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datapad
Saturday, April 23, 2005
alright, alright, so you all probably know to which post this post is in correspondence to, so i shan't bother with explaining. so let's start right from the beginning. what's the definition of "stupid" here? well, if you're comparing between human beings and golden retrievers, sure, humans AREN'T stupid (MINDS kids excluded)... but in this case i'd say that the stubborn and unthinking people of this world can pretty much be labelled as stupid too. and not to mention those somewhat logically-impaired normal technical students... i'm serious. i've talked to them before, and never want to do so ever again, for as long as i live. i'd say that in the specific case of singapore, the reason why we are able to exist in religious harmony is because most people consciously choose to downplay the actual dogmas of their own religion (the goal of christianity IS evangelism, like it or not, for We are His Chosen People and We must be taught to see the light, or we will not attain salvation and spend the rest of eternity with the Lord our Saviour...) they are willingly making sacrifices at the expense of their own religion for the greater good of mankind as well as for the advancement of science. the very fact that there is scientific progress shows that, more and more, people are making concessions on the part of religion for the nobler ideal of objective truth. but by doing so, they are already defying their own religion to a certain extent by refusing to follow the sacred creed! i applaud that, but i'm quite certain that's not how the current pope, former member of the Inquisition and the world's most vehement opposer of secularism, would feel. for in his eyes, his religion is the one true creed, and by God, it is meant to be blindly followed. so for most people, religion has already lost most of its original purpose for which it was created (to explain away the creation of the universe and to provide a path towards the attainment of salvation), and instead has become simply a matter of convenience, a tool whereby they can seek solace with fellow believers in the knowledge that it is not their fault that things do not turn out right, but that God has a plan and we exist to carry out His plan, so we are not supposed to question it. (if the fundamentally flawed cause for social cohesion here isn't apparent by now, i have nothing else to say.) besides, i am not saying that the possibility of the existence of a creator (no matter how remote) is fundamentally flawed, nor am i saying that religion is fundmentally flawed because it is the cause of religous conflict if interpreted literally, but rather, the unquestioning belief in the existence of a god that is. i concede that religion can be a rather useful way to prevent believers from "sinning", and in so doing maintain a semblance of social cohesion, for fear of the consequences of eternal damnation as well as for want of salvation, but then again, this system of reward and punishment that is quite ostensibly a human construct is simply distasteful. they (the believers) are not doing good out of love for their fellow human beings(in contrast with secular humanism), but instead they are doing it for the promised consequences in the afterlife. that again, no matter how it can be argued, is still plain deceitful... i can't imagine how a theist would feel if one day, it were to be known that there is no afterlife. to end off, i reiterate my earlier point, that it is indeed heartening to see religion slowly but surely giving way to science and truth. pope john paul the second's acceptance and tolerance of scientific pursuit as well as his public apology for the Inquisition's treatment of Galileo is evident of the growing acceptance of science as the key to uncovering the mysteries of our universe, and it has also given me the impression that, were he given, perhaps, a hundred years more to live, it would be possible for him to shed his religious beliefs entirely. ...i'm not so sure about benedict the sixteenth though. somebody please do something about that guy! |
