People make choices about they believe. Faced with opposing ‘facts’ they opt for one said by someone of their own tribe or they choose the one that most closely follows their existing belief. This isn’t about lying or even lying to oneself. It is about the complete lack of any attempt at objective thinking because…
Tag: religion
I Don’t Need …
I don’t need a god to tell me not to kill, not to go to war, not to lie to to make money, not to rape or abuse women, not to hurt children, not to place my culture above all others, not to think of my country as better than all others, not to demand…
The Science In Religion
There are many books looking at belief vis-a-vis science and trying, desperately at times, to marry the two together. Only because so many people cannot bare to be without their belief. But there are a few very important ways in which the two are similar. We do not know if other animals have as intricate…
Solving Murders
There are hundreds of shows on TV around the world involving murder – the vast majority of these shows solve the murder clues and catch or kill the murderer. We can leave aside the known double-standards human beings have in defining murder with murder (when it comes to war and killing animals,) because the reason…
Running Without Satire
There are those who think Candide is a huge satire poking fun at writers and society at one and the same time. Which, seeing as most great writers have been somehow outside mainstream society, is quite an interesting conceit and once which Voltaire is easily capable of managing. Gulliver’s Travels has long been the bane…
Ethics and Fantasy
There are two broad aspects to all religions. On the one hand there are the stories and texts that tell the story upon which the religion is based and which form the ‘holy writ’ of the original event or events. On the other are the works, redactions and thoughts, of the theologians and others who…
Autumn
This morning is very bright and sunny, chilly to the skin and the leaves are all massed along the sides of the road and strewn across the fields. The grass is so wet it is more like paddling than walking but the sun was just at the right angle for me to catch the spider…
And Man Created Fire
There is a great yearning inside humanity for warmth. Warmth keeps us alive, makes us feel good and cures many aches and pains. Warmth is our emotional friend. And a certain amount of artificial warmth is always beneficial whether it be a log fire or a warm hot water bottle to warm your feet. But…
The High Places
Religiosity is on the increase in every part of the world apart from Western Europe. Many years ago I thought of making a series about ‘The High Places’ and why so many religions across the world went ‘up’ mountains to worship their gods. If this had been the only thing religious people did it would…