There is but one issue with religion in my sense. Religion limits humanity’s, and individuals’, potential to become more.
Why ? Because religion is based upon flawed premises, flawed priors. Aside from those, religions can be perfectly logical and rational. Some of the best rationalists I’ve heard about, or met, were religious persons, and were held close to optimally rational views inside their religion’s worldview.
If God exists, as well as if there’s an afterlife, a paradise, hell, final judgment, absolute morality, if we have immortal souls, if the physical world is but a test, etc. then it is rational to, working inside that system, optimize our lives as best as possible, to live virtuously. And, yes, religion’s purpose, inside that system, is to help people to become “more” than they are, to realize themselves. A goal similar to ours rationalists, a goal you can see in almost any active individual or group of individuals.
The moral compass of a Catholic is, ideally, the idea of “what can I do to grow further in love, towards others and myself ?”. This is good, but since the very definition of love contains a part referring to something that doesn’t exist (God), the whole idea has a flaw that can make it become incoherent in the long term; paradoxical.
Even worse, since it isn’t easy to follow that moral compass, they have a guide, a reference, the Word of God, the Holy Bible. What is in that book, is presumed to be true. Just in the same way that a scientist presumes that what he can observe of the world around him, is true. Based on that, both would use their best judgment to try and understand that observed truth, for themselves, to make sense of it. But you can certainly see the issue with presuming that the Bible is the absolute word of God, basing your actions upon your best understanding of it, if that book isn’t, after all, the Word of God, but only the work of human priests and early philosophers, a few millenia ago ?
Whenever people want to obtain something of reality, usually a better life, but fail to get the correct picture of what reality is, they harm themselves, and others too in the process. Religion (and not just catholicism, but religion in general) holds a lot of short and mid term benefits, both for individuals, and society as a whole. But it places a hard limit on our potential to develop and attain that better life, and that can be felt on the long term.
Then again, human beings are known to discount long term benefits for shorter term ones.
There is but one issue with religion in my sense. Religion limits humanity’s, and individuals’, potential to become more.
Why ? Because religion is based upon flawed premises, flawed priors. Aside from those, religions can be perfectly logical and rational. Some of the best rationalists I’ve heard about, or met, were religious persons, and were held close to optimally rational views inside their religion’s worldview.
If God exists, as well as if there’s an afterlife, a paradise, hell, final judgment, absolute morality, if we have immortal souls, if the physical world is but a test, etc. then it is rational to, working inside that system, optimize our lives as best as possible, to live virtuously. And, yes, religion’s purpose, inside that system, is to help people to become “more” than they are, to realize themselves. A goal similar to ours rationalists, a goal you can see in almost any active individual or group of individuals.
The moral compass of a Catholic is, ideally, the idea of “what can I do to grow further in love, towards others and myself ?”. This is good, but since the very definition of love contains a part referring to something that doesn’t exist (God), the whole idea has a flaw that can make it become incoherent in the long term; paradoxical.
Even worse, since it isn’t easy to follow that moral compass, they have a guide, a reference, the Word of God, the Holy Bible. What is in that book, is presumed to be true. Just in the same way that a scientist presumes that what he can observe of the world around him, is true. Based on that, both would use their best judgment to try and understand that observed truth, for themselves, to make sense of it. But you can certainly see the issue with presuming that the Bible is the absolute word of God, basing your actions upon your best understanding of it, if that book isn’t, after all, the Word of God, but only the work of human priests and early philosophers, a few millenia ago ?
Whenever people want to obtain something of reality, usually a better life, but fail to get the correct picture of what reality is, they harm themselves, and others too in the process. Religion (and not just catholicism, but religion in general) holds a lot of short and mid term benefits, both for individuals, and society as a whole. But it places a hard limit on our potential to develop and attain that better life, and that can be felt on the long term.
Then again, human beings are known to discount long term benefits for shorter term ones.