TBH all these debates have brought to rethink my own positon, and this is what Ive come up with. Basically, just like I cant understand how religious people can say they KNOW God exists , it would make no sense for me to say that I KNOW God does NOT exist. Neither can be sure, either way. What I do believe is that, IF God exists, it certainly is not under the form presented by us by the monotheistic religions, the little that I know of them make no sense, and too many things point to them being political organisations using beliefs for their own benefit. (Do we really think its a coincidence the Vatican was set up in the capital of the most powerful empire at the time, and that Christianity adopted its language, before condonning slavery and colonization ?
).
I try to make a difference between « God » and « Religion ». The former may or not exist (no one knows either way
FOR SURE) but we all know that religions, as organisations, exist. Thats what I cannot believe in when I see all the bs people have done and are doing in the name of religion. I have no problem with people believing what they want to believe, as long as that belief does not have concrete political and societal consequences on the lives of people who DO NOT believe. An example is abortion : if you dont want to abort because of your beliefs, thats your life and you make the call, but that belief should not stop a non-believer to have the right to decide otherwise. The freedom to choose is what I want, and too often religions go precisely against that. I find it bafling that many religious people just can't accept other persons freedom, while it has absolutely NO effect on their own beliefs/lifestyles. Same in politics when politicians (but also average people), when they dont have any arguments left, use the « Because God says so » or the « Morality » card. Greatest cop-out ever, because if you dont agree, youre « heretic/infidel/demonic/immoral/deserve to burn in hell
».
I think religion is basically just trying to make sense out of what we dont understand (yet). « Its Gods plan » is basically saying « I have no idea why your little girl had to be trun over but an convicted felon that got out on a technicality». Somethings are too strong, too complex, too « big » for us to properly understand/cope with, and it frightens us, and having religion and a God is reassuring in the sense that it takes some of the responsibility off of us. Same with tragedies : if we believe in Heaven and Hell, we can have hope that if youre good, no matter how shytty your life on Earth is youll enjoy the afterlife, and Hell allows us to « accept » the horrors us Humans are capable of : the shooter who randomly shot up your kids school and killed your twins, the dude who raped your wife, the genocidaire who killed 100.000 random people, just because they were of a different race/religion/region.
Its also, in a sense, an « escape » from life. I dont know how to formulate this, but I think we all have some form of energy we NEED to invest in something that totally « takes us over » and allows us to escape from every day life. In a good way, it can be a passion (a sport, a cultural activity, a relationship
), in a bad way it can be an obsession/dependence (excessive drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling
), I think religion fits in this pattern, but it can go both ways. Religion can indeed be good (can give direction to ones life, a sense of community, « answers » to certain questions) (thats basically what happened with my sister) or bad (fanatism, lack of critical thinking, blind following, hate). Its the very power of persuasion of religion (meaning the power of persuasion of its leaders none of which is really « appointed » by God) that is frightening to me, just as with any political leader who can easily use « truths » about this race/group being « superior/better/harder workers/more « moral »/more American/French/Belgian » than others (same as « believers being better than infidels ») for example.
Another beef I have with religion is that it oversimplifies things : good vs bad, heaven and hell. We all know life is more complex than that, hell the very definition of what is bad has evolved over the years.
All in all Id be much closer to polytheist religions, because it seems to better reflect the diversity of life and is closer to human nature (in CAR, there are « bad » Gods too, just like we have « bad » behaviours ). But I dont know enough though. I DO believe in what some may call « karma », but I think its just all things being linked and that things really do come back to you, good or bad. But thats not even necessarily « mystic », I know aint much good happening to me now because Im not creating the circumstances for good stuff to happen to me in the first place. Is there something out there, maybe, but a lot stuff that was before explained by mysticism ended up having scientific reasons, it just takes time to find them out. And maybe we wont understand everything, but is that a sufficient reason to believe in something we KNOW we wont discover is true or not before we die ? Thats truly a leap of faith, and in my life I have not witnessed ONE single event or discussion that could push me into believing in (a) God.
Sorry for the long read but bored at work again