The idea of the Artificial God is something I’ve gotten from Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide books and Dirk Gently’s Holisitic Detective Agency, among others. The essay is online, and it’s done as much to shape my spiritual life (such as it is) as anything I’ve ever read.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
On Belief and the Artificial God
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Great post. I have so many thoughts about it I can't seem to order them into a short comment. By and large I agree, except that I don't see nearly as much comfort attributable to faith as I used to, or as you see now. But I don't see any value in antagonizing people either.
ReplyDeleteThis post pushed one of my (many) buttons.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the only religious precept needed is The Golden Rule. If you want to attribute it to a "Higher Power", fine. If like-minded individuals use The Golden Rule as a reason for social gathering and support, great. Birds of a feather.
But any organized religion becomes a means for power and control by men towards other men. Like any power structure it wants to expand and acquire more power and will do so by any means it can get away with. This might be quiet attempts at persuasion or the atrocities of militant Islam and the Inquisition.
If people attend a church to reinforce their better qualities, that is fine and none of my business. If they use their faith as a means of judging and coercing others, there's a problem.
On the other hand, it irritates me when there is a reflexive denigration of an individual's actions that have any faith-based aspect. These are people who feel free to make comments and funny faces because a family says grace, in a quiet and unobtrusive manner, before a restaurant meal. Your co-worker's hike will be enhanced, in his estimation, because of his faith, which effects no one else. That smarmy, tatooed punk you mentioned is as intolerant as any religious zealot.
Jeff The Bear