7 topic over 7 days : Religion
7 topics over the next 7 days.
I'm sharing my thoughts on 7 topics this week stemming from a conversation with some friends who say I'm too obtuse. So, I'll write a little something of my thoughts on these topics:
Government, Gender, Religion, Race, Marriage, Sex, and Culture
If you want to do the same ... Just reply to this status update or share it with your answers and then tag a few people whom you'd want to see it and hopefully share their thoughts
Day 3: Religion
This is perhaps the topic I’ve opined on the most on here and as such, many might not see anything new in what I’m saying but a few of my views have changed in this regard. Having grown up as I did, religion as just something fascinating in the world that people did to worship God. We weren’t nudged one way or another, so I guess the feeling of something being sacred or beyond question was never planted in my head. I read all kinds of books my father left lying around with all sorts of views. The Greek myths, an English Koran, a Bible-they all were kind of around. They all mentioned gods. Then in primary school, we learnt about the stories of the different tribes and ethnic groups on where the world came from. These all just seemed to be ideas different people had. Well until my grandmother would visit, then we had to say Praise him every time she said “Praise God” or my parents would get chastised for raising heathens!
Buy the time I was introduced to the faith (Anglican), I had a healthy dose of “hmmm” to everything. So, when I finally gave my life to Christ, I felt it was me going in with my brain and my heart. I wanted to taste and see that the Lord is good. And my life at the time was kind of shit. And things started looking up. I had a community of people around me. I realized that the troubles of this world are temporary. I learned to cultivate patience, joy, peace patience etc. The faith gave me a purpose in this world and helped quiet so many fears. The only problem was, to keep it going, I had to be blind to the world. Blind to some obvious contradictions. My faith had become a part of my identity. To abandon it was akin to discarding myself. Not many are able to do this.
When I left the faith, quite a few people reached out to me, telling me they had their doubts. They either didn’t feel the spirit anymore or they saw a disconnect between a loving God and this absurd existence. Most fell in two camps: Those upset with God and religion and those who felt their faith dwindling due to a failure to reconcile the things they knew with the things they believed. Whatever the reason, many of those who got to the verge of leaving and some who did, went back.
Less assured of their faith but still finding that being in the fold is better than being out in the cold. I can’t blame someone for taking a path that gives them a sense of purpose even though I do think this is a shame given they forego the chance to etch a new life from the buffet of life philosophies and ideas available. The chance to discover new truths about our existence.
The offer.
One of my favorite characters on one of my favorite TV shows of all time is Mr Peanut butter on the show “Bojack Horsman”. The show follows a humanoid horse that used to be the star of a 90’s tv sitcom when suddenly it was cancelled and almost decade later he’s trying to make a comeback. He’s self-loathing, alcoholic and narcissistic. Mr. Peanut butter is an energetic, loveable goofball who is Bojack’s rival and is married to a woman Bojack just might secretly love. Bojack sees the emptiness of life. The vain glories of pursuing fame. He’s smart enough to see the misery around him but not smart enough to escape it. Throughout the show, Bojack keeps trying to find happiness through a myriad of things. He’s ostensibly more successful and famous than Mr. Peanut butter, yet can never seem to be as happy. In fact, everyone seems so upset and sad around Mr Peanut butter, but secretly they envy his seeming joy.
At one point he says: “The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn’t a search for meaning. It’s just to keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense and eventually you will be dead”
This is likely tongue in cheek from the writers but shows a resignation to the meaninglessness of a Godless universe that many feels. The fact that nothing is infinite or ultimate to them means nothing matters. All the while trying to search for something that matters to them, peace, contentment. Happiness.
Religion offers this. So, do does commerce. Buy this so you can be cool, and people will like you and finally you will be happy. Happiness is a contingent property. We work hard to make money to buy things first to survive, and then be happy. But so many that have a lot of the best the world has to offer are still miserable.
Again, religion offers an answer. IT is never permanently attained till you die. You need rituals. You need to perpetually be getting better. Continue to seek forgiveness and betterment? The religions that are the most popular have tapped into the secret, I think. What Camus referred to as the struggle. The struggle itself is enough to fill our hearts with purpose and peaks of joy and strength when we’re at our lowest. Happiness is not a permanent state till heaven comes, but you can ret assured that with a divine helper and a community of believers, you will be able to get closer daily. Who can really say no to an offer like that?
Why I reject it?
Marx called religion the Opium for the masses, the sigh of the oppressed creature. Many took this to mean it’s a way to keep people in check, but I take a more charitable view to Marx’s point. He understood that the world is treacherous and painful. No reprieve exists for many in this world and the promise of some sort of divine justice can be the flickering light that prevents the dark from totally engulfing you. When the world is a place where you’re trying to survive, who cares about how valid the claims are. Hope is hope. And hope deferred makes the heart sick.
I’m a fortunate person is many many ways. I was born healthy. I was educated, well fed (Yeah Joel we’ve seen you!) and have the luxury of being able to muse on the meanings of life on the internet. This unearned privilege is part of why I cannot lecture to others about how they should live. I can only share my opinions and when facts are in dispute, dispute those and leave it to the person to choose. From a vantage point such as mine, where one can find their feet and reasonably feel they are beyond surviving and able to interrogate their world, religion suddenly takes on a new angle. For my fellow well fed, educated comrades, religion offers meaning away from the rat race. (For some it’s a means to request support to lead the race!) It’s a template for life. A way to also provide thanks to the giver for all the blessings we see others not enjoying and a reminder that we are not in charge.
I do not think we need what I consider to be false stories to feel gratitude, to labor for ourselves and others to make life better. If anything, religion obscures things. I am often asked how I can be selfish enough to just live for myself. I say that is faith but with just extra steps. You do a good deed. Your father in heaven sees it and rewards you. I do a good deed either because I feel good when I do good or because I think I might be able to rely on that person doing good for me. Ultimately’ we’re all concerned with ourselves, and our immediate loved ones. This is the human condition. No one is immune to the existential fears and doubts of life…We just can’t hear them over the distractions of life sometimes. While we’re busy trying to survive, our focus is on that but once those a satiated, the angst returns. We’re evolved to not be too comfortable. Satisfaction is temporary.
Religion is our first attempt at philosophy. To answering the why questions of life. It has captured within an ingenious bit of wisdom about human needs and wants. But I believe it is not the best. Philosophy focuses on the questions being asked and asks us to live our lives in constant examination. This is rigorous and painful and can oft lead to heavy sadness, but it also allows you not to be satisfied with incorrect answers. To press on and learn and grow …And in the process of doing all this, you will find what you were looking for in the cathedrals and holy places, you will find purpose and much joy and happiness to go with the occasional bouts of ennui.
Kindly send your offertory to my Africell line.
Ps. For more on this from yours truly, I wrote an extensive entry of my Deconversion here
http://
Tomorrow….Race . Gulp
Government I Gender I Religion I Race I Marriage I Sex I Culture
I'm sharing my thoughts on 7 topics this week stemming from a conversation with some friends who say I'm too obtuse. So, I'll write a little something of my thoughts on these topics:
Government, Gender, Religion, Race, Marriage, Sex, and Culture
If you want to do the same ... Just reply to this status update or share it with your answers and then tag a few people whom you'd want to see it and hopefully share their thoughts
Day 3: Religion
This is perhaps the topic I’ve opined on the most on here and as such, many might not see anything new in what I’m saying but a few of my views have changed in this regard. Having grown up as I did, religion as just something fascinating in the world that people did to worship God. We weren’t nudged one way or another, so I guess the feeling of something being sacred or beyond question was never planted in my head. I read all kinds of books my father left lying around with all sorts of views. The Greek myths, an English Koran, a Bible-they all were kind of around. They all mentioned gods. Then in primary school, we learnt about the stories of the different tribes and ethnic groups on where the world came from. These all just seemed to be ideas different people had. Well until my grandmother would visit, then we had to say Praise him every time she said “Praise God” or my parents would get chastised for raising heathens!
Buy the time I was introduced to the faith (Anglican), I had a healthy dose of “hmmm” to everything. So, when I finally gave my life to Christ, I felt it was me going in with my brain and my heart. I wanted to taste and see that the Lord is good. And my life at the time was kind of shit. And things started looking up. I had a community of people around me. I realized that the troubles of this world are temporary. I learned to cultivate patience, joy, peace patience etc. The faith gave me a purpose in this world and helped quiet so many fears. The only problem was, to keep it going, I had to be blind to the world. Blind to some obvious contradictions. My faith had become a part of my identity. To abandon it was akin to discarding myself. Not many are able to do this.
When I left the faith, quite a few people reached out to me, telling me they had their doubts. They either didn’t feel the spirit anymore or they saw a disconnect between a loving God and this absurd existence. Most fell in two camps: Those upset with God and religion and those who felt their faith dwindling due to a failure to reconcile the things they knew with the things they believed. Whatever the reason, many of those who got to the verge of leaving and some who did, went back.
Less assured of their faith but still finding that being in the fold is better than being out in the cold. I can’t blame someone for taking a path that gives them a sense of purpose even though I do think this is a shame given they forego the chance to etch a new life from the buffet of life philosophies and ideas available. The chance to discover new truths about our existence.
The offer.
One of my favorite characters on one of my favorite TV shows of all time is Mr Peanut butter on the show “Bojack Horsman”. The show follows a humanoid horse that used to be the star of a 90’s tv sitcom when suddenly it was cancelled and almost decade later he’s trying to make a comeback. He’s self-loathing, alcoholic and narcissistic. Mr. Peanut butter is an energetic, loveable goofball who is Bojack’s rival and is married to a woman Bojack just might secretly love. Bojack sees the emptiness of life. The vain glories of pursuing fame. He’s smart enough to see the misery around him but not smart enough to escape it. Throughout the show, Bojack keeps trying to find happiness through a myriad of things. He’s ostensibly more successful and famous than Mr. Peanut butter, yet can never seem to be as happy. In fact, everyone seems so upset and sad around Mr Peanut butter, but secretly they envy his seeming joy.
At one point he says: “The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn’t a search for meaning. It’s just to keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense and eventually you will be dead”
This is likely tongue in cheek from the writers but shows a resignation to the meaninglessness of a Godless universe that many feels. The fact that nothing is infinite or ultimate to them means nothing matters. All the while trying to search for something that matters to them, peace, contentment. Happiness.
Religion offers this. So, do does commerce. Buy this so you can be cool, and people will like you and finally you will be happy. Happiness is a contingent property. We work hard to make money to buy things first to survive, and then be happy. But so many that have a lot of the best the world has to offer are still miserable.
Again, religion offers an answer. IT is never permanently attained till you die. You need rituals. You need to perpetually be getting better. Continue to seek forgiveness and betterment? The religions that are the most popular have tapped into the secret, I think. What Camus referred to as the struggle. The struggle itself is enough to fill our hearts with purpose and peaks of joy and strength when we’re at our lowest. Happiness is not a permanent state till heaven comes, but you can ret assured that with a divine helper and a community of believers, you will be able to get closer daily. Who can really say no to an offer like that?
Why I reject it?
Marx called religion the Opium for the masses, the sigh of the oppressed creature. Many took this to mean it’s a way to keep people in check, but I take a more charitable view to Marx’s point. He understood that the world is treacherous and painful. No reprieve exists for many in this world and the promise of some sort of divine justice can be the flickering light that prevents the dark from totally engulfing you. When the world is a place where you’re trying to survive, who cares about how valid the claims are. Hope is hope. And hope deferred makes the heart sick.
I’m a fortunate person is many many ways. I was born healthy. I was educated, well fed (Yeah Joel we’ve seen you!) and have the luxury of being able to muse on the meanings of life on the internet. This unearned privilege is part of why I cannot lecture to others about how they should live. I can only share my opinions and when facts are in dispute, dispute those and leave it to the person to choose. From a vantage point such as mine, where one can find their feet and reasonably feel they are beyond surviving and able to interrogate their world, religion suddenly takes on a new angle. For my fellow well fed, educated comrades, religion offers meaning away from the rat race. (For some it’s a means to request support to lead the race!) It’s a template for life. A way to also provide thanks to the giver for all the blessings we see others not enjoying and a reminder that we are not in charge.
I do not think we need what I consider to be false stories to feel gratitude, to labor for ourselves and others to make life better. If anything, religion obscures things. I am often asked how I can be selfish enough to just live for myself. I say that is faith but with just extra steps. You do a good deed. Your father in heaven sees it and rewards you. I do a good deed either because I feel good when I do good or because I think I might be able to rely on that person doing good for me. Ultimately’ we’re all concerned with ourselves, and our immediate loved ones. This is the human condition. No one is immune to the existential fears and doubts of life…We just can’t hear them over the distractions of life sometimes. While we’re busy trying to survive, our focus is on that but once those a satiated, the angst returns. We’re evolved to not be too comfortable. Satisfaction is temporary.
Religion is our first attempt at philosophy. To answering the why questions of life. It has captured within an ingenious bit of wisdom about human needs and wants. But I believe it is not the best. Philosophy focuses on the questions being asked and asks us to live our lives in constant examination. This is rigorous and painful and can oft lead to heavy sadness, but it also allows you not to be satisfied with incorrect answers. To press on and learn and grow …And in the process of doing all this, you will find what you were looking for in the cathedrals and holy places, you will find purpose and much joy and happiness to go with the occasional bouts of ennui.
Kindly send your offertory to my Africell line.
Ps. For more on this from yours truly, I wrote an extensive entry of my Deconversion here
http://
Tomorrow….Race . Gulp
Government I Gender I Religion I Race I Marriage I Sex I Culture
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