Belief

[andrewducker]

There's a terrible article in the Guardian on belief here.  I was vaguely incensed by various bits of it, but particularly by

If we truly believed that life was meaningless, we would have no reason to get up in the morning - ultimately, the most rational thing to do would be to jump over the edge of a cliff.

I've seen this kind of thinking before.  And never an explanation of _why_ jumping over the edge of a cliff is more rational than going for a long bath, having sex, or saving children from starvation.

The answer is that none of these is inherently rational - all of them are choices, based around our emotions, and just because we don't have a 'reason' it doesn't suddenly make us stop caring about things.  It just means that our emotions are rooted in ourselves, not in some kind of universe-defining primal cause.

On the other hand, it can mean that if what really, truly drives you is TV, beer and Nachos, then that's fine too:

Comments

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I just read that article about 20 mins ago. I agree with a lot of what you said.

There's a better article on patent ownership which I plan to comment on myself.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

...many secular ideologies, such as Marxism and liberal humanism, are essentially theological narratives in structure and function, though arguably less coherent...

Apart from the small but important fact that most organised religions are bast around the concept of the concept of an all powerful "sky bully" serving out heaping piles of contradiction to base our actions upon.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Nicely put. :)

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Apart from the grammar and typos. Too much Java today. Of both kinds.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Didn't even notice them, mate. My brain is totally elsewhere today.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I remember a comedian a few years ago who talked about a conversation with a very religious friend: if you're not religious, how do you know what to do (and what not do)? The guy started going through the Ten Commandments: Hmm, my neighbor's wife, should I sleep with her, or not? I just don't know!

LMAO--and that was even before polyamory became so popular in fandom.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I like your way of thinking.

[darkoshi]

Why does one get up in the morning? To use the bathroom, of course. And because there's only so long one can lie awake in bed without becoming bored and restless.

And the reason one does or doesn't jump off a cliff usually has more to do with whether or not one enjoys being alive, I would think, than with whether one thinks there's meaning to it.

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

I think the best metaphor for human consciousness is that of the giant whale plummeting through the upper atmosphere of megerara (?) - we don't know how we came to be on a planet (that's rotating, and revolving..), we take quite a while to work out what our body bits are, what they do, how to work them - even longer to work out what we are - and, after a brief period that is relatively unimportant, we collide with the surface of a large planet, and find ourselves dead. To my mind, any other questions about us are about as solvable as zen koans; understandable if you're in an altered state of mind, pointless if you're not. All I know is that there are things which make me, individually, happy, and things that make me sad. Who cares if 'Happy' and 'Sad' are evolutionary by-products that on another society would be either irrelevant or inconceivable; they are traits common to the most of humanity, and, if I can conceivably do something at little or no cost to myself that would make another experience that totally irrational, pointless, stupid flow of molecules to the brain that produces the 'Happy' feeling, then I shall, by every god you care to name, do it.


And nice cartoon.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Definitely a moronic article. Despite my various eccentric spiritual beliefs, I am firmly convinced that the only purpose we have is one we make for ourselves. So, my philosophy of life is essentially be happy, do what I love and try to be good to people I care about. I'm unsurprised that a Buddhist would conclude that if life had no purpose "the most rational thing to do would be to jump over the edge of a cliff" because Buddhism, like most other major world religions are based on the idea that the world is a wretched place full of suffering. That sort of idea played well for most people 100+ years ago, and even more 200+ years ago, it was largely true. However, even then it ignored the fact that many people even back in the wretchedness that was the pre-industrial era enjoyed their lives. However, such ideas are far less relevant today, because life is pretty darn pleasant for most people in the First World.

I'm betting that spirituality and religion remains popular, but that as more people have comfy First World lifestyles, the anti-worldly (and to my mind utterly nihilistic) faiths like Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism will likely decline. I'm fairly certain that one of the reasons that Christianity is so much more lively in US than the EU is the lack of a social safety net and so more people lack pleasant lifestyles and many of those who have them fear losing them at any moment due to seemingly random events like lay-offs or illness.