As somebody who has spent years studying logic and mathematics for most things in life I believe there is a logical explanation behind any ambiguous topic. The last time I went into a church for something other than a wedding or funeral was when I was in junior school.
Despite this, belief is something I believe is an essential tool in life to answer the questions are beyond the reach of science. Such questions best answered through religion include how did life on earth start or what happens to us when we die. Religious teachings offer a solution to these impossible questions that would otherwise drive us insane trying to answer.
Spiritual answers also help us through some of lives tough occurrences such as the passing of a loved one. Without the concept of a higher being death can be something that we struggle to come to terms with. Scientific reasoning doesn’t always provide comforting answers.
What is the point in life?
Perhaps the biggest question that science will never be able to answer is why are we even here in the first place, what is the point in out lives. There are many different answers to this question. Unlike science where everything needs rigorous proof, religious writings need no proof: they are proof in themselves.
This is a point that causes much dispute in the world, people believing different truths will lead to disagreement. Many a war has been fought, and continues to be fought over these differing beliefs. Interestingly the fighting contradicts teachings (at least in the bible) that violence is a sin.
None of these religious texts are right or wrong, there is no concrete answer here. Anyone’s justification for life is as valid as the next persons. A concept which in itself permits the ability to give answers for those unanswerable questions.
It is useful to be able to answer to this question, without knowing, how could we ever get fulfilment from our lives if the purpose is not known in the first place? I hope this post has provided as many questions than answers.
2 comments:
Sorry but I really can't agree with this, To start off with religion provides guesses, not answers. If religious teachings offer a solution to the problems we try to solve then why bother looking for an alternative? Can I just close my eyes and wish upon a star? Just make up some piss poor explanation of something that can't be verified? Then why bother with evidence and proof at all? Does wanting something to be true make it true.
Religion is just too half arsed for me. I mean lets take Christianity, the main premise of it is that Jesus "died for our sins" or more specifically original sin brought about through Adam and Eve, talking snakes apples all that fun stuff. It's now known that this creation story can't be true. Modern Christianity views the creation story as an allegory, but now we have a problem as Jesus died for something that didn't happen.
If a book "proves" something but has to defer to it's self as the proof of its claims then it hasn't verified those claims. If I self proclaim to be France am I now France? it just isn't proof.
Last thing I'm going to rant on about :)
Have you read the Bible? I've not gone through all of it but a big enough chunk to find it abhorrent.
"None of these religious texts are right or wrong" They are all mutually exclusive and state that they are. Sticking with Christianity, the only way to be saved is to except Jesus as your lord and saviour. The punishment for not doing is hell fire forever. I don't remember the verse and line but if you ask a fundamentalist Christian they should be able to verify that happily. So it isn't really open to grey areas, at best one religion (including all mythology too) is right and more probably non of them are.
Anyway sorry about the massive rant and all, I just had to respond to it :)
No need to apologise, I'm always open to understanding different points of view, allows me reflect on things that I do not have a full appreciation or understanding of.
Looking at it from a purely non-religious view, I appreciate that clearly religious texts are mostly (if not entirely) made up, opinion based and holes can be picked in various statements contained within them.
Indeed when we choose to believe if something true, is different from actually making it true. However in situations such as a death there will never be a proven answer to what happens to our sprit in the afterlife, if anything at all. The point I was expressing was that religious beliefs give us (as individuals) comfort when there is no possible proof.
In the case of the bible I guess I overlooked that accepting Jesus as your lord and saviour was crucial to for being accepted in the after-life. I guess my theory is that in countries such as the UK and USA despite the decline in numbers of church followers people still look to unproven beliefs (beliefs that may actually differ from that which are written in religious texts) to provide answers to difficult questions in life. I guess I was looking at it from an individual view rather than a universal world one. I hope that explains my thoughts a little better. I'm not a religious 'follower', in fact this is really the first time I've ever really gone into anything deep at all about religious issues, really it is a bit of a topic that is a new chain of thought for me.
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