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Friday, March 06, 2009

Jumáh Journal--Life without religion

Atheism and a-religiousness may not necessarily be synonymous but they are close.
Suppose you have no religion and say your brother requires a kidney for survival. Would you donate your kidney? and if you do why? and if you dont , why not?
Well if you donate, you are sacrificing your own kidney and undergoing a hazardous procedure leaving you with only one kidney which may be OK for you but would leave you rather vulnerable as compared to your present position of health. Its yours why would you part with it?
Because it is a good deed. Aha! What is good and how do you reach that conclusion?
How do you define what "good" is?
If you do not sacrifice your kidney that is good for you because you will remain healthier.
How does that "good" differs from other above stated good?
What principals determine that "goodness"?
These are some of the Philosophical questions, that may require the assistance of
Humanitarianism (what is humanitarianism?)
Relativism

and God knows how many other "isms" in order to make some sense out of the answer.
To stay out of "religion" is more confusing and less clearcut. The norms given with their relative importance and where which of the norms will be preferred etc. are all in the teachings to guide the human beings.
So far , so good. But if the teachings become dogmatic and forceful and out of context and irrelevant with preferences becoming personal rather than those belonging to teachings, the religion becomes "trouble" by itself. If you give a sword in the hands of a novice or a child you are going to see bad results, it must be given in proper hands for it to be successfully and properly used.
I have only taken one example above to make a certain point.
Then for the atheist comes the question
Why believe in God? and you get into another set of questions and philosophy. May be I am not the philosophical type. Have a nice day.