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

[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.