Sam Harris

Most religions have taught the separation between God or gods and human lives. Thus, people believe that they are only pawns of some external, irrational force and that there is no reason or rational explanation for how things happen in the world.

The amount of which anyone is subject to the seemingly irrational force of God depends upon one’s direct relationship to God (or spiritual energy if you’re a Taoist.) The farther away you are, the more irrational it seems. The closer you are to the spiritual energy (or God), the more you have control over it.

Thus, the goal of religions or spiritual teachings differs depending upon how close or how far an individual is from God.

If a person is distant, then spiritual teaching is mostly for emotional relief. If a person is closer, the teaching shows how to integrate the energy or force as a part of one’s life.

[quote author=“Tungp’o”]Most religions have taught the separation between God or gods and human lives. Thus, people believe that they are only pawns of some external, irrational force and that there is no reason or rational explanation for how things happen in the world.

The amount of which anyone is subject to the seemingly irrational force of God depends upon one’s direct relationship to God (or spiritual energy if you’re a Taoist.) The farther away you are, the more irrational it seems. The closer you are to the spiritual energy (or God), the more you have control over it.

Thus, the goal of religions or spiritual teachings differs depending upon how close or how far an individual is from God.

If a person is distant, then spiritual teaching is mostly for emotional relief. If a person is closer, the teaching shows how to integrate the energy or force as a part of one’s life.

Well I don’t buy any of this spirit stuff either.  If you mean having a good understanding of one’s own humanity, good control over one’s emotions, able to keep one’s cool in any environment, then that’s just introspective psychological emotion analysis.  Stepping back enough, with enough experience, and education on the personal states one exhibits in life, relating to stimuli from the surrounding environment, emotional maturity is possible.  One just has to be willing to sit down every once in while, and not be afraid to step outside the rush, and the idea of impossibly fitting into dynamically changing social mores, with the misconception of believing there to be stillness in at any moment.

Accept the logical dyanism all the physical process undergo, and proceed from there.

  Well, it seems that maybe the reason for religions in the first place is so that people can have hope. Hope in something bigger than they are, hope that things will be avenged, hope that there is a cure, hope that all this is not meaningless.

I agree that religions have been and are very destructive, irregardless of their specific creed, but they have given hope to people, and that is what sustains them.

[quote author=“Rock Chalk Jayhawk”] I agree that religions have been and are very destructive, irregardless of their specific creed, but they have given hope to people, and that is what sustains them.

It seems to me that religions of the sky god are perched between hope and destruction, the carrot and stick approach. Faithful action is motivated as much by fear of punishment as by hope of reward, probably moreso by the former. It’s not a lottery, which is about hope only.

I thought purple was all about KSU. But when you mix crimson and blue, by golly, that’s what you get.

Well, as I have always said, “color is not indicitave of alumni status.” This seems to quell the confusion in most cases.

Anyway, as to the issue of hope, this is what really sustains people, I think. Most people need to know that there is “something more,” and then create the pantheon to fill this need. Religion, seen in this vein, can be either good, neutral, or bad, depending on the needs of the person/community at the time.