Post by Argent'horn on Oct 20, 2009 16:31:24 GMT -5
This is a response to a post from a week ago (October 13, 2009) on Dar Kush. The question Steve raised there was whether God or religion was needed to develop and maintain a moral or ethical code of behavior. This is a common question, which many Christians of my acquaintance try to use to prove that we non Christians are missing something, somehow.
It occurs to me that the key fact is that gods/goddesses and religions are inventions of human beings, and are best seen in this light. The invention of gods/goddesses and religion may be biologically based, like the use of language or walking upright. So far as I know, no human culture forgoes these "inventions." It is not provable that gods or goddesses or any other divinity has any existence outside our subjective experience. Nor, I would argue, need they have any such "objective" existence.
Thus, the question of whether a religion of some sort is necessary for the development of a moral code or ethical system, is probably: Technically, no, but why bother? Just as walking upright is not necessary for locomotion, one can move about dragging oneself by ones arms everywhere, and one can manage this even if his/her legs are missing, it is simpler for most of us to use legs for locomotion and to use religion for constructing moral/ethical systems.
This need not imply that religious beliefs have, or need ot have, any objective reality, any more than perfect circles or infinite dimensional vector spaces have any objective existence. They are convenient, beautiful, and profoundly useful fictions, all alike.
It does seem that the creation of deities and the accompanying religions is a biological trait of humans, just as is the use of language. I am not aware of any society that does not use language, and not many that don't have a religion. It is, of course, dangerous when people do not acknowledge that their religion, whatever it may be, is based in a fictionsl creation. Yes, it is profoundly meaningful and useful. I am certainly not proposing that we eliminate it, just that we acknowledge what it is and stop trying to get others to adopt our own particular religious faith/mythology/practice.
The same is true of those who try to convince others that all religions are useless and harmful superstitions. They are not getting the point, either.
It occurs to me that the key fact is that gods/goddesses and religions are inventions of human beings, and are best seen in this light. The invention of gods/goddesses and religion may be biologically based, like the use of language or walking upright. So far as I know, no human culture forgoes these "inventions." It is not provable that gods or goddesses or any other divinity has any existence outside our subjective experience. Nor, I would argue, need they have any such "objective" existence.
Thus, the question of whether a religion of some sort is necessary for the development of a moral code or ethical system, is probably: Technically, no, but why bother? Just as walking upright is not necessary for locomotion, one can move about dragging oneself by ones arms everywhere, and one can manage this even if his/her legs are missing, it is simpler for most of us to use legs for locomotion and to use religion for constructing moral/ethical systems.
This need not imply that religious beliefs have, or need ot have, any objective reality, any more than perfect circles or infinite dimensional vector spaces have any objective existence. They are convenient, beautiful, and profoundly useful fictions, all alike.
It does seem that the creation of deities and the accompanying religions is a biological trait of humans, just as is the use of language. I am not aware of any society that does not use language, and not many that don't have a religion. It is, of course, dangerous when people do not acknowledge that their religion, whatever it may be, is based in a fictionsl creation. Yes, it is profoundly meaningful and useful. I am certainly not proposing that we eliminate it, just that we acknowledge what it is and stop trying to get others to adopt our own particular religious faith/mythology/practice.
The same is true of those who try to convince others that all religions are useless and harmful superstitions. They are not getting the point, either.
