Bolding mine.
What religion are you talking about there? Doesn’t sound like any I know of.
It’s a pretty clear implication of Christianity. If God is omniscient and omnipotent like Christians say, then all of humanity’s errors and defects and evils were deliberately put there by God.
It increases it dramatically for me.
The fact that we are risen monkeys and evolved from self replicating bits of microscopic organisms is very empowering.
We have only had (meaningful) advances in technology, engineering, medicine and science for 300 years. But in those 300 years we have mastered fields like chemistry, math, physics, engineering, biology, medicine.
I know some people will say ‘yeah but we haven’t mastered those issues’. I don’t agree, I think people are comparing our current health to a utopian ideal. Compared to the world of 500 years ago, we are many light years ahead in medicine. The vast majority of the diseases that afflict humanity are either cured or can be controlled if you have the money. As it stands, it seems a few dozen diseases make up the bulk of the health problems we face nowadays. The rest seem to be curable or preventable. There are still illnesses, but as a WAG I’d say we have conquered most health issues our species has to worry about.
So the fact that a bunch of monkeys with slightly bigger brains can figure out the laws of chemistry, physics and math in a few hundred years (which doesn’t even register in universe time) is amazing.
Also evolution is good because by taking a diety out of the picture, you realize we are responsible for each other. I realize there is no benevolent, involved diety watching out for us. The holocaust didn’t happen because God had some divine purpose, nor could God have stopped it. Only we are responsible for those things. It is very empowering to know we are responsible for ourselves.
Someone needs to do a poll to see if Lobsang can post polls properly. I vote no.
there was a time when some physicists claimed all of physics was known and all that was left was getting better numerical values for all of it. how wrong that idea was.
i think if someone knows science they know the limits of what is known and how much more we don’t know. a wise scientist knows ignorance.
science (chemistry, math, physics, biology, medicine) and technology (chemistry, engineering, biology, medicine) can be very different in what is an achievement. even though a lot has been done in technology there will always be room for more or better.
there are thoughts that a god(s) created matter and let evolution of the universe (and all that is in it) happen. there are thoughts that a god created the universe, earth, humans and animals a few thousand years ago and made it appear that things were actually older or created thought different means either as a test of faith or a joke. so divine creation and evolution (or the appearance of it) aren’t necessarily exclusive, though the goodness of man may only have been intentional in the handful of clay type story.
there are philosophies (buddhism is one) where it doesn’t matter how things got started, we are just better off with a good view and practice towards others. the actions and attitudes pay for itself.
It doesn’t enhance nor subtract. It is just a part of life.
Evolution is just plain cool, but I don’t think it really influences my view of humanity at all.
And some people tried to close the patent office 100 years ago, saying all the big inventions had been made. So I know that we still have a lot of things to learn. But some issues like newtonian physics seem to be more or less conquered. And the majority of infectious diseases have been conquered in the sense that we know how to prevent or treat them.
I realize there is a good amount we do not know. But compared to a dozen generations ago, we are light years ahead. The fact that a species of monkeys managed to gain a good understanding of the natural laws of the universe in a few hundreds years is pretty amazing.
That is an old Urban Legend and not true. See here.
I think it’s good for many amongst us to have a psychic womb to fall back into, eases the brain. For whatever reason we have evolved with this inside-out psychic covering of religion or common myth and moral code, shielding every great attempt from doubt, every doubt from attempt, fulminating every fear with undoubtable justice, and every doubtable justice with fear. A nurturing shield between reality and the fragile human psyche, a divine prophylaxis, which is what really makes us so incredible as a species, and ultimately self-aware. At the same time, it is also what defines our duality and makes us so vainly fallible. Every child must evntually leave the womb to see creation for what it really is.
Not necessarily arguing with you here, but one could also turn it around and say, despite the amazing evolutionary advantage we have over every other species on the planet (read: profound intelligence), it is also a very negative outcome that our self-awareness brings forth a strong urge in the majority of humanity to invent a God or Gods for whatever reason.
The way I see it, it’s all kind of a bummer. God or Evolution. Humanity and life is hard. Sure, it has its moments, but still, we happen to be what we are, and where we are at at this place and time in the universe. It’s relatively fine for most, but I’m not so sure the self-awareness we’ve evolved is a ‘good thing’ on the whole. The other animals on this planet have the luxury of not having to anticipating oblivion. We are not so fortunate.
Aside from the part about evolution is fact, not something to be “accepted…”
The whole of human history is absolutely, totally, and mind-bogglingly horrific and ghastly. The idea that we were made this way on purpose is even worse. An understanding of the callous nature of evolution doesn’t make humans any less atrocious, but it at least makes sense.
Any two bit god can make stuff up by snapping their fingers… The fact that all of this occurred because certain chemicals mixed together in certain ways and created all the complexities of life and the human condition is awe inspiring and simply staggering.
Well, yup.
**FriarTed **: I’m mostly familiar with Christianity. According to the Bible, we humans are God’s special little creatures, superior to all the animals and plants because we are insert_wunderbach_here, as God made us, and he saw that it was good. That is what I believe the Christian dogma says, more or less - but if this characterization of Christianity offends you, then assume I’m talking about a generic omnipotent god along those lines.
You see, my own empirical experience of fellow humans and my own self, combined with a rudimentary knowledge of world history, leads me to the conclusion that we are abysmal wankers.
Thus, the inference that if indeed there is a god who purposefuly made us as we are, each and everyone of us, then he must have willed us to be wankers and we have no hope to get any better in the “not being wankers” department, because what can you do against the will of a supreme being ? If that is the case, then well… all right. Big load of responsabilities off our shoulders. But god is a dick.
Since there is no god, and our behaviors and personnalities are not set in stone but only up to ourselves, it’s exasperating and/or utterly depressing that we don’t collectively figure out how to stop being such a horrible bunch of wankers, despite the testimony of so many of our kind who, like Jesus, have shouted to the Heavens : “Will y’all stop being such wankers already ?!”.
Makes sense to me.