific crimes
committed by we humans against our own kind are
rooted in unsubstantiated beliefs. No one could have
slaughtered six million people during the Nazi era,
nor could anyone have continued to butcher women and
children in Bosnia, unless they had first been
incited to do so by false and lurid stories about
their potential victims.
Faith, the willingness to accept
claims without demanding substantiated evidence, is,
in my opinion, the only thing that got out of
Pandora's Box.
"Only the materialist dare gaze
at the amazing explosion that is this universe, all
others shade their eyes (with words) from its
brilliance." agm
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