Opera Nut

I am quoting myself, trying to comfort Tom Sawyer when his puppy died unexpectedly.

The world is a random and scary place. None of my religious adventures have convinced me otherwise.

Love is available to believer and atheist alike, at least from other people.

SecularFuture

TRANSHUMANISM!!


The Transhumanist Declaration
(1) Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.

(2) Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences.

(3) Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it.

(4) Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical (including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.

(5) In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic progress in technological capabilities. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies.

(6) We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.

(7) Transhumanism advocates the well- being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non- human animals) and encompasses many principles of modern humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform.

Hail

Why can't religions change? It seems such a hopeless cause but they have several time before. As we see more they have to change and they have. there is this distasteful tendency of the majority of them to hold on to things shown to be not so and that can be so aggravating but it can change. Can is key.
Religion was supposed to be the branch of learning which addresses your more non physical aspects. You often hear of say a train accident with the train at say 40% of it's usual load many times for no apparent reason. We have no interest in this sort of thing as a society to the extent that we put resources into figuring this stuff out.
There is this side of your self and there are observable patterns in all nature that an orderly perpetuating action is taking place.
Many ancient conquers ( so to speak ) just adopted what religion was there before and morphed it to what they wanted there. Most religions no longer believe in a flat Earth and that is because they changed that.
An established recognition of the non physical aspects of us and of other things is what is missing from our approach to our endeavors. There are three parts to it, the psychologist’s three part persona or the religious folk three part being, same thing really. We have developed two: physical and intellectual ( per say ) the other is yet to be given the same attention. As time moves on and the situations become more of a species threat you can expect to be surprised by what changes will be forced to take place. Just like how religion could be so set on a inaccurate conclusion that it would execute to defend it's conclusion in the past and today it can change did change and will change. It also can be replaced but that is a reinvent the wheel effort which one could choose but I think that would be tricky er.
All the spiritual practices got their message from the same dude. They all got the same exact message from the same angel, Gabriel. It is about our hunger for love and strength through unity. The Dogma is from ancient people trying to insure that it is applied.
That is how I see it

Theli

Hello Hero, seeing as you are a fairly new poster on this board, I say welcome.
But isn't the contradiction here that the people who turned towards the church for support didn't face the problem? They escaped it. Not very differently than a person who starts drinking after losing his job.
Although, I can understand such an action, commending religion for bringing people hope and strenght to face obstacles is not right. If a person close to you die, and your religion have you believe that they live on forever in some kind of paradise, then you haven't dealt with the loss at all. You numbed it, and pushed it back.
Back to your example, looking at it as a whole, I must conclude that it didn't make sense at all. Why would a person kill himself for losing his business, how would that better his situation? I think that just as alchohol can make you feel better (less miserable for a moment) during a depression yet in the long run adding to the problem, so does religion help you by giving you hope, but in the same time raising the bar for your expectation of the future and thus making the blow (when you notice that your hopes and expectations has gone unrealized) even worse.

Show me a religion that preaches (make that teaches) acceptance rather than hope, knowledge rather than faith and pride of ourselfs rather than our ideals, and you will have a good replacement.

Aradia

Buddhism. But it isn't suitable as a replacement, because the Buddha didn't teach that there is only One True Path(tm). It isn't right for all people.


-- Your friendly neighbourhood Buddhist

Theli

Well, take my example minus religion, and we might be there.
I don't think it would be as easy sold to the general public though.

paul30

Islam??????

George W. Bush seems to want this to happen.

lugotorix

There are a lot of unwarranted assumptions in your post that have been dealt with elsewhere on the Secular Web, like assuming you must be religious to be moral or to be able to deal with loss, etc., so I'm going to skip some places.

True. Looking at it from an evolutionary viewpoint, it wouldn't exist if there weren't advantages to it.

What form religious expression takes over the years is a different question, though. Gustav Landauer called Christianity misunderstood fragments of a faith that used to make sense. It did make sense to a feudal society, where a king ruled over the secular realm and that structure was superimposed on the sacred realm. During the European Enlightenment, the mechanisms behind a lot of natural functions were better understood, and there was no need for a God to run the universe; so he was conceived of as a sort of Divine clockmaker who set it all up to run on its own. Nowadays, even the need for God as a Creator isn't necessary, so it's a good bet that the belief in God should be on the wane. (This may be wishful thinking on my part, though. The Wahhabists in Islam are proving that you can use religion to block out hundreds of years of progress.)


Christianity seems to be the most handy and easy stuff to help us to face our life [eg help us to regulate ourselves, to give us some meanings in our lives, to help us to face death and disease, to establish some kind of morality etc].

Handy and easy for someone born in a Christian culture, not so for others.


Sometimes I think whether we can have a joyful life is much more important than knowing what is true. If Christianity can give us joy and courage to live on, why not take a risk to believe even that it is obviously fake?
Because it can blind you to what is really happening. Because it can offer only false hope when finding the courage to face the world as it is can lead to real answers. There is a famous quote from Simone Weil -- "Religion, insofar as it is a source of consolation, is a hindrance to true faith."


What can we use to replace Christianity?

I second the vote for Buddhism. I think it is in the same position in the West now that Christianity was at the end of the Roman Empire -- it's a newly-introduced Eastern religion that fits in well with the current mindset at a time when more and more people are disenchanted with the "official" religion. (This may also be wishful thinking on my part, though... )

lugotorix

Aradia

I'm assuming your "second" is in reference to my post that brought up buddhism. I never voted for it, and I *don't* vote for it as a replacement to christianity. Just wanted to clear that up. For the record, I don't think buddhism should replace (or try to replace) christianity.


-- Your friendly neighbourhood buddhist

BadBadBad

Who says religion does that? I've looked into my child's eyes, and I've seen her near death. I know the fear of death. You think my wife as a christian had no fear? Don't kid yourself. Religion is false hope, and it is a weak weapon against reality. Reality is what it is and nothing can shield you from it.