Irrelevance Glorified

(note : originally written in 2000)

This is a touchy subject, and the cause of many a war throughout the years, but I thought I’d put my thoughts out there on this subject, because it is something I have thought about a lot, and is something which is very interesting. Before I begin, I will say where I am coming from. My ethnicity is Indian; I was raised a Hindu. It was never forced upon with me with any sort of fervor, and so I can’t say that I’m well-versed in it. Hinduism is an interesting religion and there are many similarities between it and other religions. It is not as polytheistic as many people would think. One thing that I have an impression of is that one can only be born into being a Hindu. You can’t just convert or anything. Which is why I’m hesitant to say I’m not; it looks like I am one whether I truly believe in it or not, according to one definition. But truly, I consider myself to be an agnostic. An agnostic is one who neither believes nor disbelieves in a God/Supernatural Deity, a middle road between theism and atheism. The reason is simply that there is no empirical proof that God (I will use this term and the pronoun He for convenience, although these are just conventions) exists, but if one did exist, it would certainly be within His power to make the seams of the universe invisible. I believe that both theism and atheism are leaps of faith that are somewhat arbitrary, no matter how soothing they are to the soul.

As an agnostic, I cringe at the fundamentalist leaders who I see on TV and who rule certain countries, and also at atheists who proclaim that there is no God. I cannot take the leaps of faith that they do so readily. However, I try and understand them. It is my belief that if I could know all religions, I would be able to understand everyone, because so much of culture is embedded in them. Even so, I have many problems with organized religion.

It is my belief that any relationship with God should be personal. Organized religion seems to take that bare spirituality away from people and replace it with more people. When I look around campus and see the various religious organizations, many of them seem to exist for social reasons rather than religious. In his book “Snow Crash”, Neal Stephenson (my favorite modern author) has some interesting commentary on religion. In particular, one of the characters says something to the effect that most intelligent people don’t put stock in Christianity because Christianity isn’t about Christ. To a certain extent, this is echoed in Dostoevsky’s (my favorite all-time author) “The Grand Inquisitor”, a chapter in “The Brothers Karamazov”. Jesus set man free and told him to be free, and as soon as he left a Church was founded in order to tell people what to do. The Catholic church is a gigantic hierarchy that tells people what they need to do to get into heaven, how they can be clean from sin, and how to please God. Hundreds of years later, Martin Luther protested, and with him and the printing press, Scripture was no longer only in the hands of the priests. It was a great chance to have everyone learn for themselves. Instead, we have another set of hierarchies telling people how to interpret the Bible. If I was an evil dictator, and I wanted to figure out the surest way to control a people, I would not use secret police or hypnosis; I would use religion. It wouldn’t be the first time that Divine Right has justified ruling authority.

So what do I believe? I believe that we can understand the physical characteristics of this world by using the scientific method, and can explain these workings by developing natural laws. Once we go beyond the physical into the metaphysical, though, we can’t guarantee anything using science, and must resort to reason as our best bet. I could “imagine” a God, but the only purpose this God would have would be to be there at the beginning, to put things in motion and set the natural laws by which everything would work. No further influence on the universe. On the other hand, this is no more outlandish than everything springing to being out of nothing, quarks appearing from vacuum and exploding into the Big Bang. Myths and religion were partially created because we didn’t understand the world around us very well. Today, we know why the sun appears to trek across the sky and what causes disease, and we don’t need to resort to supernatural explanations. What about the afterlife? I don’t think there is one. All the more reason to make sure you do what you have to in this life. I think that the world and our own achievements are amazing enough without having to ascribe it all to a supernatural being. And certainly not an omnipotent being who we try and personify and give human emotions. Why would such a being be wrathful? Or jealous? These are qualities we identify as vices in humans. Why create imperfect beings? Why give us the freedom to be bad or good, and then destroy us when we go bad? I realize I don’t speak for all religions when I ask these questions, but they are valid when addressed at the major ones. I admire religious texts for their literary and cultural qualities, but I certainly don’t view these documents as being fact. They were composed hundreds or thousands of years ago, probably passing through word of mouth for much of the time, finally being recorded in print many years after the events they speak of transpired. In the years til today, they have been translated from their original language, the nuances of which might be lost to the modern scholar. I highly doubt any of the texts are originals, and were probably copied from some still older text, which was copied from some still older text, etc. Anyone with a grasp of modern genetics would recognize the potential for random mutations caused by copying errors. It is for these reasons that I question those that say they are privy to the Word of God.

I generally distrust organized religions because there is too great of the element of brainwashing in them. They tell you how to act and what to believe and tell you it’s okay to question, as long as you solely question on certain lines. I think this allows people to be open to all that other pseudo-scientific bullshit that’s out there, ready to take your money. Personally, I find reason enough to go on, and I have yet to rape, pillage, or maim anyone or anything. Feel free to mail me your thoughts, although please don’t try and convert me or tell me I’m going to Hell.