Saturday, August 4, 2012

On the Nature of Religion

It would seem the one truly unifying belief of all known religion as I've come across so far is neutralization. Not in the violent manner but a truly neutral method of living. The core concept being that we have all these emotions and desires that can never truly be satisfied completely. That is to say you may diminish your desire or partially satisfy it or even temporarily eliminate it by fulfilling it and yet it always comes back. Religion is a method for eliminating these desires, by neutralizing them in relation to the ones that are not necessary for living and reducing those which are.

While I may be inclined to suggest that this means we are at odds with what makes us human but I digress. Whether it's our emotions or desires or something else that makes us human they are part of us and religion seeks to strip us of that supposedly as an improvement. Some of us may entertain that thought in that we would rather not have emotions and would be content if we desired less. I for one would rather have both highs and lows than to always stay in the middle. While there is certainly more to be said on the subject I'll leave it up for discussion in the comments. Keep in mind I'm talking all of religion as a whole and not any specific religion and I would prefer if the comments stayed in a similar manner.

2 comments:

  1. I kind of agree with you in that sense. But I would use the word 'discipline' instead of neutralise. Being a religious person myself, I agree that religion does implement a lot of rules and regulations, but I think if following those things brings you peace, then good stuff, if not, no worries, everyone's different so can't be expected to believe the same things.

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    1. The way I think of it is that discipline is overcoming the urges and that they still exist. Religion teaches people to not want to begin with. The idea being if you don't have the urge you need not overcome it.

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