If you were to Google the origin of Religion, you'll find text that states the belief in the afterlife occurred around the time that mankind began having self realization or conscious thought. What this means is that once man realised that he lives and dies, he separated himself from the animal world. Animals do not know that death is looming. Religion was born from the collective anxiety created by self realization. This suggestion goes on that once man realised his days were numbered and death was inevitable, the anxiety about what happens when he dies became so profound that religion was born. The story of a Creator who created the heaven and the earth and all life, and that after we die we are granted eternal life with our creator, is a whole lot more comforting than that we just rot in the cold earth. This is just one theory of the development of religion.
People want to believe and so they believe. They have faith that the creator is real. 90% of religious people follow the religion taught to them by their parents.
The rise in non believers has to do with the availability of information. From the dawn of time through to the dawn of the internet, information was not readily available. For those of us who grew up before the PC, our only sources of information were our library and the world book encyclopedia.
Religious people get bent out of shape when anything contradicts or challenges the power and glory of God. But I have never witnessed evidence that prayer works to cure the sick. If all someone does for a Cancer Patient is pray, ignoring medical intervention, chances are the cancer patient will die.
As for the person who talked about being careful about venturing into a vein of science that may not be safe, referring particularly to stem cell research, I have one question for you. Do you avoid medical intervention when you are sick or dying? If we did not allow science to progress, the vast number of medical breakthroughs we now take for granted would never have happened. Doctors can operate on a fetus in vitro to correct issues with the unborn. They can do surgery on a person’s brain to cure epilepsy. They can give you a pill and cure a bacterial infection, it is called an antibiotic. Many say we should not do any of these things in the name of religion. I say science is a good thing.
Belief is a choice. Every religion believes they are right. I believe if there is a God, it won’t care what religion you have, or don’t have, so long as you were a good, moral person. He who doesn’t believe feels free because of it. Let him be. Judge yourself against your beliefs, do not judge another against your beliefs.
If I could prove to you that heaven does not exist, would you live any differently? If I could prove to you that heaven is a definite place and that to get there you had to change your life drastically, getting rid of any excess, could you do that? Life without religion is not pointless. There are close to 15.2% of the world’s population who do not have a religion.
Some religions forbid drinking alcohol but Jesus did not. Some religions forbid the priests to marry, but this was not always the case, in the same religion. Study religion, not just yours, but Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Knowledge is power. Or resist knowledge and go through life believing what you have been taught, accepting it and only it. Shunning anything new or different and die hoping you are right.
