When they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
July 05, 2008 - 6:40 p.m.
I realized that I have to get a fairly early start tomorrow so I better update now. I'm going to see Janis Ian on Governor's Island. So far I’m going alone but I'm need to do something like that in any event. I am proud that I am actually charging my camera batteries so I'll be ready for tomorrow.
Right now I'm watching 1776. As you might guess I love that film. I am always impressed thinking about Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams; they were such extraordinary men. In the entire history of the country we've never had the intellectual equals of them in congress, at least not Franklin and Jefferson. I should read the correspondences that Jefferson and Adams had late in their lives. They spend their last years discussing philosophy and the nature of virtue. Can you imagine any two politicians doing that today?
Wow it is late. I better start writing about religion. It is even later now. As a matter of fact it is the next day. I'm not going to see Ms. Ian; the forecast is for rain. So now I'm updating while listening to Car Talk.
So guess what. Just as I wrote that last sentence Lena called me and I’m just now getting back to writing. It is late afternoon. I should be getting dinner started but I'll update first.
Speaking of dinner I did my first culinary experiment in a long time last night. I steamed my corn instead of boiling it. It worked out well and I think it is more energy efficient so that is what I'm going to do for now on. It is also supposed to be healthier.
Tonight's dinner is going to be extra good. Porterhouse steaks were on sale for half price and I bought a few. That's a rare treat for me. Of course now that I tenderize the round steaks with a mallet those are really good too when I make them blackened. I don't have a huge cooking repertoire but I enjoy everything I make and I don't get tired of it.
Wasn't I supposed to be talking about religion? Let me see what I wrote yesterday. Yes I was. What was I going to write? I'm just kidding I actually remember.
Wow I can't figure out the pronouns in the sentence I want to write. I bet if I just wrote it you'd understand but it offends my sense of clarity. I know I'll say it first with the ambiguous pronouns then write it the way I would if I were doing a math proof. Yes that is totally absurd and I wouldn't do that in real life but it is exactly what I'd be thinking.
Have you ever noticed how freely people tell other people what their religion really mean?
Now in mathematicalese. Let R1 and R2 be two religions groups. There are people P1 who believe in R1 that tell people P2 that believe in R2 means what religion R2 really means.
That probably totally confused most of you but was as clear as a bell to me. Now back to what I really want to say.
Now the thing is that even though I think they are being ridiculous I often have more sympathy for P1 than P2. The case I always think about first is those that say, "Terrorism is unIslamic: Islam is a religion of peace." He might be a horrible person but I feel safe in saying that Osama Bin Laden knows more about Islam than the Christians and Jews I hear saying that. You hear it amongst Jews and Christians too. People will say how Judaism or Christianity doesn't condemn homosexuality. Now I'm not saying that Bin Laden and the homophobes are right. I’m not even saying they are right about the way they interpret their religion. What I'm saying is that they aren't wrong about the way the interpret them because there is no right or wrong interpretation. Even if god existed he isn't arbitrating these disagreements. Believers are all like Humpty Dumpty and their religions mean exactly what they think they mean, neither more nor less. I don't see any real point in making arguments from the text; usage is what matters. For instance all the Torah says is that you should knot eat lamp boiled it its mother's milk. That got interpreted into not mixing meat and dairy products and that is what people that keep kosher do. Most of them know that isn't what it says but that doesn't make a difference. Now when it comes to ritual questions like that it is of no import to the rest of the world. It makes a big difference when it comes to terrorism or how people are treated. Once the discussion is in the secular sphere that is where the arguments need to be made.
So now I’m going to tell you what your religion means. OK I am not. I am going to say an unintended consequence of religion. As I always point out most people are functional atheists, they don't make real world decisions based on their religious beliefs. And even among those that do I have no problem as long as they don't try and force their views on the rest of the world. Is there a name for people that believe like that? Non-theocrats? The thing is though that non-theocratic believers provide a cover for those that do want the world to follow their views. If someone says that their position on an issue is based on what ghosts told them they would not be taken seriously but if someone says it is based on their religion they are. What's the difference? It is the aura of respectability that religion has. It is in fact considered more respectable than non-religion.
So what do I propose doing about it? Writing this entry. That's about it. I often want to throw things at the professional atheists. Sure it makes me feel good to read someone saying just what I believe. The thing is that it can be counter productive. You never get someone to change their beliefs by attacking the believers. All I ask for is tolerance. Right now most people in the US would not vote for an atheist. That isn't good. Telling them that they are stupid yahoos is not going to make them feel any better about atheists. What needs to be done is to point out the common ground and disabuse them of false notions. The problem that many people have with atheism is that they think it means giving up on morality too. What is needed is to show that there are other ways of deciding what is good and evil than following the dictates of a religion and that there are some things that people will never come to a total agreement on. What atheists should be pointing out is that we have lower divorce, suicide and crime rates than the general population. We are at least as honest and virtuous as believers.
Now I really have to be going. I want to eat and then maybe go to the movies tonight. I want to see Prince Caspian.
Anais Nin ... - July 11, 2008
Much of Wise Madness Less of Sin - July 09, 2008
Confessions of a Liberal - July 08, 2008
Abbie and Anthony and Gene and Isabel and a lot of friends I won't name - July 07, 2008
Cinderella and Other Myths - July 06, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile July 05, 2008
