Otherwise they are hypocrites.
Religion may be an inevitable response to life for people with empathy, but it is not the first response. Babies are born with only the wonder of existence. Existence is a miracle that simply cannot be explained. We might track down the cosmic rays back to the initial Big Bang, and we can detect out of this Universe interference coming from the Multiverse from which our Universe exploded, but how can we understand the void of that Multiverse or its lack of beginning?
Religion is how people derive meaning and purpose for their existence, and yet religions try to explain other-worldly existence as though it were superior to what we have already. Since there is the fear of dying to support such interest in otherworldly dimensions, I can see the pressure to prove such escapist thinking. But when such thinking is pushed onto me for the sake of bolstering those who insist on it, I have to wonder, "What about my life now?"
And it's all fine and good for those who want to see this worldly life as a veil of tears before an everlasting bliss, but it's hard for me to imagine what that bliss is all about when it has nothing to do with the life I have now.
Oh, sure! There are people who insist that if I am not threatened with eternal punishment if I don't believe a certain set of dogma, I won't know right from wrong. I question how such subjective analysis of my morals have to do with my prospects after death. If I have no other motive for being quote quote good unless I have Divine intervention telling me exactly what I should do or think, what is the point of personal ethics?
How can I be sure that what I am told even by those who quote Bible verses to support their claims of what the Divine expects of me is true? I can't. I must think it through for myself. It's either that or the freewill that is supposed to be the foundation of punishing me in the after-death or the Judgement Day or the Second Coming is a fraud.
If these doom-sayers are really correct, they should rely on their Divine Revelation to let my punishment occur without inflicting it themselves. Otherwise they are hypocrites.
Religion is how people derive meaning and purpose for their existence, and yet religions try to explain other-worldly existence as though it were superior to what we have already. Since there is the fear of dying to support such interest in otherworldly dimensions, I can see the pressure to prove such escapist thinking. But when such thinking is pushed onto me for the sake of bolstering those who insist on it, I have to wonder, "What about my life now?"
And it's all fine and good for those who want to see this worldly life as a veil of tears before an everlasting bliss, but it's hard for me to imagine what that bliss is all about when it has nothing to do with the life I have now.
Oh, sure! There are people who insist that if I am not threatened with eternal punishment if I don't believe a certain set of dogma, I won't know right from wrong. I question how such subjective analysis of my morals have to do with my prospects after death. If I have no other motive for being quote quote good unless I have Divine intervention telling me exactly what I should do or think, what is the point of personal ethics?
How can I be sure that what I am told even by those who quote Bible verses to support their claims of what the Divine expects of me is true? I can't. I must think it through for myself. It's either that or the freewill that is supposed to be the foundation of punishing me in the after-death or the Judgement Day or the Second Coming is a fraud.
If these doom-sayers are really correct, they should rely on their Divine Revelation to let my punishment occur without inflicting it themselves. Otherwise they are hypocrites.
Comments
Post a Comment