Logic and Spiritual Beliefs (A Conversation)

The following is a conversation that started in a chat with my aunt on Facebook concerning the afterlife and spirituality. I always love talking about this stuff (I realize others do not), so I thought I would share for any who care to read. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

I guess my first thought when it comes to the human need for a belief in "otherworldliness" and the afterlife is that it is uniquely a human belief. Humans are the only creatures on the entire planet, that we know of, that have brains capable of comprehending their own deaths far in advance of their own deaths. Therefore we can plan for them, make attempts to avoid dying, make plans for those who will be left in our absence, and maybe more significantly, worry incessantly about dying and make very poor, shallow decisions based in clinging to something that will inevitably end. This is why I believe that what one creates during his or her life is what goes on, not the actual person or the "soul" of the person. If a person was a total asshole for his entire life, when he dies he will likely leave behind a total mess that will be passed down to the next generation (much in the same way Bush, a total asshole, passed on a wreck of a country to Obama/ all of us). On the other hand, if a person lives a magnanimous and altruistic life, he will actually solve problems that were left to him and pass on a better situation to the next generation. In this way, these people are with us for a long time after they are gone and the more good they do while here, the longer lasting their inspiring influence; the more negative, the longer lasting their mess will hang around.

So, I believe this is where religion comes from; the attempt to build a community based on values that are timeless--such as not taking others lives prematurely or out of anger or fear or lust or spite, etc; not taking sex so lightly that one forgets that life can be produced with this act and will then need a responsible set of parents to flourish; not getting so caught up in day to day logistics that we forget to slow down and appreciate the finer things in life while we still have it--otherwise our life can devolve into the pursuit of comfort and money and "things" and we start overlooking the big-picture goal which, I believe to be to improve ones life and pass on a better situation for our children. What I think religion has turned into for many is the need for an authority figure to tell them how to behave because many people do not develop into rational thinking adults with adult tastes and adult interests with adult brains capable of comprehending these mature subjects and having adult conversations about them. Therefore they cling to their fear of death and begin thinking everyone in the world is as scary and immature and unenlightened as they are and that they need protection from these scary people. They also begin to see their religion as "THE WAY" that all must come to in order to become enlightened, rational people with mature insights into life and begin expending massive amounts of energy, money, effort, etc. arguing over the specifics of how we ALL (all 6.5 billion and growing of us) should be living in order to achieve God's graces. The irony is of course that the more rigid one becomes in believing in something that is essentially unknowable (and can only be speculated about) the more the person begins to break all of these timeless values in an attempt to get others to think the way they do (i.e. starting wars, fighting instead of discussing, becoming bitter and callous and unopen, protectionist, etc)--when the ultimate goal in the first place was to get people who might devolve into unloving, killing, raping, thieves and liars (or more animalistic, uncivilized behaviors) to not do these things out of fear and guilt that God is watching.

Enter 21st century science and logic: we have overcome a lot of the problems that religion and spirituality once had to deal with through scientific inquiry and viable studies. We don't have to guilt our kids into abstinence anymore because we can educate them on where babies come from and how diseases are contracted and how to avoid both while still enjoying the pleasures of sex. However, we still have a huge chunk of people believing this is absurd and immoral to talk to young people (who are already talking about sex and having it) about something that is so clearly sinful based on books written 2000 years ago in the most war-stricken region of the entire world because of differing religious beliefs. I say, who the hell cares what religion says on this topic (and many topics), we've solved the problem. They say, it wasn't our problem to solve and we should just take what God gives us and suffer through it. I say, we can't think clearly and solve problems if we're always suffering, fearful, and feeling guilty and judgemental. So this is a real problem with respect to the afterlife. If they are correct and it is as simple as God spoke to the prophets and we're just supposed to live out what these religious texts say (which are highly open to interpretation) than yes, America is the devil, science is an arrogant, shallow, sinful area of study and we're all going to hell for messing with God's infallible creation. If, as many of us have obviously accepted in western culture, there is nothing supernatural controlling what happens here in reality and we are completely in control of our own fate, than America is a leader and science and logic trump religion and we should be having secular, rational arguments about how to live as ethical and free-thinking human beings, enjoying life and passing on a healthier, happier world to our children. I know many are trying to reconcile these two schools of thought, but I really don't think it's entirely possible, suffice to say that there are things science hasn't explained yet and things science has created that have not been positive and thus we still need to instill a sense of humanity, morality, and responsibility as we progress. However, as long as people still believe that there are ghosts and spirits and gods guiding our behaviors I think we are actually inhibiting our society from maturing and controlling its own fate; rather encouraging people to ignore our leaders in logic and science and philosophy and turn to books written in a time and place that is completely unfathomable by today's standards. I know it is comforting to believe that there are "angels among us" but unless those angels have studied 21st century law, ethics, and scientific inquiry, they may very well be out of touch with what one needs to know to achieve some level of peace and satisfaction in today's world.

Anyway, that's where I am with it all these days. I am open to more fantastical interpretations. I'm a creative person and I enjoy fantasy and imagination and there really is no way to know that we aren't just pawns of the spiritual world. However, for the practical purposes of living sane lives and having sane conversations about life, I do believe it is healthy to be able to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality and travel between the two worlds in a way that doesn't suggest to others that we are unreliable narrators of our own experiences.