- This website is a “living book,” in defense of RELIGION
- My claim is that REALITY is, in fact, “magical” and “ultimately meaningful” — and, the social-cultural systems that we call “Religions” are attempts to describe the magic and promote the meaning
- I’m claiming that religions are NOT just wishful thinking, and that the MAGIC and MEANING to which they refer is REAL…
- Unfortunately, this site is still being written — and re-written
- No telling how often It has been — and will be – revised
- I’m almost 84 years old, and no telling if it will ever be finished
- Or, how often I’ll repeat myself
- If and when I think that it’s ready to be read by others, I’ll start advertising
- I think that it COULD be very important.
- Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.… Wikipedia
- It is easy to conclude that religious belief is simply WISHFUL THINKING
- to be truly happy, we humans need to believe in immortality and ultimate meaning
- Religions support such beliefs — sciences do not (though, they seem to be changing)
- The suggestion HERE, is that human intelligence is only in it’s evolutionary CHILDHOOD — and, religions don’t make sense to us well-educated children because WE’RE NOT AS SMART AS WE THINK WE ARE
- We’re just getting started…
- I’m NOT SURE that magic is real — but I BELIEVE that IT IS because I seem to have stumbled upon some magic staring us in the faces
- That’s where I’m going — come along…
- (Note that, on this site, I’ll be discussing WESTERN religions – I suspect that EASTERN Religions are easier to defend, but I don’t know enough about them to try)
- Our public schools are somewhat reasonably — but unfortunately and also unwittingly(?) — teaching our children that CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RULES — and indirectly, that religious beliefs are foolish…
- IF cause-and-effect DOES rule, religious beliefs MUST BE foolish!
- Consequently, I’m “CLAIMING” that cause and effect does NOT rule
- In other words, our schools are (for the most part, unknowingly) teaching our kids DETERMINISM… the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-3&type=teff_10019_FFW_ZZ&grd=1&p=determinism
- And ATHEISM is the natural, logical, result
- Our schools and kids are more RATIONAL than ever
- And consequently, our kids are leaving Religion in droves
- In other words, for the sake of reason and honesty, our public schools are undermining our kids’ happiness
- I’m all for reason and honesty — and respect the schools’ motivation — but my BELIEF is that OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS just haven’t recognized the significant evidence FOR Religion, and are consequently doing our kids an enormous disservice…
- OUR CHURCHES AND SYNAGOGUES aren’t doing much better— they tell us a lot about WHAT to believe, but offer very little as to WHY to believe
- My objective here is to show that there actually ARE some serious reasons to believe in “MAGIC”…
- It’s just that the serious reasons to believe aren’t nearly as OBVIOUS as are the serious reasons to disbelieve
- And consequently, religious parents and teachers of religion are not able to argue their cases very effectively
- And, if we parents want our kids to be happy, we need to learn about the serious evidence FOR religion, and pass it on to our kids
- S0, the OBVIOUS PROBLEM we have with Religion is that what makes a “social-cultural system” a RELIGION is an underlying belief in “MAGIC” — and most of us well-educated, western parents do not believe in magic.
- Or at least, most of us do not THINK that we believe in magic
- But then, most of us ACTUALLY DO BELIEVE in magic— we just haven’t made the necessary connections…
- For instance, reality is either a deterministic machine – or, it is (at least) somewhat “magical”
- There is no other possibility
- And, if there is such a thing as FREE WILL, reality is NOT a deterministic machine.
- In other words, if YOU BELIEVE IN FREE WILL, YOU ALREADY BELIEVE IN MAGIC
- Keep that in mind as you judge western Religion…
- In still other words, if there is such a thing as free will, modern science and thought must be missing (or misunderstanding) a WHOLE DIMENSION (or something — or more)
- Again, Religion requires the existence of MAGIC – and if you believe in free will, you already believe in magic
- And again, again — keep that in mind…
- If you DON’T believe in free will (yet), keep thinking
- More to come…
MY BEST GUESSES (SO FAR)
