Post by Maddalo on May 11, 2004 17:27:04 GMT -5
Having read the history of the main world religions and been brought up with the bible drummed into me, by the time I was about 15 I decided that the only realistic position for humanity to take is Agnosticism.
Despite what so many people believe there is no logical reason why we should live our lives according to the words written by people in a time so remote and different from our own. Sure there are similarities, and a continuity with the past - that's our common human feelings and hopes, desires etc.
There are great ideas and very sensible laws included in all the religious texts but most of them are innate feelings that are enshrined in law, and anyway they are just common sense - the ten commandments are mostly just widely held human beliefs.
The only thing we need to do is to distill all religions down to a simple phrase - treat others as you would like to be treated. It's that simple to live a happy life.
The three main religions are based on books of dubious authorship written at a time when polytheism was the predominant position - they were all minorities at first.
Also, the pagan beliefs, although fantastic and to some today ridiculous are not so far from from what many people insist is fact as recorded in the bible.
All these beliefs were tolerated together and there was less religious fanaticism in the early Roman Empire than today (the Jewish rebellions being excaptional). It was later when Christinaity became powerful when clashes between pagans and Christians divided the Roman world.
Why should we believe in the resurrection of Jesus any more than the return from Hades of Alcestis?
Why should we believe more in Noah's ark than in Deucalion and Phyrra?
As Shelley once wrote (I quote from memory) 'it is more probable that men would lie and deceive than that things out of the order of nature should happen'.
Experience of life tells us that lying is a human foible all too prevalent and thus much more likely than other-worldly miracles.
Religion not only provides people with uneccessary practises, (eating restrictions, fasts, contraceptive bans) but also divides an already divided world.
It is enough that we live in different climates, have different coloured skins, and political systems, one more barrier of difference just takes us further from our universal human inheritence - the fact that we are one species.
Despite what so many people believe there is no logical reason why we should live our lives according to the words written by people in a time so remote and different from our own. Sure there are similarities, and a continuity with the past - that's our common human feelings and hopes, desires etc.
There are great ideas and very sensible laws included in all the religious texts but most of them are innate feelings that are enshrined in law, and anyway they are just common sense - the ten commandments are mostly just widely held human beliefs.
The only thing we need to do is to distill all religions down to a simple phrase - treat others as you would like to be treated. It's that simple to live a happy life.
The three main religions are based on books of dubious authorship written at a time when polytheism was the predominant position - they were all minorities at first.
Also, the pagan beliefs, although fantastic and to some today ridiculous are not so far from from what many people insist is fact as recorded in the bible.
All these beliefs were tolerated together and there was less religious fanaticism in the early Roman Empire than today (the Jewish rebellions being excaptional). It was later when Christinaity became powerful when clashes between pagans and Christians divided the Roman world.
Why should we believe in the resurrection of Jesus any more than the return from Hades of Alcestis?
Why should we believe more in Noah's ark than in Deucalion and Phyrra?
As Shelley once wrote (I quote from memory) 'it is more probable that men would lie and deceive than that things out of the order of nature should happen'.
Experience of life tells us that lying is a human foible all too prevalent and thus much more likely than other-worldly miracles.
Religion not only provides people with uneccessary practises, (eating restrictions, fasts, contraceptive bans) but also divides an already divided world.
It is enough that we live in different climates, have different coloured skins, and political systems, one more barrier of difference just takes us further from our universal human inheritence - the fact that we are one species.
