Summary of thoughts about religion and purpose of life

2015-01-13

azim58 - Summary of thoughts about religion and purpose of life

I just want to get across a few very simple concepts.

First of all, there are a large number of different religions throughout
the world which cannot all be true. While some of their teachings
overlap, many of the teachings do not overlap and many even contradict
eachother. A large number of the members of these different religions all
have very strong emotional beliefs in their religion and know for sure
that their religion is true. It is not a logical possibility for them all
to be correct. Given this simple fact, I think this is great reason to
cause anyone to pause and reassess the validity of their own beliefs, and
ask themselves what their beliefs are truly based on. Once one has
decided what one's beliefs are truly based on, they should decide if this
is a valid thing to base a belief on. Karl Popper was a great philosopher
who introduced the concept of "falsifiability". I could tell you that a
savior died for your sins, that you will be reincarnated and live as
another animal after you die, or that killing an albino person will bring
you good luck (there is a group in Africa that truly believes this).
However, none of these statements are falsifiable. In other words, no one
can perform an experiment which would prove the statement true or false
(actually the albino statement is starting to approach a falsifiable
claim).

The second simple concept I would like to get across is that a religion
is not needed in order for purpose or meaning in life. I think there are
many extremely great minds that have continually built upon the knowledge
of their predecessors to define exactly what point there is to life if
the myths of religion are not true. Minds such as the authors of Candide
or The Singularity is Near or Moral Landscapes as well as others have
introduced the concept that basically "the purpose of life is to create
more life". This purpose may sound trivial compared to the myth that one
can live with God and his angels for eternity. I actually prefer the
Mormon myth that you yourself can eventually become a God yourself and
start your own worlds and have your own spirit children so that
everything is just one big cycle (our God once had a mortal life as
well). In fact I love tons of the myths of the Mormon religion. I really
enjoy and find great meaning in all of the different stories in the Book
of Mormon (Mormon's also read and believe in the Bible as well). If I
were to join a religion again, I would not hesitate for one second to
join the Mormon religion.

But alas, if I want to truly pursue truth, I do not think any religion is
the place for me to find it. As I mentioned before, the purpose of life
is to create more life, which is also a concept very tied to order and
chaos and the laws of thermodynamics. Life is ordered and is a rare and
beautiful thing in a universe in which chaos (entropy) continually
increases (2nd law of thermodynamics). The more ordered life becomes, the
greater range of happiness and misery it can experience. For example, a
mouse has a greater range of possible experiences than an amoeba, and we
have a greater range of experiences than a mouse. Therefore we have a
greater capacity to experience more misery and more joy. As lifeforms
continue to evolve, some of our ancestors (the ones that become even more
ordered than ourselves) will have a greater range of emotions than
ourselves. Our purpose is to contribute to this progression of order and
continually make more life. One can "make life" in an almost infinite
number of ways. One could have a baby, build a bridge, cure a disease, be
kind to a neighbor, etc. On the other hand murdering a baby, or
intentionally causing destruction, chaos, and misery, would not
contribute to the progression of order and life. I think our universe is
a truly amazing and interesting place, and I plan to try to be an agent
of order to create beautiful new things in the pursuit of truth, order,
and life.

That being said, I would like to add that almost all religions actually
do many good things. They provide service, and they also provide an
excellent social structure in which an individual can mingle and help
people from all occupations and from all ages within their community.
They also provide their worshippers with a place to go every week and
focus on how to become a better person, which is something that atheists
and agnostics truly are missing and aren't benefiting from. Nevertheless,
since both Hindu religions and Christian religions do this (or pick any
other pair of religions) I see no reason to join either one since they
cannot both be true.

I'm sure you have many details that you would like to share with me about
your religion. Nevertheless, I have shared my core beliefs with you, and
if you want you can share more of your beliefs with me. Obviously I don't
know everything, and you may be able to introduce some detail about your
religion that I am not aware of (just as a witch doctor would also be
able to do). However, unless the information you present is based upon
falsifiable claims, I have a hard time imagining I will lend much
credence to your statements.

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