"Religion teaches us..."
"What we learn from religion is..."
How many times have we seen these phrases or something similar? I have an idea, let's stop using them, because they are invariably followed by some inane ramblings that are either nonsensical, untrue, or both. For example:
'Religion teaches us about our relationship to god.'
Really? It teaches us something that's nonsensical and completely fabricated? And, whose religion? How does anyone know that the claims made by this religion are true or make sense? They don't? Oh, I see.
If we are being honest, there's nothing we can claim that we learn from religion or that we've been taught by religion, as religion is nothing more than made up claims that talk about nonsensical ideas that can not actually be evaluated. We may as well claim that religion has taught us that yjujkfdi saiojnn snoaing as that makes just as much sense as any claims to made-up invisible sky faeries and our relationships to them. Let's expunge these phrases from our lexicon for truth's sake.
3 comments:
the peace and meditation of buddhist monks is passed on generation to generation, a real and tangible thing if you observe the findings of modern neuro-science, but I always looked at buddhism as a philosophy and not a religion. the ideologies of christianity are also taught and handed down from one to another and go far beyond a magical faery in the sky; surely you must agree there is some merit in phrases like 'love one another'?
Made up verses about loving one another or meditation practices were not learned from religion. Religion may propagate ideas (mostly bad and for bad reasons), but it is not the source of any of our knowledge. Buddhism did not invent meditation as Xianity did not invent the idea of morality.
Religion is always claiming credit for things that are merely innate features of being human.
Anonymous, are you actually claiming that humans need to be taught, by religion, how to love? Or that, without mythology, we would not understand the concept of human love?
Those are absurd ideas. Human love is an innate, instinctual feature of our success as a social species.
We've been loving and supporting the efforts of the other members of our clan FAR LONGER than we've been making up complex mythologies about the personalities we imagine to have created our world.
Loving and cooperating with one's family is a much simpler, much more basic human idea than the abstract ideas behind creation myths.
In fact, I would imagine that child care has something to do with the collecting and simplifying of creation myth. Loving and caring for one's child results in a need to explain the world in simple, story-like terms.
Loving the child comes first. Telling him creation stories derives from that.
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