Science vs. Religion: (Chapter Two) (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Monday, February 21, 2011, 14:20 (4819 days ago) @ David Turell

David,
> You and I come from very different backgrounds. ...-Since I'm already dumping, lol, I might as well fill in some extra details. -Besides being introduced to George Carlin at the age of 14, the other 'shocking' discovery was a sudden thought is that faith is largely deterministic for humans. Religion is governed by geography. As humans we of course have no control over where we're born. Had I been born in India, I would likely be Hindu, maybe Jain or Sikh. Saudi Arabia, Muslim. Japan, Buddhism or Shinto. Italy, Catholic. Africa... you get the picture. The strength of the customs and culture is the next semi-deterministic factor in terms of what religion you are born into. And as is well-documented, generally speaking it is pretty rare for a person to completely reject the religion they were raised into. An exception to that is if you're a practitioner of a minority religion; if all your friends follow a different path, the determining factor here is how much you revere your parents. But the key question is, "How much of this is man-made?"-So... due to a considerable amount of random chances, (none of these factors is predictable on a grand scale) religion and your thoughts on God are predetermined to some extent. (At some point free will takes over as we grow up--but social forces are powerful!)-The key driving value I have is in answering the question "How certain can we be?" This question is what prevents me from making persuasive arguments. (Because nothing persuades me?) For you, your drive is clearly "why" questions, but for people like me, there's a time and place to ask those questions, and the proper place isn't until we have an adequate understanding of the "how." But I understand very well the compulsion to understand, and can appreciate the need for people to answer that within their lifetimes. -You mention feeling guided in your life; I can safely say that I've never felt that. I've felt lucky: There are two key people in my life that set me on the path I'm on now, my wife and pharmacist I worked with as an overnight supervisor of a drug store. But every choice has been my own, and I've never felt "guided" to anything.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"