Degradation
You are a human, a member of the most intelligent, self-aware, mentally-sophisticated species on this world and probably any world. You are of the race that vanquished mammoths and smallpox, that crafts poetry and mathematics and architecture and vaccines, whose minds pierce the farthest stars and the innards of atoms. There is nothing higher than you. It should be shameful for you to bow down to anything, especially to a god that is a figment of the imagination of those who lived millennia ago in ignorance and superstition.
Who -- who -- is empowered by your living on your knees, feeling sinful, broken, unworthy? Certainly not you.
posted by Infidel753 at 7:00 AM
13 Comments:
Amen!
I mean Power to the People!
Something like that
Who is empowered?
The pastors with the money they rake in, especially the televangelists, the politicians who play to this for power and the strangers, friends and sometimes family, who are given an opportunity to judge you and others, to feel good and superior about themselves.
YES!!!
I never thought about it like that before.
I'm one of those worshippers myself, and as at least you Infidel are aware, also a lib. I've learned over the years that nothing you included in your post is incompatible with my faith.
Perhaps, which I say because I'm never sure, I worship and even fall to my knees to keep me humble, to remind myself that while I default to thinking that I am, in reality I am never, all that.
I've found the faith/belief question, for believers and non believers alike, is never as simple, or easy as the caricatures so prevalent in the public sphere today.
Just my thoughts...
Yes! Degrading is a great word for it. It ought to be a source of shame rather than pride.
Leanna: Power to the person!
Mary: Oh, yes, there are plenty willing to cash in on the scam. Just imagine the power they had back in the Dark Ages, when belief was total and unchallenged.
One: Thanks!
Mike: Well, you have now.....:-)
Dave: I appreciate you giving your perspective, though I'm a bit baffled as to how most of this post could be compatible with faith. As for humility, it's not something I generally have much use for, and I think it's usually a false virtue. But I think the last two sentences of the post cover why Christianity would treat it as a virtue.
Jack: I have often thought that. Belief without supporting evidence isn't something to be proud of.
Meow meow rrrrr miao meow. Mew purr purr meow. Nrr Reow!
TRANSLATION:
Cats are higher than humans. You might be broken and unworthy. Never us cats!
I decided years ago when I became a pagan that I would not worship the goddess, but would treat her like an old friend that may or may not be able to help me and my friends out in a pinch..to insure that she might be receptive to my asking's I'd give her something shiny.. so far ..so good.
Infidel, i am, and have always been, and always will be a 'Pious Atheist' and i completely agree with everything you say about religion, its just that theres one question that i`ve always wondered about (not to the extent that it will ever turn me into a believer obviously but it is, i think, a very interesting point). Dont you think its strange that in over 600 million years of evolution and literally trillions or even perhaps quadrillions of species that have ever existed on the planet (99.8% of which are long since extinct) that not even one other creature has ever evolved with our levels of intelligence!, or even a comparable level of intelligence!, or even one ten thousanth of our levels of intelligence!?. You`d think the law of averages over such a vast and unimaginable expanse of geological time and the mind-boggling randomness of nature and the evolutionary process would`ve ensured that there would have been at least a few other species like us along the way!. Sometimes when i think about the totally astounding and randomised way that we appeared on the planet in the first place i am, now and again, prepared to give some credence to the idea that our intellect might have been bestowed onto us from some kind of higher power rather than it simply having randomly evolved, otherwise, like i said earlier, why have every single one of the literally quadrillions of other species that have ever existed on the planet over 600 million years of geological history been totally stupid and without any intelligence what-so-ever when compared to breathtaking magnificence and incredible grandeur of our minds!?, we are a very special species unlike anything that has ever existed on the planet before (or perhaps will ever exist again), doesn`t that astoundingly mind-boggling statistic make you give at least a small amount of credence to the idea that God might exist!?. It`d be nice to know your opinion on that, cheers.
Pangur: Well, it's hard to imagine a cat worshiping anything.
JackieSue: That's certainly better than the groveling attitude the Christians seem to consider appropriate.
Norbert: First, there have been millions of species in Earth's history, not trillions. Second, the gap in intelligence isn't that large. The other great ape species have about one-third the human level of intelligence, measured by brain data-processing capacity, and can learn and originate quite complex and subtle behavior and social interaction. There are other species like elephants and dolphins whose intelligence is similarly impressive, certainly far better than "one ten thousandth" of ours. Third, even the most basic understanding of natural selection would tell you it isn't a random process. Fourth, evolution shows a pattern of cumulative increasing complexity over time, so no, the "law of averages" would not lead us to expect species of human-level intelligence at earlier stages. Finally, we have a pretty good understanding of the processes that fueled human brain growth over the last two million years and led to our intelligence rising higher than that of the other great ape species. It's not mysterious or even surprising.
So in short, no, there's nothing about human intelligence which suggests anything other than the outcome of the ordinary processes of natural selection. Also, saying that "our intellect might have been bestowed onto us from some kind of higher power" wouldn't be an explanation -- it would just push the question one step back, since we would then need to ask how that "higher power" developed its own high intelligence.
Infidel, thats a quite brilliant reply, cheers for taking the time to write it. Its just that i`ll still always be fascinated by the fact that no Chimp, Gorilla, Orang-Utang, Elephant or Dolphin will ever be able to make a smart-phone!.
Which, again, does not make us thousands of times more intelligent. Once intelligence reaches the level where cumulative technological change begins (which happened many thousands of years ago in humans), there seems to be no limit to how far that technology can progress, even if intelligence doesn't increase any further.
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