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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>></FONT>One of those "ah-ha" moments that I had
25+ years ago involved someone wise (I'm unsure of </DIV>
<DIV>>the precise individual now) saying, "Never take away someones belief
system unless you are </DIV>
<DIV>>willing to replace it with an alternative." <BR><FONT face=Arial
size=2>></FONT><BR>>I still think that is a wise observation after many
many years.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I started to come to this conclusion on my own when
I was 20 or 21 - genuinely, which so few agnostics are I suspect.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would alter it perhaps to "Never take away
someone's belief system unless they're willing to accept yours"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Science is not only not accepted by the
people being forced away from religion, it openly admits it's flawed
in what it can offer them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now that last bit needs clarification. It's flawed
in regards to not offering immediate and ultimate salvation, not it's short
term. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>And that's a point I was going to make
about the commandments.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't think it's so much the commandments of
religion that attracts people to it. It's the element of passing blame and
responsibility, getting rid of death and having to feel personally responsible,
all things that really drag at the heels of an idiot like me.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The idea of buying, trading, bartering, whatever
you want to call it, is fixed hard into our minds. The commandments of regular
religion act almost like 'buying credits' for people to trade their way towards
the more positive elements. In the same way that some people will pay for an
object and others will just steal it, people will do the same with religion.
Most Westerns steal it, in that they're religious but don't go to church or
pray, or really obey the commandments. Then they feel embarassed and make
token gestures towards it just in case. Fundamentalists are the other
extreme and will pray a multiple of times per day perhaps. But even still, the
price they pay for the item they receive is still cheap.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It also helps that the commandments are things
that, particularly back when they were invented for christians, were and still
are almost universally accepted as positive for the group's welfare - no killing
each other or lying, etc.</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>Science on the other hand, offers no promise of salvation or excuses
from responsibility. Further, every step you take along the very long path it
takes to get to be a 'believer' in it's potential to offer some form of
salvation (as we are) seems to have little immediate gain to the majority. It's
complex stuff that needs interweaving and memory space, formulas and ideas that
don't seem to mean anything on their own - you need to know about a whole load
of other empirical findings for it to start clicking into place in the web
that will allow you to form long term predictions. None of which is necessary
for standard religion, you just choose it and you're done.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Then you have science that routinely sets deadlines for when to expect
things to happen, that don't emerge on time. So when the next scientist says
"we'll have hover cars by then", they get laughed at by the people who are
waiting to ride the golden elevator to heaven, who've heard the same thing over
and over and not seen it happen. The bible is very careful of setting specific
dates to hold events to, it's all on the promise of someday.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There also seems to be some form of disconnect that occurs in standard
religion, whereby the events and promises are so extreme and so desired, that
people can more easily disconnect the need to actually make predictions on
their likelyhood - it's too complex (like people don't enjoy thinking about
the combinations on lottery balls). You can say something similar with science,
that one day decades from now we might have life extension techniques that can
keep us alive for centuries. But to the people who are approaching death now,
that, combined with the factor of promises not being kept to (and probably
other's that I've forgotten to mention), is no help. And they'll go on to
teach their kids what they religiously believe almost to reassure
themselves of it's worth.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm growing increasingly concerned with precisely what kind of effect
people like Dawkins are having on kids as well in their attempt to create media
shocks in regards to religion. I think we're bringing up a dangerous
level of kids with the attitude that any question outside of numbers on a piece
of paper is of no worth. That they'll deny the possibility before even looking
at it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>However, lab rats who do practical lab work day in day out need to believe
in something, and if outright denial that some religious questions are worth
consideration is their way of reassuring themselves that their 9-5 job is
worth it, perhaps they deserve that as well. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On one hand you have the physical labourer, on the other the intellectual.
Each may deserve their own hit of opium a day to keep them going. With people
like us in the middle, hoping that we'll have life extension tanks online before
we finally switch off.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There are (almost :) unquestionably positive gains to being religious in
terms of what it does to your own personal outlook on life.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>John</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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