Napisano
25.05.2009 16:23 | avtor: robertinho
There is much to talk about when approaching to the term »Religion«. We cannot stay in the halls of only one. We must grabb all of them and try to find what do they all have in common. What might that be, is that all of them teach of G’d – the ultimate Truth – that reigns somewhere, is unseen, is amazing, great, jelaous and only One. Even if we talk of polytheistic religions, we come to the conclusion that in the end there’s this one god that created all other gods to be.
But when we talk about religion, we shouldn’t use only one point of stand, cos we immediately become bias in all terms. We stand the ground of one of the ultimate truths. That is why, we must look at religion as of something that simply exists, not as an anomaly, but necessity of human being.
In Bill Maher’s »Religulous«, it’s stated that religion is an anomaly becouse of that arrogant certainty that exists in every believer. That is brilliantly true, but also gives a slap in the face to every person that somehow believes that there is something out there and is still rational and stands on firm ground.
From the perspective of Religulous, we get to see that religion is on the whole, a dangerous and idiotic mass hysteria.
As an believer, you get offended and as an atheist, you get amused. But what happens, if you find it interesting enough to point out the red line of it all and that is doubt?
Many men in history had doubt and we all read what has happened to those men who doubted so much, that they questioned the authority of clericism of any kind. I will not be the one that draws only Catholic church into this mess, cos that would do much harm in understanding the history of Islam, Judaism, Protestantism (in all its forms), Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.
They all had their Gallileo Gallilei’s that came to have doubt. For no one has faith that strong that they do not have doubt, for doubt is a part of human nature as it is to believe. So, faith, belief or whatever you wish to call it is something that is a part of who we as human species are. We must ask questions, we must learn and we must seek kowledge.
It is true that many religions forbid doubt and hate too many questions, but if we are just observers, we might find many answers in all religions. Not in a New Ageian way, but in drawing paralells and trying to come to the root of it all.
As Bill Maher made his point in the end of that movie:
There is only one reasonable standpoint. It is not the arrogant certainty of religion, but doubt. Doubt is inherently humble.
This statement is brilliant. I might even call it genious. Why? Simply because (and I stated this before) all religions, whether we acknowledge it or recognize it or not, teach that G’d – the ultimate Truth – is also ultimately unknowable.
There is no one that has faith so strong that they do not have doubt. We never know all there is to know, nor can we, for we are human. Doubt is indeed inherently humble, because it is the explicit and implicit acknowledgement that we don’t know all the answers, and this makes it virtuous.
It’s absolutely amazing how Maher gets to portray doubt as something virtuous. And that is what gives me even more interest in finding out why do we need and seek something called G’d, which is contrary to what Maher says, that we should grow up and “give up” religion before we destroy each other and ourselves. That is the line that got me thinking. Are we really going to destroy humanity with religion? Is that even possible? I mean, isn’t it that just contrary to what made us human anyway? We seek for something, for answers just beacuse of religion itself? Or? Our human heritage is actually based on religion. We are who we are and we can’t change it. But what we must find out, is how are we going to stop to treat religion as a weapon, because we do that constantly and rapidly.
My view on it all is that we need to teach people humanism, respect and agreement inside all religions. We need to eliminate stories of hate, humiliation and killing that produce all the fundamentalist ideas in the world today. Only with knowledge and teaching ourselves and our loved ones, we might achieve the ultimate religion of human kind and that is »knowing«. We must know. We shouldn’t be escaping and saying we don’t really care about all that. We need to learn history, only that how, we will be able to look and see into the future. If something bad was done before, why do we need to repeat it?
With doubt in virtual biased products of our daily lives, we get to the stage where we don’t get to sleep as happy customers, but those who raise questions. Only then will clerics see it’s over, we need to speak truth. Acknowledgement of history, facts, science and rationalism may lead to perfect score. We need to be relevant questioners. We need to know why, when and how. That is what makes us humans!
But there emerges the problem of it all and that’s oppression of those who ask. In Muslim, Christian and Jewish circles, you might have questions, but if there’s no rational answer, you shouldn’t doubt in written »truth«, but have faith. And that is the situation that eliminates progressive thinking and thinking outside the box.
What is faith? Is it certain? Is it rational? Is it moral, so to say? Or does it lead us to do unrational things? I mean, all the guys in the Casino’s have faith, don’t they? And instead of doing something normal, they have faith, the luck is on their side. So do religious masses, when they cheer that G’d is on their side and then go and kill couple of thousands of innocent people, blow up themselwes or strand their kids cos they thaught G’d spoke to them.
But when does religious faith become good and productive? When you believe, you will find an answer not through some mumbo jumbo or through some miracle and Holy Spirit, but through yourself. By educating and answering to yourself that there may be something outthere, but I really don’t think it had anything to do with the storm that hit me yesterday. Doubt and rational faith.
And no, G’d does not have mysterious ways and universe does not move in your direction if you’re being positive… You are the master of your body, time and timetable. If it hits you, it just did. Now go and study why!
While we as men, humanity are the ones we need to believe in and have faith. We are not G’d’s per se, but we might be constructors of something great and that is konwledge above all. And by knowing, I mean understanding, learning, tolerating. We must lean to that. That is our future after all.
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