I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT RELIGION: I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT TO ME SEEMS LIKE A WIDESPREAD ANIMOSITY TOWARD RELIGION. I HAVE A SUSPICION THIS WILL SOUND LAME WHEN I PUT IT INTO WORDS.
This might have something to do with my more or less secular upbringing. The only time in my childhood when religion personally affected me to the point where I thought about it was when I was nine and I was making up a civilisation in my backyard and I told my mom I was going to make up some gods for my civilisation and she looked at me in horror and told me the real God wouldn't like that and for a few days I was grumpy and I wondered why God would care whether or not I made up some other gods because He knows I'm just pretending, right? How petty. And then I made up some gods anyway because I didn't really believe in God, I didn't disbelieve in God but I just didn't care either way. And I feel more or less the same way today. I don't think the existence or absence of God is an interesting question because you can't prove it one way or the other. It seems like a hassle. I guess I am an atheist because God seems like a far out, unlikely notion to me. The universe without a god feels more natural. But a person who believes God might feel the existence of a god is obvious and a godded universe is natural. I haven't come across an argument that would make my view more valid than a theist's. To be honest I've not put a lot of thought to it.
I think my interest in/tolerance for religion stems from my secular attitude toward life. I think generally-- I am not important. And my life has no meaning or plan. But this is kind of nice, no? This means that (within reason) I get to spend my life on what is important to me.* And as far as I can tell the thing I should spend my life doing while I'm alive and human is figure out what it's like to be human.** Most humans aren't me so I spend a lot of time trying to work out what it's like to be someone who isn't me. And most humans have religion. So lately I've been doing what I can to understand religion.
When someone characterises all people who follow religion as stupid/unthinking, I take issue with that. In the past few years as I have become more open-minded about religion and I've made more overtly religious friends and had actual conversations about religion, which is not something I'd done before. It's a different way of thinking than I'm used to- arguing within a specific moral/mythical framework. I am also not convinced that a religious person can't also believe in science and vice versa. My grandfather, for example, was a devout Christian but also a rocket scientist.
My thinking is that religion is dominant cultural values justified supernaturally.
I might feel differently if I'd grown up in and rebelled against a religious background. And my perceived "widespread animosity toward religion" is probably not so widespread. I just move in predominantly secular circles. I am anti-animosity in either/any direction. I am glad I live in Australia. People are generally friendly and open about religion here. I have friends with all sorts of religious backgrounds and it's never been an issue. My experience growing up in/traveling around America was different.
Anyway. My thoughts don't seem to be entirely clear on this. What do you think?
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IT IS LATE JANUARY BUT THIS IS MY FIRST POST OF THE YEAR JUSTIFY JUSTIFY GOAL LIST.
This year I want to:
study some European languages (casually. I miss casual language study! Also I'm keen to study some other part of the world. Europe is so exotic to me now).
Improve my Chinese to the point where I can pass the HSK 4 or 5/read blogs without a lot of difficulty
finish my degree
start a running blog with Mel
participate in some kind of running event
That is probably enough.
Sometimes I feel like I should be a better person. But I don't know how to make this a quantifiable goal.
*It also makes me feel more personally responsible for the way I affect the world around me.
**I think many of my life choices which have worked against me in terms of finance/stability have worked for me in terms of my desire to understanding what it's like to be human (eg having a child). And sometimes I make choices that compromise my other values for the sake of human understandment (eg going omnivore).
