But here's the most senseless part of this whole incessant interminable argument over whether there is or is not a God: it doesn't matter!! It's a McGuffin, a red herring, a wild goose chase. Well, in one sense it does matter in that the people involved, on both sides, are alienating and demonizing the opposition which is probably less than optimal for the ongoing evolution of our humanity. Our humanity consists not only in our biology but in our thoughts, ideas, arts, politics, dreams, imagination, in what we do and why we do it, how we feel and how we think about how we feel.
Disagreements are good for evolution, opposing views are good, lively debate is good. All of that increases diversity which is good for evolution. Conflicts which erect barriers of hostility, recrimination and polarization along arbitrarily drawn lines of demarcation are not so good. In fact are probably pretty detrimental.
Some wolves eating some deer for dinner is the natural balance of nature. All the wolves deciding to eradicate all the deer is not such a good idea.
But of course the rival camps both feel this argument really really matters a whole lot. For them the entire future of humankind and their own personal belief in the reality of ultimate Truth is gravely at stake. If "we" can't get "them" to agree with "us" SOMETHING REALLY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN!!"
Do you Christians really think that God is going to send people to hell forever because they have diligently, genuinely, and honestly pursued truth to reach their conclusions? What kind of God would that be? That really does sound much more like a mental construct of divinity developed to support and benefit our own limited biased self-serving ego. If that's who you think God is, then the atheists are definitely right, there is no such God.
Do you atheists really think that belief in God is inherently and categorically detrimental to the ongoing development and evolution of our humanity? The religious instinct in our human mental, psychological and emotional states of consciousness has, since even before our earliest human ancestors, been the driving force behind the creation of art, music, dance, poetry. It has nurtured all those things which uniquely distinguish our humanity, the things that define who and what we are, the things which have, in fact driven our human evolution. Do we really want to wholly throw out this deep human impulse to perceive or envision a sacred perspective on life that has the capacity to give the mundane ebb and flow of our daily experience a brilliance and significance?
It is, in fact, the diversity of ideas as well as of genetics which drives and enhances evolution of stronger species of thought as well as of biology. Mother Nature likes to increase diversity; homogeneity weakens populations. And for that matter God also appears to enjoy creating diversity - look at all the wildly different religious views of the divine dimension of life God has inspired, and is still inspiring. God must really love variety.
I know, people kill in the name of God, disenfranchise whole populations in the name of God, misappropriate the earth's resources in the name of God. But when some modern societies have been organized around the tenets of secular atheism, they've not done much better at curtailing egregious offenses against our humanity and fostering benevolent human interactions. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, bad (and good) behavior just doesn't break down along the lines of theism vs. atheism.
Bad and good behavior does break down along the lines of exclusivism and alienation vs. inclusion and tolerance. We don't have to all agree; we do have to develop a level of acceptance and comfort with a wide degree of diversity and pluralism. Believing or not believing in a Supreme Being does not harm either side really; demonizing each other over it just makes our shared environment contentious and disagreeable - which will just stunt everyones growth.
So is there any point at all in talking about the existence or non-existence of God? See the next post
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