thoughts on religious humanism

[Neal Oldham]

I have gone through most of life thinking of religion as an unalloyed evil in this world.  The idea that the worship of a fictitious god justified so much ignorance and violence was very repulsive to me.

A major change happened when I was in Asia and nearly caught up in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.  Morakot caused a lot of damage, particularly in southern Taiwan, where I had been spending a lot of time.

Hoping to find a good charity to help, all my research uncovered that the most effective charity in terms of helping people was the Tzu Chi Foundation.  This foundation has been one of the more effective charities in the world.

The underlying principle of Tzu Chi is humanistic Buddhism -- i.e., Buddhism practice with an emphasis on charity and compassion as opposed to ritual.

So this really made me think -- the fact is, most religions have a strong humanistic component:  The practice of compassion and helping as opposed to finding redemption through ritual.  

Christianity and Buddhism both have very strong humanistic components.  Hinduism does not -- in fact, you could describe it as an anti-humanistic religion thanks to the caste system and other aspects -- but it did produce one of the greatest humanists and humanitarians of all time, Mohandas Gandhi.

I am not sure that, as people, we can do much good without a belief in something bigger than us.  The cycle of economic growth and bust is not sustainable and prosperity is just one side of a coin which has misery on the other.  The only solution is to cast the coin into the ocean.

This, religious humanism, is what I think this the best way to help folks through the upcoming crisis -- not hoarding guns or gold or thinking swapping power generation from one form to another is a great improvement.  A society which is inculcated with compassion can survive the worst of traumas.  The recurring presence of religion throughout history says something fundamental about people, and it is more productive to help the people we have than to expect them to change.

Climate catastrophe was never a technological problem to be fixed by technological means.  It was a human problem to be fixed by human means.

Om mani padme hum,

Neal.

[the27man]

my initial reactions was to post "you're preaching to the choir" not just because what you mentioned is very akin to my own viewpoint, but because it also made me giggle when i thought of the literal context of the expression.

that aside, any time this type of discussion rears its head, i cannot help but think of the following passage:

"what do i sell?  the truth.  every blessed word of it, from genesis on down to revelations.  that's right: the word of god, which, let me tell you, there is damn good money in during these times of woe and want."

-Big Dan T, from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

no point to that.  i just find it to be one of those comical yet profound statements for so many occasions, how "big dan" is both a product and a supplier, and also how he, the morally unjust, is the very means for the morally just to obtain their guidance.  i digress.

i don't tend to have any beef with most religions/beliefs/whatever.  i've found that it's almost always the -isists who give the -isms a bad name.  the faith is fine; the followers are flawed.  but ultimately, any time the world around us has crumbled, it is our collective nature to aspire to more hopeful rewards.  

i'll stop answering emails well after bedtime.

-micah

[Neal Oldham]

Yeah, it's the proselytization that is really the problem.  The only thing that works is unconditional charity.

I think, in the absence of functioning sociopolitical structures, it's either humanistic religion, hard drugs, or violent anarchy.  I definitely vote for the former.

[Steven Tyree]

I'm going to chime in with lots of random bits:

 

Micah, write anytime, day or night. 

 

It's worth noticing that virtually all cultures have religious beliefs and structures.  This leads me to believe that from an evolutionary standpoint, religions help the societies they dwell in survive, outcompeting other societies.  Otherwise, how could you explain the stupendous resources they commandeer?

 

I think religion is a way of scaling up family hierarchies.  How do you harness the efforts of thousands, or millions, or people?  However you do it, they need to bow to a higher authority.  Religion does this very neatly, with a minimum of effort for the organizers.  In this sense, religion was crucial to the historic rise of city states.  Cities that better organized and controlled their populations had a distinct advantage over their neighbors, allowing them to expand.

 

Religions, like other human mechanisms such as corporations, tribes, and nations, display many of the characteristics of living organisms, including evolution, growth, propogation, a will to survive, and eventual death.

 

Much of the tension in humanity emanates from the polarity of cooperation and competition, selfishness and selflessness.  We are currently living in a very selfish, egocentric culture.  Personally I think a big part of this is due to the focus on a consumer economy that benefits from isolating individuals and convincing them that the solution to their loneliness is the products offered for sale, but I digress.  Religions offer a counterbalance to this depravity, one that is not in direct competition with corporate earnings and is thus more tolerated.

 

The city states that prospered did so in part because they had a large percentage of "follower personalities" in their populations.  This made it easy to organize.  If you ever wonder why there are so many people in the world that act like sheep, I think that's a big reason.

 

Two cent's worth.

 

Steve

--
Steven R. Tyree
Odyssey Energy Solutions Inc.
IDCLLC
641 Huddleston Rd.
Lascassas, TN 37085
615-286-2716 office
615-427-3050 cell