Thoughts on Religion

So back in the saddle with this old chestnut as prompted by my new book "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. So what I want to write about here isnt so much what Hitchens says but my thoughts on the subject as prompted by reading both this book now and Richard Hawkins "The God Delusion" last year. So first starters, the first thing that occurs to me is both books are fairly angry books and both lack a little compassion and charity. This isnt however to say they dont make good points - for they both do - but they are both written in such a way that they could only ever really preach to the converted. If I think about religion on the large scale it seems to me to boil down to one essential point that seems to override all others. Religion for me I see as a construct that simply helps people cope with the scary concept of death. I say this because whenever I get into religious discussions with people it always, sometimes indirectly after a rambling narrative, comes back to this. It prompts a lot of questions from:

"what's the purpose of this life?"

First off who says it has to have a purpose? Does a cup of tea have a purpose? Is it to get drunk? Following this line of thought our purpose could be seen to be to act as fertilizer! From a strictly biological perspective our purpose is to pro create. Yet we as humans seem unhappy with so animalistic a motivation. Instead we have constructed ideas of knowledge, learning, wealth etc. that represent some way of keeping score. Whilst none of us really know lifes purpose it doesnt stop us making implicit assumptions all the time about what lifes purpose really is. Think about the phrase "he's done really well for himself". All this is is just a way of keeping score. Of saying such and such has done and typically either collected wealth or learning or something like that. Yet if you challenged people on this view I'm sure the vast majority would deny such a "shallow" world view. Of course the fact that we deny it doesnt mean its not true!

"what comes next?"

The ground, closely followed by the worms.

"don't you believe in life after death?"

See above!

"what about all the bad things that happen to people?"

Bad things happen. There's no hiding away from that. Likewise even though we try and impose our will on the world around us (with systems of government, laws etc.) its at best like trying to grasp sand. The world around us exceeds any system and controls we place on it. It's clear we struggle to come to terms with our real vulnerbility and find the true close proximity of chaos unerving - but this is all irrelevant as it doesnt change anything. Bad things happen to good people and bad. Perhaps the one true thing we can do by building good institutions and good codes of behavoir around us we can perhaps in some small way reduce the chance of bad things happening to us. For example the chance of bad things happening to us in a lawless society are many times that of things happening to us in a reasonable democracy.

"dont you believe we just have a soul?"

This is dangerous territory. The concept of soul is so wrapped up in religion its shake ground for anyone who considers themselves an aethiest to own up to. However anyone who has an appreciation of science knows that the probability of us having a firm grasp over the fundamental nature of everything around us right now is pretty small. So the concept of a soul I believe in is one that simply is something more than the biological understanding we have and understand right now. This isnt to say I believe in concepts of heaven or any form of afterlife that is divorced from your physical being. I believe when you go, you go and thats pretty much it apart from living on in peoples memories. And that in itself is really no bad thing. I lived, I existed, I loved people, I am remembered. That's enough.

"what happens when we die?"

As per above.