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kaciagemini Apr. 26th, 2005 03:42 pm)
kaciagemini Apr. 26th, 2005 03:42 pm)Okay, well not quite everything. Random ramblings. Feel free to skip.
(Tell me why this is what my mind is concentrating on instead of the project and the article summary I have to do for linguistics for tomorrow. Or even getting ready for the SGA banquet in a couple of hours.)
Prompted by an article I read for Linguistic Anthropology about the effects of literacy on cultures and cultural development. I don’t think this is what the author of the article intended to have happen when I read it. Helped along by the fact that I wrote this when we were talking about belief systems in archaeology. Also helped along by the fact that I typed it while watching Dead Like Me.
Warning: Please ignore any sacrilegious lack of capitalization. I just can’t make myself do it. For many of the reasons outlined later in this… monologue thing.
If our society were not literate, there would not be atheists. The recording and freezing of religious beliefs at a certain point in time opens them up to be refuted and dismissed. If our religion was passed down orally it would have changed as the culture changed and people wouldn't be able to prove it false because it could be changed to refute any arguments. Maybe it would have changed and god would say it’s okay for gay people to love and marry each other. Religion might be more progressive or less, but if it were less progressive, everyone would be less progressive and anyone defined as bad by the religious group would know and accept that they were bad. It would not necessarily be a better world if there had never been a bible. I do, however, think the world would be better if everyone could let go of their religious texts now. They’re just words, written by people that were just people, describing the beliefs and culture of that specific time. It’s interesting to study and learn about history, but there’s no reason to try and live in the past. Pagans had no written account of their belief system, so when Christians came in and said “Oh, those gods of yours are really saints and see, you’re really the same as us,” the pagans had no problem believing it because they didn’t have any written facts to dispute what they were told. It may seem like that’s a bad thing. But change isn’t bad, it’s necessary for growth. Stasis is what’s bad, and religious texts are trying to hold beliefs in stasis. Outside of religious texts, there are very few options for religious belief systems, so unless you are willing to accept or ignore an intrinsically flawed text (intrinsically flawed because it is frozen in stasis, unchanging) there is no place available for you in religion. No one follows every word the bible says, because it is impossible because it contradicts itself. People are lying to themselves or everyone else if they claim to be ‘living by the bible.’ People pick and choose which parts of the text to follow in accordance with what helps them. Christianity wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the bible. I don’t hate god, if such an all-powerful being happens to exist, I just hate everything people have done with the idea of god. Maybe that’s why the only semi-mainstream religion I can respect is Wicca; it lacks a definitive text. The reason the Unitarian Universalist church works is because it lets everyone believe whatever they want, spiritually, and at the same time says that they all believe the same thing, similar to the indoctrination of cultures into christianity during the Age of Discovery. It’s an ideal system because you get the solidarity of a group religion without having to dismiss your personal beliefs.
I really want to visit Stonehenge because I think if anything can make me find religion, that will be it. If I visit Stonehenge and still feel nothing, I’ll give up the façade of agnosticism and just admit I’m an atheist. People cling to religion because they want to believe that their life has some higher meaning and that when people they love die, they’re not just gone, they’re somewhere else where they can be found again when you die. The ideas of heaven and hell are just ideas to keep people in line. No person is all good or all bad. I think, if there is an afterlife, it’s like the real world and everyone is there. I’m arrogant enough to hope that my consciousness is real and will outlast my body, but realistic enough not to believe it. Sometimes my own thoughts scare me. But that almost helps me believe I’m really here.
… … … I need to go read slash now.
(Tell me why this is what my mind is concentrating on instead of the project and the article summary I have to do for linguistics for tomorrow. Or even getting ready for the SGA banquet in a couple of hours.)
Prompted by an article I read for Linguistic Anthropology about the effects of literacy on cultures and cultural development. I don’t think this is what the author of the article intended to have happen when I read it. Helped along by the fact that I wrote this when we were talking about belief systems in archaeology. Also helped along by the fact that I typed it while watching Dead Like Me.
Warning: Please ignore any sacrilegious lack of capitalization. I just can’t make myself do it. For many of the reasons outlined later in this… monologue thing.
If our society were not literate, there would not be atheists. The recording and freezing of religious beliefs at a certain point in time opens them up to be refuted and dismissed. If our religion was passed down orally it would have changed as the culture changed and people wouldn't be able to prove it false because it could be changed to refute any arguments. Maybe it would have changed and god would say it’s okay for gay people to love and marry each other. Religion might be more progressive or less, but if it were less progressive, everyone would be less progressive and anyone defined as bad by the religious group would know and accept that they were bad. It would not necessarily be a better world if there had never been a bible. I do, however, think the world would be better if everyone could let go of their religious texts now. They’re just words, written by people that were just people, describing the beliefs and culture of that specific time. It’s interesting to study and learn about history, but there’s no reason to try and live in the past. Pagans had no written account of their belief system, so when Christians came in and said “Oh, those gods of yours are really saints and see, you’re really the same as us,” the pagans had no problem believing it because they didn’t have any written facts to dispute what they were told. It may seem like that’s a bad thing. But change isn’t bad, it’s necessary for growth. Stasis is what’s bad, and religious texts are trying to hold beliefs in stasis. Outside of religious texts, there are very few options for religious belief systems, so unless you are willing to accept or ignore an intrinsically flawed text (intrinsically flawed because it is frozen in stasis, unchanging) there is no place available for you in religion. No one follows every word the bible says, because it is impossible because it contradicts itself. People are lying to themselves or everyone else if they claim to be ‘living by the bible.’ People pick and choose which parts of the text to follow in accordance with what helps them. Christianity wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the bible. I don’t hate god, if such an all-powerful being happens to exist, I just hate everything people have done with the idea of god. Maybe that’s why the only semi-mainstream religion I can respect is Wicca; it lacks a definitive text. The reason the Unitarian Universalist church works is because it lets everyone believe whatever they want, spiritually, and at the same time says that they all believe the same thing, similar to the indoctrination of cultures into christianity during the Age of Discovery. It’s an ideal system because you get the solidarity of a group religion without having to dismiss your personal beliefs.
I really want to visit Stonehenge because I think if anything can make me find religion, that will be it. If I visit Stonehenge and still feel nothing, I’ll give up the façade of agnosticism and just admit I’m an atheist. People cling to religion because they want to believe that their life has some higher meaning and that when people they love die, they’re not just gone, they’re somewhere else where they can be found again when you die. The ideas of heaven and hell are just ideas to keep people in line. No person is all good or all bad. I think, if there is an afterlife, it’s like the real world and everyone is there. I’m arrogant enough to hope that my consciousness is real and will outlast my body, but realistic enough not to believe it. Sometimes my own thoughts scare me. But that almost helps me believe I’m really here.
… … … I need to go read slash now.
