We have the natural world around us, driven by chemical reaction and heat.
These result in changes taking place by brute force.
Then we have a modified world.
The one we live in.
We modified it to make it more comfortable and convenient.
But our modified world won't last forever. It has a limited life.
Natural world forces will eventually take over.
And our modifications are messing it up anyway.

Religious 'beliefs' don't exist naturally.
They were made up by those who wanted to control the behaviour of others.
Religion works by 'subjugating' some of our instincts.
But unless we had developed those instincts, religion couldn't be made to work.
So the world got along for a very long time without religion, whilst brains developed.

And when we die, it is because the brain stops.
Our computer brain doesn't process any more data.
There are no thought processes.
Just atoms and molecules which will eventually become part of new material.
The pyramid builders got it wrong.
But their mistaken belief left us an insight in to their way of life.
The latter is an example of an ill wind blowing good?

david f

I still have hope. This life is not good enough to be the end.

Thank you, Peter, for another thought-provoking article.

While I agree with much of what you say, I wonder if you overstate the differences between Christianity and other faiths. While you rightly point out that Jesus was a frequent critic of the religious establishment of his day – to the extent that the Gospels give this as the main reason he was crucified – his critiques were consistent with the dialogue within Judaism about compliance with the spirit or the letter of the law, and the role of the Jerusalem temple and the Jewish leadership (e.g. Jeremiah 6:20, Isaiah 1:11-15, Amos 5:21-23, Ezekiel 34). And the fact he was humiliated and executed would be a scandal to some Jews, but maybe not to all - Isaiah’s suffering servant, for example, was a prominent model of messiahship, which some scholars think influenced the way the early church understood Jesus’ crucifixion.

I would guess that the tension between the letter and the spirit of the law, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, conformity and freedom, faith and religion etc will feature in many faiths. In many discussions or religious matters in these forums I find myself in agreement with Yuyutsu far more often than some of my fellow Christians.

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Dear Peter,

.

You wrote :

« The word "religion" is derived from the Latin "religare" which means to "bind". »
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That is one interpretation, Peter. It is the one that, for obvious reasons, has the preference of most, if not all, of the 4,000-odd religions in the world, but, as I’m sure you are aware, it is not the only one. There are several others.

Cicero, who is generally considered to be the authority on the Latin language, identifies the etymological derivation of the word religion as follows :

« For religion has been distinguished from superstition not only by philosophers but by our ancestors. Persons who spent whole days in prayer and sacrifice to ensure that their children should outlive them were termed 'superstitious' (from superstes, a survivor), and the word later acquired a wider application. Those on the other hand who carefully reviewed and so to speak retraced all the lore of ritual were called 'religious' from relegere (to retrace or re-read), like 'elegant' from eligere (to select), 'diligent' from diligere (to care for), 'intelligent' from intellegere (to understand); for all these words contain the same sense of 'picking out' (legere) that is present in 'religious. Hence 'superstitious' and 'religious' came to be terms of censure and approval respectively. »

Cicero's “De Natura Deorum”, 2, 28, 72 :

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Natura_Deorum/2A*.html

.

Dear Josephus,

I do not have faith in my worldview. I have examined it and changed it when my examination of it caused me to question it. As a child I was taught to believe in God. I examined that view and found I could no longer substantiate it when I questioned the evidence for the existence of God. As I have gone through life I have questioned other matters in which I had faith and abandoned such faith if it did not stand up when questioned. Doubt has opened my path to knowledge in life. We are told that we should believe by those who regard themselves as authorities in various matters. If we accept what those authorities tell us we become subservient to them. Freedom is a result of questioning authority. Many find it easier to be enslaved. I still question. Any belief I have is provisional and subject to question. It may not stand up under examination.

It seems to me some persons spend a lot of time considering effects rather than causes.
Effects can change.
Which alters your view of life.
Which can be confusing?
We need to look for basic causes for all things.
There ARE fundamental truths which we should use as the principles underpinning our thoughts.
There IS truth there if you look for it.
Begin by allowing your brain to roam freely, then apply reason to what you find?