necessary skepticism

"The tenets of skepticism do not require an advanced degree to master, as most successful used car buyers demonstrate. The whole idea of a democratic application of skepticism is that everyone should have the essential tools to effectively and constructively evaluate claims to knowledge. All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their television commercials.

"But the tools of skepticism are generally unavailable to the citizens of our society. They're hardly ever mentioned in the schools, even in the presentation of science, its most ardent practitioner, although skepticism repeatedly sprouts spontaneously out of the disappointments of everyday life. Our politics, economics, advertising, and religions (New Age and Old) are awash in credulity. Those who have something to sell, those who wish to influence public opinion, those in power, a skeptic might suggest, have a vested interest in discouraging skepticism."

The Demon-Haunted World, (p. 76-77) --Carl Sagan

reason fails religionists

apologists needed

A religion that employs apologists for its defense must have problems. If truth is not obvious to those sincerely seeking, and an army of apologists are needed for its defense and explanation, is it really worth following?

not to be found

Finding specific scripture passages in order to solve problems was always a problem during my years as a Christian. About five years ago I ended up needing real answers in my life. Going to the Bible was not the direction I took however. It wasn't because I didn't know the Bible. The problem was in getting its words to magically do the work of instruction and healing in my particular case. It hadn't worked over the years, why should it now, was my thinking?

Learning and understanding psychological processes inside me and others helped the most. A person can't really expect ancient Hebrew writers to know much if anything about psychology? It's a fairly new science, about 100 years old. Why would we expect answers from a book that primarily tells you what not to do? At the least it should clearly tell you what to do once you've messed up the first instruction... certainly something more useful than "forgiving and forgetting" would've been nice.

the biased brain in our head

“Arriving at belief in an infallible God by way of an

inerrant Bible requires an unwarranted belief in yourself.”

Valerie Tarico, PhD., Christian Belief

Through the Lens of Cognitive Science

Human cognitive research, which deals with the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment and reasoning, suggests that none of us are fair-minded, neither are we reasonable. Valeria Tarico says from the same writing quoted above that our brain “pits itself against our natural leanings, erects barriers across the openings to rabbit trails, and systematically exposes faulty thinking to public critique. In fact, the scientific method has been called ‘what we know about how not to fool ourselves.'”

Continuing with Tarico, she says, “We distort reality in a host of ways - many of which are extravagantly self-serving. We take undue credit for successes, and blame failures on external circumstances (attribution biases). We even revise history so that, in hindsight, our failures were simply to be expected because of the challenges we faced (retroactive pessimism). We retain memories of when we were kind, funny, personable, and clever, better than memories of when we were boorish and mean. On average, we expect to live ten years longer than average. And virtually all of us who believe in heaven think we are going there. To put it bluntly, each of us is the protagonist in a custom-made Hollywood movie with the best possible camera angles. Our self-serving biases may have a positive function. They may play a role in fending off depression, feeding hope, and getting us to try harder. But they also help to explain why stunningly self-centered religious beliefs don’t trigger any alarms.”

These biases may explain why I spent most of my life believing something I would never have been able to prove if I had tried. The biases I now hold may explain why I’ve taken the direction I have taken lately in leaving religious belief. How can I know for sure that what I’m doing now is the “right“ thing to do? I can’t know for certain. I think the same is true for everyone else too.

Living from a mindset of “not knowing” instead of “knowing that I know” seems like a more honest platform from which to live. Since our brain works to support our biases, it becomes very important to examine why we believe what we believe. Are our biases supported with sufficient reason?

Since religion is all about belief (faith), and the “right“ belief at that, it becomes doubly important to examine those beliefs. Valerie Tarico says, “…Christianity sanctifies belief itself. ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house’ (Acts 16:31)”. True believers will not put themselves in the position to practically examine this verse. For many, because it’s in the Bible, it’s true. This puts the system of Christian belief in an awkward position. The system itself refutes examination. Believers believing in religious doctrines and texts are relegated to live with their blind spots. They have no choice if they are to be “true” believers. A predicament for sure, a strong case of Catch-22. This approach used to be mine, but I can no longer take it.

Religion is not going away anytime soon though. There is a complex mixture of many factors involved. Religions are married to the cultures in which they are found. And culture is very important to groups of people. Our identity and value as human beings is based on our acceptance in the group, which includes its culture and religion. We humans are unlikely to change quickly in one direction or another unless some catastrophe acts on us from the outside. For myself, that's what it took to shake me loose from my moorings of improbable ancient beliefs and superstitions.

moral relativism

Relativism is “the doctrine that no ideas or beliefs are universally true but that all are, instead, 'relative' - that is, their validity depends on the circumstances in which they are applied” according to a Dictionary.com entry.

I think all people are moral relativists. Dr. Hector Avalos wrote in Yahweh Is a Moral Monster, a chapter in the book I am currently reading called The Christian Delusion, that “human beings are always the ultimate judges of morality even if we believe in God. After all, the very judgment that God is good is a human judgment. The judgment that what God commands is good is also a human judgment. So Christians are not doing anything different except mystifying and complicating morality. Christians are simply projecting what they call “good” onto a supernatural being. They offer us no evidence that their notion of good comes from outside of themselves. And that is where the danger lies. Basing a moral system on unverifiable supernatural beings only creates more violence and endangers our species.”

The idea of a supernatural being passing morality to humans complicates the world. When different groups claim their god is the one and only true god, without being able to provide evidence, disputes break out resulting in conflicts and wars. History confirms this over and over.

Continuing with Dr. Avalos, “...atheism offers a much better way to construct moral rules. We can construct them on the basis of verifiable common interests, known causes, and known consequences.” By eliminating the religious avenue all together, morality is simplified and can be agreed upon by rational thinking human beings. The God-concept complicates things. I'm not saying that religion hasn't served humanity in some sense. I think it has, but I also think humans need to move into a higher understanding of how life works for survival's sake. In this modern age of nuclear weaponry, wars carry with them the possibility of annihilation. Religion may have provided us with emotional and psychological support over thousands of years, but perhaps it has also taken us closer to Earth history's end.

Relinquishing our beliefs in unverifiable premises (god/s) and analyzing our human situation rationally seems to me to be a better common solution to the warring problems we humans have created through our many religious differences.

the way i view all religions

Sam Harris wrote in his 2006 book, Letter to a Christian Nation, the following…

“CONSIDER: every devout Muslim has the same reasons for being a Muslim that you have for being a Christian. And yet you do not find their reasons compelling. The Koran repeatedly declares that it is the perfect word of the creator of the universe. Muslims believe this as fully as you believe the Bible’s account of itself. There is a vast literature describing the life of Muhammad that, from the point of view of Islam, proves that he was the most recent Prophet of God. Muhammad also assured his followers that Jesus was not divine (Koran 5:71-75; 19:30-38) and that anyone who believes otherwise will spend eternity in hell. Muslims are certain that Muhammad’s opinion on this subject, as on all others, is infallible.

“Why don’t you lose any sleep over whether to convert to Islam? Can you prove that Allah is not the one, true God? Can you prove that the archangel Gabriel did not visit Muhammad in his cave? Of course not. But you need not prove any of these things to reject the beliefs of Muslims as absurd. The burden is upon them to prove that their beliefs about God and Muhammad are valid. They have not done this. They cannot do this. Muslims are simply not making claims about reality that can be corroborated. This is perfectly apparent to anyone who has not anesthetized himself with the dogma of Islam.

“The truth is, you know exactly what it is like to be an atheist with respect to the beliefs of Muslims. Isn’t it obvious that Muslims are fooling themselves? Isn’t it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe has not read the book critically? Isn’t it obvious that the doctrine of Islam represents a near-perfect barrier to honest inquiry? Yes, these things are obvious. Understand that the way you view Islam is precisely the way devout Muslims view Christianity. And it is the way I view all religions.”

(Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris, pgs. 6-7)