"Why Everybody Needs a Personal Religion"

[Thomas]

Interesting article can be found here.

Shortcut:
Ever since the progress that occurred in the Age of Enlightenment, we have seen an increasing decline in religion. While it still dominates in many ways, reason and skepticism have led us in a different direction.

There is a reason that beliefs of this kind have stood the test of time. They’re incredibly useful, and despite whatever shortcomings you may attribute to them, we don’t have anything else that has been replicated with as much success for as many people for as long of a period.

Traditionally, religion gave us values, and for those who still rigidly abide by these values, the work is mostly done. The rest of us, however, including many believers who haven’t fully embraced each and every one of their teachings, we need to do the hard work ourselves. Not tacitly, but intentionally.

People often think of belief as being irrational. From a survival perspective, I can’t think of anything more rational than finding something to live for.

Either practice a religion, or create one. Everything else is secondary.

 

[wil]

People often think of belief as being irrational.

I think you'd have to look hard to find people who believe belief is irrational...we all believe in something...it is belief in Peter Pan that we find irrational...we have issues with irrational belief, not belief itself.

Either practice a religion, or create one.

I find this exceedingly refreshing.

There is a reason that beliefs of this kind have stood the test of time.

I contend that most current beliefs have stood the test of time as children inherit them from their parents. Not saying that is wrong, just factual....but it might be wrong.

 

[wil]

Many here have a personal religion...and many of those have caught greif for this in the past.

There are those that have modified what they believe and don't believe of a given religion (hence the thousands of denominations of Christianity)... The various sects of Islam and types of belief in Judaism... Heck Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, Sikism all break offs from major religions... all instututed by people who have created a personal religion that others agree with.

The sense of values thou...be they from a gov't or a religion...or a parent... don't need that tie...and those in various organizations have chosen to ignore those values....so coincidence, correlation and/or causation may be debated..(and have been)

Do people need something to believe in? Like religion? Or will cause and effect do? I believe in gravity, I also beleive in door knobs...they open doors for me.

I don't think we all need a personal religion, or an organised one...I do believe many do. I don't believe it to always be beneficial.

the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
"ideas about the relationship between science and religion"
synonyms: faith, belief, worship, creed; More

• a particular system of faith and worship.
  plural noun: religions
  "the world's great religions"
• a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
  "consumerism is the new religion"

Yikes to the last one... but it is reality.... come the season many worship the football (and futbol) gods...or various sportsball/entertainment... Many worship that screen eminating pictures and sound in their living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms etc.

 

[Thomas]

I think you'd have to look hard to find people who believe belief is irrational...

I think the author was referring to religion specifically, and probably had Christianity in mind.

I find this exceedingly refreshing.

Isn't that rather like re-inventing the wheel?

I agree it would be refreshing, but the reality is, it's rarer than religion itself. Of course, people repurpose elements of religion(s) to suit themselves. I stumbled on this from David Bentley Hart and it really made me laugh:

This is especially obvious at modern Western religion’s pastel-tinged margins, in those realms of the New Age where the gods of the boutique hold uncontested sway. Here one may cultivate a private atmosphere of “spirituality” as undemanding and therapeutically comforting as one likes simply by purchasing a dream catcher, a few pretty crystals, some books on the goddess, a Tibetan prayer wheel, a volume of Joseph Campbell or Carl Jung or Robert Graves, a Nataraja figurine, a purse of tiles engraved with runes, a scattering of Pre-Raphaelite prints drenched in Celtic twilight, an Andean flute, and so forth, until this mounting congeries of string, worthless quartz, cheap joss sticks, baked clay, kitsch, borrowed iconography, and fraudulent scholarship reaches that mysterious point of saturation at which religion has become indistinguishable from interior decorating.

I contend that most current beliefs have stood the test of time as children inherit them from their parents.

I don't think that's the point the author is making.

They — by which I would mean primarily the original traditions — have stood the test of time because they're grounded in a sound metaphysic, and supported by sound theology, so they can hold their own in public dialogue.

 

[Thomas]

The sense of values thou... be they from a gov't or a religion... or a parent...

I think it's worth a look to see where and how those values were founded. As we've discussed, the 'good' ones are universals, but they tend to be couched in a particular context.

Do people need something to believe in?

Well everyone needs a compass if they're not to washed this way and that by the tides of trends, Without them? Nihilism? Existentialism? Pragmatism?

I believe in gravity, I also believe in door knobs... they open doors for me.

LOL, same for me. But investigation of the deeper issues often opens unexpected doors. Everyone knows apples fall from trees, but not everyone arrived at the same conclusion as Newton. I once listened to a discussion on heat. I make fires, boil kettles, turn on taps ... but I'm not sure I have a complete grasp of the more arcane aspects of thermodynamics. I get by with a 'blind faith' in kettles and taps

I don't think we all need a personal religion...

That's the last things we need, in my opinion.

or an organised one...

I would contend that point. As ever, I'm not sure what disorganised religion looks like ... or perhaps that's what contemporary culture is, with all its problems?

I don't believe it to always be beneficial.

Yes, mix humanity in, and things can go awry.

Yikes to the last one... but it is reality....

LOL again. It seems that everybody wants to be an individual, and yet they all secretly desire to belong ... Sport, we are told, is a great thing, but there's many a wife or child gets battered when the home team loses ...