By definition, its an evolutionarily maladaptive trait, even before you get into tithes and time spent.
That right there is exactly the thing I am talking about. Where does he get off saying that something I find to be a great source of meaning, connection, comfort, ideas, challenge, etcetera, is maladaptive?
Look. Religion is the way people make sense of our inability to (personally, though perhaps not as a species as a whole) understand the whole of the universe, or control all our surroundings. Religion is how we cope with the unknown (and, perhaps, the unknowable). Religion is far more than 'god-vs.-no-god,' or any organized authoritative structure. And yes, some specific forms of that basic human impulse to come to terms with the world can become maladaptive, but to call the whole thing a waste because of some bad apples is like saying science is maladaptive because, you know, it produced the atomic bomb and there are always jerks who falsify results.
And anyway, atheism is a religion. It is a form of response to the immensity of the universe, and the question of why bad things happen, and so on and so forth. That is a religion, by definition. Also, I think atheism is amazingly preoccupied with god, in a way agnosticism is not, because atheism is focused (whether by design, or simply by accident of naming) on the question of god's existence. Agnostics can say, "I don't know," and get on with our lives and more interesting questions.
Also, Unitarian Univesalist religious education is pretty easygoing. We have, in fact, been accused of running a course in comparative world religions rather than teaching kids anything about their own (at least for the moment) religion. Basically, we say that the important thing is values, and that you find your own truth. If your truth is a traditional Western deistic faith, that's great. If it's strict atheism, that's great too. So long as it works for you, and you don't impose your views on those around you, we are glad to be in community with you and help you on your journey, as you, presumably, will help us on ours. The search and the community are the important things -- and putting values into practice by helping people in other ways as well.
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Date: 2009-10-28 11:28 pm (UTC)That right there is exactly the thing I am talking about. Where does he get off saying that something I find to be a great source of meaning, connection, comfort, ideas, challenge, etcetera, is maladaptive?
Look. Religion is the way people make sense of our inability to (personally, though perhaps not as a species as a whole) understand the whole of the universe, or control all our surroundings. Religion is how we cope with the unknown (and, perhaps, the unknowable). Religion is far more than 'god-vs.-no-god,' or any organized authoritative structure. And yes, some specific forms of that basic human impulse to come to terms with the world can become maladaptive, but to call the whole thing a waste because of some bad apples is like saying science is maladaptive because, you know, it produced the atomic bomb and there are always jerks who falsify results.
And anyway, atheism is a religion. It is a form of response to the immensity of the universe, and the question of why bad things happen, and so on and so forth. That is a religion, by definition. Also, I think atheism is amazingly preoccupied with god, in a way agnosticism is not, because atheism is focused (whether by design, or simply by accident of naming) on the question of god's existence. Agnostics can say, "I don't know," and get on with our lives and more interesting questions.
Also, Unitarian Univesalist religious education is pretty easygoing. We have, in fact, been accused of running a course in comparative world religions rather than teaching kids anything about their own (at least for the moment) religion. Basically, we say that the important thing is values, and that you find your own truth. If your truth is a traditional Western deistic faith, that's great. If it's strict atheism, that's great too. So long as it works for you, and you don't impose your views on those around you, we are glad to be in community with you and help you on your journey, as you, presumably, will help us on ours. The search and the community are the important things -- and putting values into practice by helping people in other ways as well.