Rational Religion


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What Makes Us Good?

 

I think orthodox metaphysics' most pernicious falsehood - pernicious because it has been largely successful - is its claimed association with morality and ethical conduct.

 

The notion that religion makes anybody particularly "good" is so easily discredited by a host of specific examples that it is amazing it persists.  Yet it not only persists; it is pervasive.

 

Nearly anyone you ask will certify that religion makes people behave better towards one another.  Of course, if you question them more specifically, you will discover that they make this claim only for their religion.  They will admit quite readily that those other people are capable of all sorts of bad behavior; that as a matter of fact their erroneous beliefs may even demand that they sin.  But then, what those people believe isn't really religion, is it?

 

This intellectual parochialism would be hilarious if it weren't so real, and so nearly universal throughout human society. 

 

Conventional Metaphysics is arguably the most divisive influence in the world.

 

Conventional, "orthodox" metaphysics is particularly dangerous because it organizes people into large enough groups to do serious damage to one another, and then sets them into deadly conflict over what an objective observer can identify only as minor irrelevancies.

 

But perhaps this is too harsh a judgment upon Metaphysics.  Perhaps human beings are programmed to turn upon one another, once their groupings reach a certain critical mass.  Their beliefs may be only the most convenient excuse; or a handy one in case there is no political or economic excuse to be exploited. 

 

Meanwhile...