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 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, that may 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 of this — but I tend to believe, because I seem to have recognized 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 ARE foolish!
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
