Some Thought for the Mind

[Banefull]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Even if someone does blindly believe something (I would contest your assumption that everyone does with something, unless you count purely subjective topics and matters of opinion such as favourite things),

Virtually everything is subjective because honestly, the only thing we truly know is that we exist. Now tell me HMN, would you ever hesitate to consider the possibilities of things such as "all people are not created equally." Science has shown us that certain traits are derived from genes so why don't we practice eugenics? In a situation where someone's life is in danger, would you even pause to think about why you should even try to help? The thing is, we all go out everyday with firm beliefs that we hold to be self evident.

Originally Posted by Human No More

that doesn't mean that they can not aspire to not need to do that. Humans have a need to understand everything, which means that they have historically come up with their own explanation when a provable one was not readily available,

Indeed this did happen a lot but does that mean every faith or religion is based off of wishful thinking? Our search for answers doesn't end with God, it includes God. We want to know what is out there just as much as and we never stop looking. After all, if we wanted to easily justify things through wishful thinking, why not make up a set of beliefs that says we should all just indulge in pleasure? Instead we say that you must undergo great suffering in this life and many struggle to stick to its principles in their lives. It is not exactly the most comforting set of beliefs. In fact, it was so shocking and against the establishment of its day that the originator was killed on politically motivated charges.

Originally Posted by Human No More

Don't get me wrong, some religions do even try to help other people, but it becomes bad when that is only done conditionally, or when people need to feel coerced into doing it as opposed to doing it simply because they want to.

I could say the same for a lot of other things. We have our faults and our mistakes also. In some cases faith was enforced in the past. It is quite unfortunate but plenty of other things besides religion were also enforced. It was a general view not just limited to religion that we finally moved past. I don't see anyone religious here trying to force anyone. That said we will state what we believe if the topic ever comes up.

Some people have tried to justify religion for their own means but does that make the original set of ideas less valid? Many people used evolution to justify Social Darwinism. Does that make evolution any less valid? We, just like you, are equally suspicious and disdainful of those who do try to use it to their own means.