Random Thoughts on Religion

(cleaning out some notes I had jotted down. Now I’m putting them here instead)

Religion needs to die because people don’t look for solutions when they think they already have one.

We need to accept that we are all on a rock together, hurdling through space, and that we are alone save each other.

It is this realization, and the acceptance of it’s implications, that makes available the option of a humanistic approach to life. And humanism is the pursuit of a better understanding of history, and science, and philosophy, so that we may reduce suffering and increase happiness.

Without a humanist outlook, people are committed to the answers they already have.

Rather than search for solution to life’s problems they simply refer back to the ways in which anyone who has a problem is deviating from the prescribed path.

A humanist says this etheopian boy is starving, and we need to enumerate the reasons and find a solution. The Christian says he needs Jesus.

They’re full cups. People with the answer. And since they have the answer already they can’t get behind any movement where the goal is to find answers.

This is why religion hinders progress. It tells people that the search for a better way to live is over, and that all that remains is acceptance of dogma.