Australia shedding religion from their culture, "No Religion" is now primary belief.
Australia shedding religion from their culture, "No Religion" is now primary belief.
As much as I respect other's views on faith and recognize for many it brings structure and direction to a mundane existence, I also recognize that religion has been at the root of most of the wars going back to the beginning of recorded history. The balance between the positives (societal good and ethical standards of living) vs the negative consequences (societal upheaval, caste systems, etc...) is difficult to measure and one could make logical/reasonable arguments on either side of the "debate". That said, I have no faith in any religion, but I do have faith in some sort of higher power or systematic order (how else could math define the natural systems around us so beautifully and in so many cases).
Again, I mean no disrespect and there is room for plenty of opinions on this matter. What are your thoughts?
The Aussies Ive met in my travels have been warm and friendly.
Religion had taught to condemn people who did not conform to certain rules or religious values. Divorcees, homosexuals, and unwed parents are some examples of these who are ostracized.
No one goes into a marriage wanting it to fail, homosexual people are honest about who they are attracted to and unwed parents aren't just teens who didn't use condoms but can also be long term couples who don't see value in marriage.
However because people are beginning to be more open minded towards others I think we are seeing that you should not judge people straight away and get to know the person first.
I like Aussies, they give you the benefit of the doubt and don't let theirs or your beliefs get in the way of beginning a friendship.
Religion seems to require one to be judgmental in order to be "faithful". Definitely some hypocrisy mixed in with most of them.
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
I really need to move to Australia...
Patience brother, I believe we are slowly transitioning into an era were the majority of the free world has shed it's religious baggage.
I think so too, but it's quite the slow process ;)
I think this is great news. Religion promotes belief without evidence which by itself leads to a lot of wrong things. On top of this most religions come with some insidious ideas that make people and society worse instead of better.
I also wonder, why do you believe in a higher power at all. You realize that the "how else" thing is a recognized logical fallacy, right?
I think there is a primordial need to believe in something greater than ourselves. Maybe it's simply an innate evolutionary design/trait that has allowed us / prevented us from screwing each other over. Potentially, it is simply an illusion we talk ourselves into.
However, it does seem too often that things just work out in a manner that is too predictable to simply be random chance. Then again, evolution would also explain some of the predictability.
I don't know that anyone can say with certainty that the concept of a "higher power" is false, we are learning to re-engineer life as I write this, not a great leap in "faith" to assume we'll someday be able to create "life". When we do, we would be the "higher power" who designed the new life and the systems in which they exist - could this not be our reality today?
That's a psychological phenomenon that is common in all kinds of animals, not just humans. It's called confirmation bias. We notice the things that make sense and ignore the things that don't. From an evolutionary standpoint, we have evolved to find patterns and we are so good at that that we find patterns in places where they simply don't exists. We recognize this
:)as a smiling face for a very similar reason.Generally speaking, proving something doesn't exists is not something you can do. You can not prove that lepricaunts don't exists, you cannot prove that ferries don't exists, you cannot prove that unicorns don't exists and you cannot prove that the flying spaghetti monster doesn't exist. But with all of those things, the right question in my opinion is not if they exists, but if it is rational to assume they do. I think that a belief that is accepted without evidence is simply not rational. You might not be able to confirm with 100% certainly that a higher power does not exists, but it is not rational to assume it does in the absence of any evidence to support that.
Many contradicting things could be true. That's why we should not assume any of them until we have evidence that would help me determine which if any of the options we might be aware of is likely. Otherwise, chances are we would be assuming the wrong thing.
If we create life, would we really be the higher power that you are otherwise describing?
And another question. You say you believe in a higher power. What are its attributes in your view?
You've reeducated me, fine sir. Confirmation Bias being a concept I've learned and forgotten. More importantly, it absolutely explains away all of my comments above. Nicely done and thank you.
The one thing I would add to the conversation...
We should not assume, but we should absolutely imagine any and all things until / so that we can prove them right/wrong. That is the nature of discovery, invention and innovation. Nothing is possible without first being hypothesized.
"Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." A. Einstein
I'm very glad to hear that! :)
You are right, imagination is quite important. A very fitting quote!
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