For those with any interest in the subject, I mentioned below that we cannot make jumps in understanding, that we have to progress along natural lines. I think that this applies to religion as well, and offer up five levels of passage into and through and then back to religion. No doubt others have described this better than me. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. It goes like this:
Level one: The words of holy texts are accepted as true without question, and the mythology, no matter how bizarre, accepted as reality. This is childish religious belief, or in adults, a kind of fundamentalism. It offers great comfort.
Level two, Path A: Cynical non-believers see the vulnerability of children and fundamentalists, and exploit them for financial gain. These are people like Pat Robertson, Swaggart, Haggard and Roberts and all the others. The low-hanging fruit is irresistible.
Level two, Path B: A less cynical setting aside of childhood fantasies without further research or wonder. Most people who call themselves religious are really in arrested development, having stopped believing, but also, sadly, having stopped wondering as well. People in arrested development often still feel a need for religious belief in others, for all our good. This is the stage where Catholic parents, for instance, send their kids to Catholic schools, even though they are too sophisticated to accept Catholic teaching for themselves.
Level three: Complete rejection of religious belief. For those like me, deeply indoctrinated in religion as a child when I was too young to reason, this rejection can be coupled with condescension and antagonism towards those who have faith, and especially towards those who who did the indoctrinating. (The “recovering Catholic.”) This is where we find Richard Dawkins and Sam Smith.
Level four: Reaching an understanding that people who are not fundamentalist and yet religious are as smart and thoughtful as non-religious ones, and perhaps even know a thing or two that non-religious people do not. This creates cognitive dissonance.
Level five: Resolution of dissonance, reaching an understanding that the search for truth has many forms, and that science is only one.
The progression through the levels ends with the elimination of antagonism between science and religion. Each is a search for truth. The scientific method is one way to advance knowledge, but mythology is also a vessel that carries important truths.
For myself, I cannot dwell in mythology, just as I cannot read fiction. I cannot be religious in that sense, and I like my Sundays too much anyway. But I do accept that those who are religious may well know more about life and living than my sterile science will ever give me.
Piece of Mindful 
For myself, I cannot dwell in mythology…
Dude, your whole political outlook on life is mythology:
Marxism
Feminism
Multi-culturalism
Diversity is strength
Immigration is good
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Marxism: Failed philosophy – he did a good job pointing out the flaws of capitalism, but did not come up with a good alternative.
Feminism: Get out more – Kailey and others have called me misogynist because I call abortion abortion and think that women being paid less in the workplace is not a result of discrimination, and Cowgirl drives me nuts with that stuff.
Multi-culturalism – Don ‘t really think that much about that. Give me a minute … oh yeah, western civilization leaves much to be desired. We do not seem able to leave otehr cultures alone.
Diversity is strength – got me there. Part of the strength of this great nation is that we are so many different backgrounds.
Immigration is good – don’t recall saying that. I do point to NAFTA as the cause of the flood of immigrants from Mexico since passage of … NAFTA.
What the hell is your point?
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My point is that you seem sympathetic to the listed items, items that I consider mythology in that they are failed ways of organizing a successful society.
Marxist may be a bit of a reach in describing you, but some aspects fit.
Feminist in that you are emotive and want society to cater to people’s emotional side. In a political coalition I think you would be comfortable with the modern feminist.
Diversity as strength: we’ll see.
Immigration: I pointedly asked you once, and you gave some blather about people bettering themselves, which led me to believe you just bought in to the usual mythology.
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I don’t see where any have failed except Marxism. The US is a tribute to multiculturalism. Feminists had valid points – the early ones were very smart women whose avenues were closed, and they opened them. It’s now part of the way we live.
Immigration … perhaps a bit complex? We are a country of immigrants, as you know. The known history of humanity history of migrations. As I said, things were fairly stable, with thousands coming up from Mexico each year for harvest, and then going home with a pocket full of money. Obviously there were many who stayed, but it was manageable. NAFTA destroyed the farming economy in Mexico, and that is what caused the current wave.
Is your opposition to immigration merely a right-wing reflex?
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Is your opposition to immigration merely a right-wing reflex?
More like a counter example. A theme of your blog is that things are not as they seem, that we are propagandized more than we realize. This applies to immigration, especially illegals from south of the border, where we are getting a less capable class of people who don’t assimilate contra to conventional wisdom.
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I am sensing a bit of fear about race mixing in that comment. Is that wrong?
I don’t fear assimilation, but that is a side topic for me. You may not like this, but when I go to the mall, the cacophony of languages and garb is a delight. And, I need to learn to speak Spanish to get along.
What NAFTA did, and what they knew it would do, was to bring in millions of underpaid workers to undermine our wage base. American workers were regarded as spoiled, and free trade would teach us a lesson about who is entitled to a good life, who is not. As a consequence, for all of the yammering about immigration, especially from the Republican side, nothing is being done.
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Om.
Om.
Ommmmm….
Yo, I’s transendin’!
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I thought you were in the SW pleasuring millionaires.
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Monday, jealous dude.
I never said they were millionaires. I said they were wealthy.
Ommmmm….
I’s totally centtud, I is!
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There’s plenty of religion and science, and mythology to go around. I recall some punk-rock band in 1980 had it about right: “…religion, is a smile on a dog.” What’s seriously lacking is philosophy. You righty-tighties got any philosophy, or just rhetoric from the I-got-mine echo chamber? Or what some philosophers call greed.
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My philosophy: Whatever works for me.
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Is it at all possible both science and the bible could be correct? Who’s to say the big bang theory wasn’t the first of the seven days god took to create the earth? Tough say’n not know’n.
We all have our own opinion about religion. There are a few things for certain. There is a book, written by many men recounting the days before Christ birth and after. There was a man named Jesus who walked the earth. There is a higher power. Some call it gravity, energy, Buddah, God, Mohammad.
What ever your belief, stay true but open your mind and heart to what others may believe. Its all open to interpretation. We are all here co-existing in this complicated world.
Whos to say that Buddah, God and Mohammad are not the same guy. Their name just got lost in translation. Tough say’n not know’n.
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Scott, take a good look around. Do you see any evidence that we will do anything more than eat, sleep, sh*t, fu*k, and die?
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