[Changing the subject line, because the topic has not been about
anybody's lute for a while] [although it would be ironic if we went
off on a tangent about lute music all of a sudden. :-) ] [or could it
be said that the entire thread of this religious argument could be set
to music, complete with recurring themes, humorous grace notes, and
sudden dischordant clashes? ]
On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Richard Suitor wrote:
>
>But furthermore, I observe many people who can reason just fine, thank
>you, and are not agitating for creationism, nonetheless feel the need
>for a spiritual life. That is another reason, to return to the
>original topic I addressed, why I think any future with our
>descendants will include religions. They may not look much like
>today's religions, but they will involve less-than-rational belief
>systems that nonetheless survive because they have been shown to work
>in some important fashion.
>
After pondering this for quite a bit, I think I agree with this. As
long as humans are biological entities, they're going to have sex,
listen to music, read fiction, cook food (although I hope that in the
future they no longer need to kill animals in order to get the flavors
& textures they want for their recipies, but that's fuel for another
flamewar :-) ), have hobbies like model trains & orchid collecting -
and follow *some* sort of spiritual practice.
Of course, it won't be everyone who does so, just as most people today
don't collect orchids or re-enact Civil War battles, and some are not
that interested in music, or don't read for pleasure, or don't have
sex. But that's just because people's brains are wired differently.
When religious people say "Don't you feel you're *missing* something
by not {accepting Jesus as your savior | submitting to Allah | praying
to the Goddess in the nude}", they're talking about some feeling that
satisfies something in their minds like nothing else. Which is fine
for *them*, but I think it will eventually be shown that it's all just
brain chemistry.
The first steps in that direction were taken some years back. Doing a
web search on "God Module", I turn up the following:
http://www.parascope.com/articles/slips/fs22_3.htm
As noted, we can't draw any firm conclusions from this discovery
*yet*. But I think it's just a matter of time, now that we know where
to start looking. We can perform double-blind, multi-trial prayer
experiments, and prove, one way or another, what correlation the
prayer has on the subject prayed for. If it's shown that the feelings
have no affect on external reality; that they're just another type of
positive emotion, what other conclusion can be drawn other than them
being the cause of religious belief, with nothing to do with external
reality?
As long as no-one oppresses anyone else because of those spiritual
beliefs, and no one is coerced into it, why should it disappear or be
forced to disappear? Although perhaps since the traditional religions
have had a history of coercion and oppression, it would be a Good
Thing if *those traits* of traditional religions disappeared.
There will always be unanswered questions for those religious feelings
to focus on. Even if it is proven, for example, that the cosmology of
the universe is a looped 4D structure in the hyperdimensional
supercosmic foam, it could always be asked, "Well, what *caused* that
structure to form? What create the hyperdimensional supercosmic foam
in the first place?" There's always another level up (as it were)
that the Prime Mover or the Moral Authority or the First Cause can be
pushed. Naturally, the more hard-headed and rationalistic will see no
point in positing further levels "up" when a satisfactory answer
exists at the current level - but that's the way *their* brains are
wired.