My essay on religion

my two biggest questions concerning religion, now with discovered answers

I think it may be useful to first give a context on this topic. Around 6months ago, I kind of started questioning everything, and religion of course emerged, at the moment I kind of rejected my own religion (christianity, also born in a very religious family) and started reading a bunch of other religions (more buddhism because also it has some very deep spiritual insights). 3 months ago I had this huge realization (that now looking back, it seemed very obvious) that I wasn’t looking for question my default religion (christianity), but I was looking for search for the true meaning of religion and its impact on ordinary people. At that moment I understood that the questions wasn’t “why am I christian?” but yes “why am I religious”

Unfortunately I noticed in a lot of my family and also friends that they were religious by default (also represents +80% of religious people) and they never really question their religion or even the entire concept of religion.

Me: “Why are you religious?”

Friend: “Uhmmmm…….not sure actually”

Fortunately for me we live in an age where we can literally know EVERYTHING about religion (or other topics of course), even thought is impossible.

In the very beginning of this “discovery” o had 2 bug questions, and now after a lot of hours reading and reading about religion, I think I now know the answers!

“Why and when did religion emerged?”

The oldest every “organized faith” is Zoroastrianism (the first ever religion!) that emerged 1000 years before Christ (BC). I think it was inevitable to religion to emerged, religion gives people meaning and many times reason to everything (even thought is anti scientific),

Old pour lady: “ohhh, why am I going through so much pain?!?!”

Religious person: “everything will be alright Beth, your struggles will be rewarded at the end! He’s preparing you”

Morality came wayyyy earlier than religion, a while ago, people understood that if they cooperated and worked for a greater objective they would be happier and more fulfilled so they developed morality. After that, religion emerged as a kind of way to globalize morality, but the problem with morality is that (fortunately) there are hundreds of moral codes, so there’s never a right one.

The development of religion became inevitable when humans gained the capacity for remorse and began to ask “what happens when we die”

In this sense, religion was very useful in the beginning to “explain” our existence. But in the last ~80years great advancements in science have gone a long way in explaining our existence. What was before only the role of religion, is now also informed by science (great!). But the real difference between the way that science and religion explain fundamental questions is comfort, science doesn’t comfort people.

What happens when you die?

science: “your body rots in the ground and is eaten by worms and vermin unless it simply decays first due to bacterial fermentation”

religion: “you live in the life eternal in absolute perfection in heaven with jesus”

Why did you child get cancer?

science: “0.01% of children get this particular form of cancer. unfortunately, that is still 1 out of 10,000. yours was the 1”

religion: “none of us can fathom God's true plan or purpose or why we suffer. it is why we are mortals. you must have faith that there is a reason for everything, that God has a plan for your child and that that plan is now being manifested in a way that will bring unimagined joy to you and your child for eternity. your child is truly one of God's angels”

People will not let go of their religions because it still provides the best reason to exist and endure through our harsh circumstances. Paradoxically, the more reasonable and scientific you are, the more you’ll ignore your own religion religion. People who are religion fundamentalism kind of shut their critical thinking and do exactly what their religion tells them to do. Reasonable religious people always seem to me to be intellectually dishonest with themselves (I am not trying to be condescending, although I might sound like it). One of my biggest problems with religion is that it tell us not to use our brains (it punishes critical thinking). Since its from GOD, what ever is in the book must be true because the book states it true and its the only religion and other religions are shit. So in my opinion religion and science are in a big conflict and for the better or the worse, science is winning, I mean, it’s absolute possible to be religious and reasonable but in some situations you won’t be critical or question some default beliefs. Societies evolve and while in early tribes you could be the smart guy and say “do this or that bear will kill you” (they saw god as a more physical entity), nowadays modern religions usually base their god(s) in some metaphysical space that can't be travelled to or seen (except, usually, after death). Religion tells people it has the answers. science tells people to go out and find the answers (and also science tells people when someone says they have the answer to be skeptical and make sure it is verified!)

“Do we need religion?”

This was probably the question that I had more trouble to really try to answer it. On one hand, without an organized religion an organized society would be impossible. We would still live in tribal cultures with tribal population smaller than 150 members (dunbar number). Religion is the only way to overcome the dunbar number. Humans began to settle on larger units only after the invention of proto-polytheism. The reason is that proto-polytheism enables the cooperation between humans who do not know each other - it creates a common value basis and a ruleset for behaviour. You no longer kill a person you do not know before he kills you. You communicate with him. Religion creates trust - and without trust, no society can function. And the trust enables cooperation. People have evolved to fit into social hierarchies. Our survival as a species has been fostered by interdependence. Interdependence requires mechanisms to mediate competing needs and desires. Hierarchical social structure appears to have become the default mode of organization for man. This is obvious when one looks at any human organization, government, company, social club, etc. We don’t need religion. We need social structure. Religion provides one such structure that is compatible with the human predilection for social hierarchy. By having a god at the top, it plays on the evolutionarily inbred preference for having a single leader. On the other hand (more individually), we can totally just know things. We don’t need someone to tell us what is write or wrong (morality emerged before religion). Nowadays I think religion is loosing a lot of power, probably also related with the fact that we’re living the time of biggest scientific improvements. Also, religion is and ideology and religion being an ideology is a problem. When people embrace an ideology they abandone reason, ideologies come with assertions that are accepted as facts, and ideologues (like religious people) tend to not questions those assertions and defend them (abandoning reason and shut their critical thinking).

Here’s my favourite quotes regarding religion:

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful”

Seneca

“Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right”

H. L. Mencken

“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car”

Garrison Keillor

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart”

Mahatma Gandhi