It is time to give religion a well deserved rest. The kind of organized, tradition enriched, communal religion with its set repertoire of mores and ethos that fragments society rather than enlightens it. We need to give it a rest.
What was the original point of religion anyway? As I have mentioned in a previous post, it originally evolved as human consciousness evolved and as set group of people geographically isolated, ascribed to the same set of prefabricated ‘beliefs’ and inculcated them into everyday life, not just philosophically, but into the mundane as well. It served well, for few hundreds of years, as it created a moral framework of ‘right’ actions and threat of consequences for ‘wrong’ ones that sort of kept the society in harmony, albeit at the cost of intellectual freedom.
Religions, as they stand now, do for the most part, foster beliefs and ethos, that go against simple logic. Yet, people stick to them in the name of tradition or for a fear of peer or moralistic rebuttal. Is it necessary to hang to antediluvian religions that claim that there is a super ‘man’ somewhere ‘up there’ who one day decided to create man and then everything else for his benefit including women , or that women need to shroud themselves head to toe so as to not allure men, just to give a few examples? Yet, we hang on to these, or parts thereof, as a child who clings to his blanket and pacifier.
More dangerous than innocuous beliefs that are merely illogical, are the off shoots of these religions that cultivate hatred, fanaticism and cults. Kids brainwashed from a young age, their thoughts so molded that they lose their capacity for independent thought.
Religion as a spiritual outlet does not have to be communal, neither does it have to be shrouded in superstition and irrelevant mores. Religion can be a personal philosophical journey, each to his or her own. Neither impinging on nor decreeing what others should think. Laws, independent of religions, already exist, as a safeguard against self destruction in the saner societies. Religions if they do have to exist, should not decree laws of the land as in the pre-dark ages era. Religion should merely be one’s personal spiritual journey, if you will, and free of intellectual restrictions.
What can be more dangerous to human survival than loss of independent thinking? As human consciousness evolved so did thought and premeditated actions. Natural selection as an evolutionary safety net is being over-ridden. Humans now decree, independent of biological processes, as to which life forms including which humans survive and which do not. We cannot take this evolutionary responsibility lightly. And to base those decisions on religions, old and jaded, is pure self-destruction.
Nice to see you make the distinction between organized religion and the personal. Although, you say, “Religion can be a personal philosophical journey, each to his or her own.” Sure we can have a personal journey, but we have no choice. Everyone — even those claiming to go strictly by some written word — has their own. The personal religion may be filled with valid observations or falsehoods, or some mixture. Everyone believes some things; no one can survive believing nothing.
Precisely!! check out https://thenakedsoul.org/2016/12/14/the-world-is-flat/