The never-ending science vs. religion argument & the fors and againsts for religion (Religion)

Member Name: bkecky

Product:	Religion
Date:	27/06/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hope, peace, bringing communities together, something to have faith in when everything else is wrong

Disadvantages: Extremity, fanaticism, violence, control of freedom

Religion is probably the topic I am most confused by as it can be used for such much good and at the same time causes so much evil. I went to a Church of England school and was raised with basic Christian values but what I accepted as a child has only become more confusing as I have become older and I doubt I will ever figure out where I stand on the topic. It astounds me how logical-thinking people across the globe can believe in something that is beyond all reason, yet at the same time it is difficult to believe that there is nothing behind it when so many people believe in something. Plus there are so many cross-overs between different religions. In this review I will talk mostly about Christianity because I do not believe that I have sufficient knowledge to comment on other religions that I do not know the the beliefs of in their entirety. It is a bit of a touchy subject and I don't wish to offend any religious people, as I said I am somewhere in the middle on the subject, unsure of who to believe. So here I am writing the pros and cons for religion, in particular Christianity.

As Benjamin Franklin said, "The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of reason" and how has it become that for a world that is so advanced that religion is the one thing that has existed through the centuries but seems so unreasonable. One of the main problems I have with religion is the way that explanations are changed when a better explanation comes along. Years ago the creation was to be taken as fact as it was stated in the bible so therefore it was accepted that it was true. Then the Big Bang Theory and Theories of Evolution come into effect and suddenly it is not true but it is a teaching.

I find that religion can be used for so much good and to be a devout believer of religion and obeying the commandments that the Bible sets out can be beneficial to society as it gives us guidelines by which to live. David Myers concluded from a survey that actually religious people had higher self-esteem and well-being are twice as likely to report being very happy than the non-religious population. The average religious person is not harming anyone in their beliefs so what is the problem? Religion gives hope and what is the harm in believing in something that encourages you to carry on, that there is a reason for everything even though we may not understand. Religion helps people through times of despair and gives them something to live for. Karma is a classic example of how religion can be good, the balance of good and bad. One bad deed can be forgiven if a good deed is done and this is not a bad theory to hold close in life.

But where is that line when it becomes too much? At which point does it become evil? How can people who believe in what is supposed to be good create so much unrest and violence in the name of something that promotes peace? In this way I find religion hypocritical. How many times through the ages has religion be used to murder, steal, corrupt and control? How much blood has been shed in the name of a god who is not actually a sure thing? This brings up the theory of the Bible being written as a tool to control the masses and if this is true it is one amazing brainwashing. But I admit that I too have been brainwashed. How many of us in times of need have said a prayer "just in case"?

A Theology student once told me about a theory that the Bible was written by a cult on a bad trip and I have to say it seems a plausible explanation with the walking on water, technicolour coats, voices from above, water into wine. And just why was Jesus dehydrating the population with that wine when there was perfectly good water available? And even Jesus and his disciples themselves sound like a cult. Another theory is that Jesus was actually a conjurer and once again this seems completely plausible that we now know he did exist. An interesting question is to be put forward here. The second coming of Christ. If Christ did make his second coming and some bloke was going around claiming he was the son of God would anyone take a blind bit of notice? Well, yes briefly, and then we would lock Christ up in the asylum with the other presumed lunatics! The poor Jews got the brunt of killing Jesus but actually considering there is a bloke wondering aroundwith his mates, possibly high on some sort of plant concoction, claiming miracles and causing public chaos, well I don't think that anyone could really hold their hands up and say I would have joined his side and defended him, he was a good man, not a troublemaker. So I question whether the devout believers in the second coming would have actually learnt anything from the lessons that the Bible has supposed to have taught them.

Turning now my attention to God, I'm not sure I really want to be friends with him. As Richard Dawkins said in his documentary "The Root of All Evil?", "The god of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist, an ethnic-cleanser urging his people on to acts of genocide." How can there be so many contradictions? God is supposed to love us all yet in the Old Testament he is full of hatred for what he has created. The god described does not follow his own teachings.

The Catholic pratice of confession is also a confusing area for me because I cannot see how if you hurt someone and you generally repent and confess that then you are forgiven. Surely the effort that was put into asking for God's permission could have been used to try at least to build bridges and ask forgiveness of the person you hurt. It is almost like a slap on the wrist with don't do it again. But if you do it again and afterwards you genuinely repent then it will be alright again.

Then there is the science vs. religion debate. At the same time I am sceptical about science because as we have advanced we have seen many theories taken as fact proven to be false. So how do we know if we can trust our modern-day theories? Isn't science sort of like religion too? When the earth was claimed to be flat, it was considered common knowledge and nobody questioned it because a group of "highly intelligent people" said it was. I know I certainly haven't gone to the roots of scientific theories of basic everyday knowledge to find out why they exist, I just accept it the same as through the ages we have just accepted that God exists because a group of chosen people told us so.

So if God does not exist why has the world been plagued with his affairs for centuries? Surely there must be something behind it all. With me I feel it's a case of I can't make my mind up because of all the conflicts. There is so much evidence against religion that indicates that it is merely superstition but what is there to prove it exists? There are Jewish writings that mention Jesus' existence and there have been previous occassions when events have been dismissed as glorified tales and have actually been proven later on such as the king, Sargon, mentioned in Isaiah. He was thought to be a myth because he was not mentioned anywhere else but then his palace was discovered in Iraq and the event described in Isaiah was found recorded on the palace walls. So there is definitely some sort of historical grounding on the subject of Christianity it is just how much of it is real and how much is not.

So to conclude I am thoroughly perplexed by religion and what it stands for as there are so many different sects and groups that claim the same God yet believe totally different interpretations of religion. After writing all this is am still not sure and I hope I didn't offend anyone or confuse anyone more who was already confused! I suppose it is a question that we will never be able to answer but all I know is that if this religion was created from a conjurer or cult, they must be having a jolly good laugh at us all now!

Summary: Still confused!