Well we all exist, I can say that with a reasonable degree of certainty. Sadly the rest of this short ramble will be delving into area's where things are less certain. Don't bite my head off because some of my statements are a bit generalised and condescending.
The topic today is life, specifically the fact that as far as I (or anyone else for that matter) can prove this is all there is and once you die you're gone, snuffed, kicked the bucket etc.
One would think that seeing how this appears to be commonsense that people would do their best to have a enjoyable and productive time on this earth and live life to the fullest.
Sadly this is not so. Pervading throughout nearly every society is a malaise called Religion which promises us paradise after we die (or reincarnation, transcendence etc depending on the religion.) In this I will restrict my critiscisim to Christianity as it is the religion I am most familiar with but I will maintain that the general principles are applicable to most religions.
The problem is this; the promise of paradise after we die has a very tangible effect on how people live their lives here on our earth. Faith has a tendency to weaken peoples ability to positively contribute to society.
At first glance this seems preposterous, given that religions preach non-violence, kindness and sexual restraint. However at a closer inspection the message and the reality are quite different. All believers learn that God holds them responsible for their actions, so far so good, but for many belief absolves them off all other responsibilities. Conciously or subconciously those who are "chosen" or "born again" have diminished respect or even outright dislike for others who do not share their sect or their particular faith. Convinced that only their narrow interpretaion of the bible is the "truth" they lose their intellectual curiosity and their ability to reason. Their priority becomes not the world they live but themselves.
Getting back to the effect of a promised paridise a fine example is what I like to term a "Rapture Junkie." These individuals believe in the "Rapture" where Jesus will return from heaven and all the true believers will disappear into heaven leaving the rest of us poor shmucks to experience the delights of the apocalypse and then the wonders of hell.
A stupid belief? Well of course it is, but scarily something like 40% of americans believe that Jesus will return in the next 50 years.
Rapture Junkies believe that the "Rapture" will come anytime now and spend their lives in pained anticipation of it. They make no plans for the future as "obviously" we won't be around then so it doesn't matter. Superanuation, savings, health insurance? Why bother when Jesus is coming? This attitude is at the core of the Evangelical movement's opposition to global warming and many other medium to long term problems.
It also causes the attitude that whatever we do it does not matter as one day Jesus will come back and make everything alright. There is no way in which this attiude is beneficial to society or humanity in general. In fact I would say that it is actually quite harmful on both personal and societal scales. It causes people to virtually waste their lives with no preparation or planning for retirement or disability or any other contingency and once they reach that state it's up to the rest of society to look after them. I believe that morally we have an obligation to assist the less fortunate among us but when that state is self inflicted through ignorance or plain stupidity it really does piss me off.
My final issue with this supposed paradise in the ridiculous entrance criteria. If God existed I would certainly be going to hell. This is for no other reason than I am an atheist. I try live my life by the principles of secular humanisim and in general I would describe myself as a good person. I'm not perfect and I don't expect myself to be but I can confidently say I am not a bad person.
Strangely many of the people who would be allowed into heaven are not anything resembling "good." All it seems to take to get into heaven (and I admit this varies from cult to cult, the whole faith vs works debate) is to accept "the lord Jesus Christ as your savior." I will never do this so I am doomed to an eternity of hellfire and torment no matter how I live my life but the child rapist who repents and "accepts the lord" seconds before death is allowed into paradise. Is that fair or just in any sense?
The problem which this causes is a simple one. "True believers" are thus not bound by merely mortal authorities. An example of this is physically disciplining children. The bible says it's okay to beat children into submission but society and our common laws say its not. An alarming number of "good christian" parents choose to ignore the moral choice and listen instead to the ramblings of ancient goat herding nomads.
The belief in a paridise after we die undermines our comittment to our life now, the lives of others and significantly reduces the value placed on that precious comodity known as existence. I submit that considering how brief and precious our time of existence here is that this is a very bad thing.
The problem with paradise
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Post #2
Saros, I have enforced the Debate Forum Rules and moved your topic accordingly.
If you wish to debate your topic in the philosophy forum please reconstruct it with a view to this request. Thanks.Topics without anything clear to be debate will be removed from the debate subforums.
3. When you start a new topic in a debate subforum, it must state a clearly defined question(s) for debate.
