I’m an Atheist and so I believe that the universe and this planet were not created especially for us humans, and that it moves on unaware of us and uncaring. Indeed it can’t do either as it isn’t a person and doesn’t have any intelligence. I was raised a Christian and I sometimes miss the wonderment and mystery that theology brought me, feelings I believe every faith brings to its followers. Let me explain:
I’m going to talk about Christianity first as it is the most popular religion in the USA, the modern Church doesn’t talk about it much, they like to play down the supernatural parts of their religion, for some reason they’re still trying to compete with Science which is a game you can’t win, but anyhow. There is all sorts of magic and mystery to the Christian faith. All types of angels, legions of demons, lesser gods, demi-gods, earth spirits, witches, the mystery of blood sacrifice, the mystery of communion, saints… On and on. A Christian world is one full of invisible and powerful forces working for and against you, forces that can be controlled or turned to your will! That’s pretty amazing! The same goes for the worlds that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and every other theistic or supernatural inclined person lives in. The world I live in is empty, vast and completely indifferent to my struggles, furthermore it is indifferent to the struggles of everyone and everything. Humanity is alone in it. If we are not alone we are separated from anything else by such vast lengths that we will never know them and they will never hear from us. So yeah, a materialistic view of the universe can be full of wonder and mystery but it is a distant, uncaring one.
As a human I instinctively want the world and the universe to care about me. Narcissistic? Yeah, but that’s Humans for you. Religion answers that need, it makes you feel safe and cared for… I miss that sometimes…
Reminds me of something Thomas Hall would say- “The universe doesn’t care about us… lets get even with it!”
In response to Winslie, I do not believe that religions necessarily breed hate.
It may be our experience that some religions, or some people who profess certain religions, commonly express hatreds, but that does not make hatred is a universal characteristic of religions.
Even in renouncing sin religions do not necessarily express hatred for those they call sinners. Religious people themselves sometimes do not see how this is possible and secretly hold hatred in their hearts, but that is not the case for all.
I am assuming that most people want that spiritual “feeling” thus reason religion exists, possibly.
You are on the right track to put all religions together because although each may claim to have “the truth” but none really appears to. Especially as they have so much hate towards a fellow human being.
If I’m not mistaken, Kierkegaard had similar thoughts, also unfinished due the nature and scope of the topic. It is unfortunate that with the triumphs of integrating the 19th century empirical method into every facet of thought we have begun to lose some of the philosophical and metaphysical that held the fundamental continuity before. The Church proper no longer dictates how data and belief sit together. I think it was unfortunate for the Church to ever dictate how data should or should not be interpreted, but to me the lack of explanatory power of reality that we as humans have doesn’t sit well with me either.
What’s my answer? Not God immediately – that’s the lazy man’s way out. I believe strongly there is a caring Deity and have strong convictions therein, but I also believe it’s my own responsibility to work out the answers for myself. I think many of the problems we face with our materialistic view of the universe is that the chaos and unquantifiable uncertainty is still as unexplained as ever before; it still requires effort on one’s own part to come to a coherent idea of what is.
As a scientist, I am constrained by the data – but the data are hardly complete. There is an infinity of work left to be down. It is this work that drives me. Some of my fellow scientists are so rash to claim that our empiricism has conquered the unknown, but really all it has done is leave more questions unanswered; a fine feat, mind you, but not the triumph some consider it to be.