Religion, and my views thereof.
Might as well start off the blog with a contentious issue. I suppose I’ll scare away as many would-be readers as possible.
Let me tell you, I’ve tried to fathom religion. I’ve tried to wrap my head around it. I’ve tried and tried to understand how people can have faith in something with no evidence, and yet all of this introspection ends the same: in failure. I can conceive of situations where religion is beneficial, where it may help, but I refuse to accept that otherwise rational people believe in something just because they’re told to.
The Bible isn’t proof. If I wrote a book proclaiming myself prophet, few would accept its contents as truth. The only thing theists really have to go on — their holy texts — are easily faked. Throughout history, religion has served a purpose — it’s acted as a stopgap, a stand-in, a placeholder for things we could not understand, yet society has advanced far beyond a need for such a thing. Religion’s a holdover from an ancient time, one we refuse to let go of.
Nowadays, there are few unknowns that cannot realistically be solved with science. Things once unexplained have been answered, and every day we get smarter. There is but one great unknown we cannot fathom understanding yet, that which is death. Pessimists will tell you that cell death is inevitable, that we no longer think. Our minds forever lost, gone, our achievements and experiences too disappeared. Religion promises something else, it promises eternal paradise or bliss, perhaps even punishment. It instills within us hope for life beyond the end, and I believe this hope is dangerous.
Death is the ultimate end, no matter how you look at it. When someone or something dies, it’s passed the point of no return. As sad as it may be, there is nothing we can do. It’s natural. I think that belief of paradise or eternal life or what have you is harmful, inherently so. People who believe they’ll go to heaven are more likely to take risks, they’re more likely to act rashly. They’re less likely to value their own life above all else. All of these things are dangerous traits, traits that we can’t let spread.
Death is not something we can look forward to, nor is it something we cannot fear. By its very nature — the unknowable – we are terrified of it instinctually. Animals fear death, insects fear death. Everything alive today is afraid of death, and there’s nothing we can do to stop this or convince ourselves otherwise.
They’re afraid for a reason. There is no continuing after you die. You don’t start over and you don’t get to go to heaven. You’re forever lost, your mind stopped, your thoughts too ceased. A tragedy, but one we can do naught about.
