Is there a place for religion in our society ?
Here are my 2 cents.
The need for belief is intrinsic to mankind. We believe in things, it is inevitable. We believe in science. Science tells us something is one way or another, and we believe it… or not. That is belief, we believe what goes up must come down, that is belief. We believe killing is bad… or good… or neither, that is belief. So, if we can agree that we believe… in something, we are half way to understanding what reliegion is. A system of belief that defines the world from the standpoint of higher purpouse, something a lot of people want or need in their life. Also a set of morals that are the basis for civilisation let´s not forget that. Nothing affects and has affected morals as much as religion.
The problem as I see it is that people that believe in religion are mostly believing in roughly 2000 year old ideas (Christ: 2000 yrs, Krishna: ca. 3000 years, Buddha: 2600 years, Mohammed: 1400 years). And a lot of these ideas and beliefs simply do not work well with other advances humankind has made in the past 2000 years. But I wonder what it takes for us to actually renew those ideas. I´m sure there are plenty of people out there who would like to claim that ‘god speaks to them’ but what do we
label them as ? And do we listen ?
The spiritual evolution of man has long been a question I have pondered. What does it take ? We can, for the most part at least, agree that there are many things on our little planet that could fare better. Grave injustices committed by leaders of nations against people unable to defend themselves. Vast technologically advanced armies slaughtering unarmed civillians. Desicions made only with short term benefits in mind bringing about catastrophies in the long run. World hunger and starvation through uneven distribution of wealth. Abuse of power, countless ‘crimes’. The reason they are called ‘crimes’ is because they do not ‘jive’ with the set of morals taught to us by what ? Religion.
Religion seems to fill a spiritual blank spot in the human psyche. But our ideas sorely need to evolve. How this happens I am not sure, I wish I knew, I wish I could do something to grab the attention of the entire human race at once and shake them from the core of their beings. As it is I am restricted to one person at a time.
Do we need religion ? I say both yes and no, we need GOOD BELIEFS we DON´T NEED CRUSADES ! If religion is something that endorses more bloodshed, justifies more injustice and simply causes more suffering then TO HELL WITH IT ! But it is and has been something infinetely more profound than that for so many people, therefore we can not condemn it completely. But as I said: we need to evolve, it´s that simple. We are no longer monkeys in the trees, nor are we Adam and Eve in Eden. We have much more responsibility today, toward our fellow humans and toward our planet. Responsibilities that we are neglecting.
WAKE UP !
Ever heard this before ? Yes, this message is part of the natural order of things, call it evolution or call it religion, I don´t care ! smile
Ulfu