One of the "reasons" (and I use that word carefully as it generally has nothing at all to do with Reason) why many people, who perhaps do not believe or care whether the Adam and Eve stories are historical or not, hold on to the idea that there must be a god behind creation is twofold. One is stated most clearly by the alarm the catholic church recently stated in an article in Telegraph.co.uk "Cardinal George says... he, and the whole of the American Church, must be praying that the certainty of unbelief wears off as the “new atheists” have children and face the prospect
of mortality." In other words, their hope is that people will get scared(by him) of going to hell and will give up the "new atheism".
The other reason is a bit more nebulous and difficult to understand. It is simply a belief that somehow ancient people knew more about god than we do and were more in touch with spiritual matters. There are plenty of monetary reasons why new age and eastern religions perpetuate this idea...I mean, after all, would you really buy a bunch of crystals for gas if you hadn't been told by one of these ancient "wise" spiritual leaders how helpful they were? But the question one has to ask oneself is just WHY we believe that a bunch of spiritual leaders today, who got their "information" from ANCIENT witch doctors and fortune tellers who knew next to nothing about the earth or the body or the universe, would somehow know everything there is to know about god? Of course the easy, no brainer answer for those who wish to keep this belief is to say that science and technology get in our way of knowing god. Yet, if these wise spirit guides had a direct line to god, then why didn't god tell them more about how the body, for example, really worked? Even just a smidgeon more??? (If you think at all about what doctors in the past did in the name of science and discovery, it might increase your own questions about god's lack of communication skills on these matters)
And more particularly, in the case of the bible, why didn't god just communicate the real stories of ancient people that he helped along the way? Why make up stories that could never be verified? After all, god being god would know that god was telling fibs and that we would find that out one day.
Just sayin'
People have a deep, deep need to believe in God will never go away. God is a meaning larger than ourselves that creates a framework for the randomness that is life and death.
ReplyDeleteAs to why we have to put together a long, elaborate, contradictory book about God and then believe every word of it, you got me.
The Bible is a book of fables to teach us morals and common sense. Like a critical thinking textbook and poetry combined. MY opinion only. I whole-heartedly believe in science, evolution etc. But when I got married under the Chuppah in a beautiful winery and the Rabbi made a comparison to my husband as Adam and Eve in a luch garden so long ago. Well I got goosebumps, what beautiful imagery.
ReplyDeleteI came over from NaBLOWRiMO
If holy books were treated as "a book of fables" that would be one thing, but they generally aren't. Many, many people believe they are god's word given directly to mankind. And the problem with finding the morality or common sense in ancient texts such as the Koran or the Bible is that there are so many contradictory statements, an incredible amount of violence toward women & children and it simply does not talk to the truths of modern living.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually few stories of any true value for morality or good living and for every "good" statement, there are 4-5 terrible incidents that condone horrible behavior. (just to name one: Lot protecting the angel and giving his daughters over to be raped.) I mean really!
It's too bad that people need to create a being in order to have "meaning larger than ourselves"-- And if there is an ethic that can be derived by having a being who is greater than we are then the ethic is that said "being" created this planet and we are to take care of the creation. But the reality is that it does not require belief in said deity in order to believe there is a Greater Good. There are far more atheists who understand this ethic and have a well developed sense of humanism than believers.
ReplyDeleteHi! I stopped by from NaBloPoMo. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about the point you are making in your final paragraph about the Bible. You ask why God didn't communicate the truth of His interactions with ancient people. If He had, how would it be any more verifiable than the accounts that we have recorded in the Bible today? In other words, how would we know that it was historically accurate?
History can be verified. You would be amazed at how much we know about the people who lived in what we now call Israel! It actually wouldn't be too hard to verify if the history the bible told were in any way true. For instance, we know with that there was no enmasse influx of people such as would have happened if the story of the Israelites migrating in from Egypt had happened. There simply never was a migration such as this in this region. And a great king like Solomon or David such as scripture discusses would most definitely be in the written records at Armarma or in other foreign documents. Unfortunately this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to everyone who commented!
ReplyDeleteOne final thought: (which I may expand on in a future blog) forgiveness is not an aspect of humanity that began with god, the OT or the cross. Forgiveness and the reparation for wrong began with the Hammurabi Code (and it is really more humane than it's predecessor the 'ten commandements'. Forgiveness is something that has evolved with humanity but is also part of animal behavior.
ReplyDelete