Heathen Dawn

The penchant of believers to see their religions as God-instituted can be called revelationism, and it is the religious counterpart to biological creationism. You would never get a Sikh to recognize that his religion evolved from a merger of Hinduism and Islam (rather than instituted in a flash by God), any more than you could get a fundachristian to believe he shares a common ancestor with the apes (rather than created separately in a flash by God).

Heathen Dawn
Φυσιολατρος απιστος

One-eyed Jack

Unfortunately, for some people a belief in God seems to require them to enter the snares of organized religion. The "God of Spinoza" that Einstein praised--a pantheistic sort of belief that the totality of the Universe and its laws is God--is all very well, but to me it still seems an unnecessary belief. Why not just say that the Universe is reality, and not that there has to be a God-reality underlying it?

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Some people have touched on the evil that organized religion is prone to because it is fundamentally concerned with perpetuating itself. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Belief systems compete for believers, and the strongest ones win--the ones that are best at coercing the believers and at evangelizing the unbelievers. The strong religions propagate down the generations; the weaker ones disappear.

What this means is that many religions have a built-in commandment to disrespect, even hate, other belief systems. The true believer must try to eradicate what he considers apostasy or belief in false gods. This makes for an intolerant society and empowers hate. Thus, just as many have noted, religion becomes associated with things we in our enlightened age consider evil: bigotry, persecution, holy war.

I think there's a good argument to be made that organized religion inevitably evolves toward an intolerant, aggressive stance.

[ August 10, 2002: Message edited by: One-eyed Jack ]</p>