I just had this discussion with a student in mainland China, concerning the nature of religion:
Emmanuel Kant, philosopher, said that the heart of morality and
ethics is that other people always be an end in themselves, rather
than a means to an end
I think perhaps someone like Saddam Hussein did not care for the
suffering or poverty of his people, ... they were a means to an end, his
ends...
Whereas, I imagine that someone like Gandhi truly cared about his
people, and placed their needs before his own needs...
Question:
Why do some people are good and why some are evil? what
causes this? enviranment or something else?
It is very sad to see people wearing a wrist watch which costs
$70,000 for example, when they could wear a nice $200 watch, and
use that money to help someone less fortunate in some way,... either
with education, or medical assistance...
I wrote an essay "Good, Evil and Ideas which Transform" which I put at the religion text forum
http://online-literature.com/forums/...ead.php?t=3969
Question:
Do you think that religion can help purify people's mind
or do you think religion will narrow one's mind
I think that religion is not something from outside... like the opium
which Marx described (religion as the opiate of the people)... instead...
I see religion as a force within all of us. That force is always seeking expression (just like sex, hunger... etc). I do not think we can escape that religious force in us.... it will come out in some form, even for atheist, it comes out as worship of state, worship of dictator....
or it comes out as worship of ideas, or worship of beauty/art....
this is how I see religion... an energy from within, looking for some
empty vessel or form to fill....
For example... the Soviet Union represents a 70 year experiment
in raising several generations to be free of religion... yet, when Soviet
Union crumbled, people came out thirst for many different religions
Judaism, Hinduism (Hare Krishna)... Russian Orthodoxy.... Jehovah's
Witness
One Hare krishna temple had SO MANY russian immigrants that they
had to start a class on Bhagavad-Gita in RUSSIAN
with my own eyes, I saw people come out of soviet union thirsting for
various religions, and religous freedom
I learned to speak Russian, and spent much time in usa with Russians
Question:
What about science? is science conflicting religion
Science can be pursued with a religious fervor or devotion.... science
becomes a religion....
pursuit of truth, pursuit of knowledge... these are like a religion
all pursuit of human improvement, perfection, discipline has a
religious element to it...
even military.... saluting the flag,... military and political heros are
spoken of like religious saints
Mao was spoken of like some wonderous saint, some superperson, a
deliverer, a savior of his people...
Sandberg describes Lincoln like some sort of saint.
People look at Gandhi like a saint,... even Einstein wrote a letter in
tribute to Gandhi, speaking of him like a saint
Question: Then how do you define religion? faith?
The thrill of patriotism, of someone in USA, who salutes the flag, sings
the Star Spangled Banner.... speaks of Liberty, Justice, the Pursuit of
Happiness...
when people sacrifice themselves for anything,.... that is a religious
action... there are Chess enthusiasts who live their whole lives in
borderline poverty, so they my devote all their energies to the game of
Chess...
we must look beyond exterior labels and stereotypes
when the Chinese government invented an anonymous peasant who
was then given a name, described as a saint, a perfect party member,
thinking only of their society, of others....
and posters were made of this person, and pamplets were written...
a hero like Superman or Batman or Spiderman.... that is a religion...
or rather, it taps into the religious energy which is constantly flowing
out of every person seeking a path for expression
I saw an entire documentary,... about China in the 1950s or 60s.... and
they showed the posters, and interviewed young students....
in USA, forest fires were a big problem in 1910,... so they invented a
character, called Smokey the Bear, who was a fire marshall... and
posters of Smokey advised people about fire safety with campfires
Such a mythical figure becomes an icon to focus devotion, devotion to some cause or pursuit.
There really was a campaign about some communist peasant saint....
who was the ideal party member, idea citizen
look at how we worship the image, persona of Einstein.... the accent,
the wild hair,... the stereotype of the absent-minded scientist,... such
becomes our stereotype of what wisdom is
so we have a Yoda character in Starwars who is modeled somewhat
after Einstein...
and in other movies,... like A.I. by Spielberg, a futuristic move about
robots... why, there is an Einstein character called, "Dr. Know" (who
knows everything)...
we come to worship such icons... we have reverence for them, AND
we have FAITH in them,... faith that there can exist someone so wise,
or good, or self-sacrificing
Question: so you think that people pursuing scientifical truth is
something like religion
I think that when you remove traditional religion, then there is a void,
a vacuum, an emptyness, and something immediatly rushes in to fill
that emptiness...
and IF I AM WRONG, then there should have been some society
somewhere in history who was simply without any religion, because it
never occured to them, and they were isolated....
but we NEVER find such to be the case... even the most isolated
people, like the Australian aborigine, have some kind of religion, a
concept of something sacred/holy... and a concept of something
taboo/forbidden
people in history have tried to construct a perpetual motion machine,
a machine which would run forever, with no additional outside power
or fuel... but it is IMPOSSIBLE, based on nature of energy, motion,
thermodynamics...
so, similary, communist governments tried to have a society with no
religion,... but it is impossible, cannot be done....
all attempts to eliminate the expression of religious nature fail...
even an atheist philosopher, like Sartre or Heidegger, have a concept
of the NUMINOUS, the awesome...
they do not worship a god, but there is something that they worship or
revere....
yes, obviously, traditional things like christianity, islam, judaism,
buddhism, hinduism.... are traditional classic religions...
but patriotism is also a religious expression....
even the most atheist communist nation will play a very inspiring
national anthem, and have a flag, and write inspiring words, and stand
and salute in some fashion.... is this not an expression of religious
fervor or devotion...
show me a nation of people which has no flag, no anthem, no patriotic
poem or lyrics,.... and then I may begin to believe that there is a
nation, a people, free of religion
for me, the very fact that we can never exist as a nation without a
single individual as president, prime minister, king, czar, emperor,
dictator... (whatever he or she is called)... that fact alone is for me an
expression of the inescapable nature...
inescapable nature of man's religious side...
we could have a society where there is no leader personality... where
EVERYONE spends a few hours per day studying issues and voting
electronically, with computers, internet....
a pure democracy is possible with our technology...
but our PSYCHOLOGY is not suited to such pure, leaderless society...
where the masses themselves govern....
it is possible with technology to have trials which have no judge, and
only jury... but you see we must have a judge personality, wearing
black robes,... and we must all stand when the judge enters, and we
must have rituals of swearing oath, or swearing allegiance... these are
all religious actions,,.... based upon superstition...
you see... let us pretend that all of the government officials could see
these words which I now write.... and let us pretend I was in china....
well... they would have no choice but to come a imprision or execute
me... because my words and ideas are dangerous....
my words are not dangerous to a society... but my words are
dangerous to all the special interest groups in a government or regime
who will lose privilige and money and power, if my words were to be
put into practice...
so... as long as there is a government with interest groups or persons
in positions of power or privilige... why, the do so at the expence of
the society as a whole... they exploit and enslave the masses in order
to support the elite minority...
why else would North Korea declare their dead military revolutionary
leader as PERPETUAL LEADER, if it is not a religious action...
show me a society where everyone is truly equal, where there are no
leaders or officials, where no one stand or bows or salutes before
anything,.... where even the dead are disposed of without ceremony...
and then i will say that such a society has no religion... no religious
expression of this energy which I call religious spiritual energy