Religion is like nuclear energy, they can be good or bad depend on whose driving
There’s been a lot of discussion about religious issues recently, with people providing a lot of details of the logic of the argument. But this isn’t about logic, it’s about something much deeper.
I’m a Reform (i.e. Casual and Liberal) Jew from New Jersey, just outside NYC, and I’ve spent a total of several months in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem on about 5 different trips, and lived overseas as a kid for months at a time (UK, East Africa), and travelled to many other places (Egypt, Jordan, Borneo, Galapagos, etc)
We create God. We need to create God, stories, to bind us together, It’s just hard to describe that to a child without them going off into the weeds (e.g. thinking that they can create their own rules without consulting anybody else). The closest thing to God that I can see is Nature, The Law/Constitution, our families, and our fellow decent citizens who believe in the same basic principles.
It shouldn’t matter if your God exists for real or doesn’t, or anything in between (e.g. existing in concept, but with varying forms). Your behavior should be the same.
The religious stories we teach our children are fables. We all know what fables are, even many children know. They have a lot of value (e.g. wisdom — to make a point), as long as you don’t take them literally and use that for your own egotistical purposes.
I discovered 4 really important concepts in my time in Jerusalem:
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1) There are 2 types of Jews — cool people and assholes. Everything else is secondary. The same applies to Christians, Muslims, etc. Jerusalem is unique in that there are SO many people on that spiritual & religious path. But they are not immune from having their fair share of raging assholes.
2) One of the most important tools you need to ALWAYS keep active, is your BS detector. There are no exceptions. There are plenty of pious people who are full of BS. They are everywhere, including in the most prestigious places in Jerusalem (and Washington and most other places). Children need to learn this, but we have to be careful that they don’t use this as an excuse to ignore most everybody when it doesn’t suit them.
3) If you believe in God, or some variation of it, then consider that your God sent you here to help. All of us. God helps those who help themselves and others. It’s just Karma which can be summarized as “Don’t be an asshole”. (See #1)
4) There are many variations of God. For some, it’s the old man in the sky or a sacred text. For others, it might be The Law, Literature, Music, Nature, Money, Technology, Crypto & Blockchain, Victimhood, Sex,, etc. Some are generally good, some are generally bad, some are neutral and can be good or bad depending on wether one is smart, abused and in need of help, an ignorant asshole (and that includes idiot savants), etc. You get the idea.
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Religion was a critical and essential part of our evolution, and is important for children and many people. But religion, like fire, nuclear energy, social media, etc. can be a tool for good or bad. For example, if you push your God on other people to the point where you’re belligerent or demonize others, you’re either stupid or you’re an asshole. Either way, I don’t want to associate with you, other than trying to help, but helping somebody directly is almost always a waste of time. One of the best ways to help people is via your own behavior.
If you’re an adult, you either understand fables, and you’re a decent person, OR you don’t and you use these things for your own purposes — e.g. to feel like a hero, ego, political power, bilking people out of their money, getting laid, etc. No amount of logic is going to change that in people.
Sadly, many professionals are using these fables and the God card and spew vomit and hate because they can’t think of anything else to do. And that might be understandable — people don’t trust our politicians, most of them, on both sides, are mediocre people flailing in an impossibly difficult job. I actually feel some empathy for people in this situation, if for no other reason, than I was pretty fortunate in my life having grown up on the upper side of Middle Class, and having had the chance to travel both when I was young and as a adult. The only people I really hate and have ZERO compassion for are Flat Earthers. They should shut up and reduce the clutter on the Internet for people who really need to connect. I feel bad for good people, for whom religion is important, but they are grouped in with other religion people who are assholes, or are being criticized or manipulated by their community for voicing their opinions about the situation (i.e. like it’s a cult)
I think this is all pretty obvious, but there is so much clutter in our lives, it’s often hard to see. Especially when Social Media Platforms love when we run around on their carefully designed hamster wheel giving money and power to them. People just have a hard time summarizing it and putting it into words. I’m a Cybersecurity & Risk Management Architect and work on extremely complex issues (and I’m an ex-lobbyist in Green Energy and Cybersecurity Liability). But most issues aren’t really that complicated, if you filter through the noise and focus on the key issues, and address the details in time. You MUST start by finding the core issues first and getting consensus at that first level. That’s the difficult part. For example, the single biggest issue right now in the US, is that people don’t trust traditional politicians, and for good reason. We just differ in what we think we should do about it.
And I’m running for President 2024!
