Dear Friends,
It seems to me that there are only two possibilities, one that God exists, and two that God does not exist, lets take the position, for proposes of argument, that God does not exist, is it then in our personal best interest, to believe in a non existent God? Put another way, why should a person believe in a fiction.
The argument of a functional myth is well known and has pertinence here. A functional myth is an idea, similar to a societal myth, that bestows a benefit upon it’s adherents that functions outside it’s obvious meaning. Like the Roman Societal myth that the best death was death in battle, a marshal societal myth that made Rome into a world power, protecting the large share of it‘s inhabitants the horrors of war, war that they honored, and resulted in Pax Romana. But a functional myth about God would not have the same effect as a marshal myth about a warlike culture. It would necessarily function in a different way.
The point here is very similar to the point Socrates was trying to prove when arguing for Glaucon and his compatriots in Plato’s Republic. The point is, that all benefit, when people are honorable. The greater the percent of a society that is honorable, the more smoothly life can proceed, no matter the economic system. People who have a belief in God are more likely to be honorable than those who do not. If a society has few that actually believe in God, and are not honorable, corrupting those that do, is not a reflection on a belief in God, but in the absence of belief in God. You cannot live in a cesspool and not smell like it.
Belief in God grants a person the ability to move past injustices and personal setbacks. Having a means to flush the detritus of life is essential, especially if there is no God. If there is no God then why not flush the excrement of our lives to the fiction. Relieve ourselves of our personal demons and nagging doubts to the “fictitious” God. No can argue we are better off holding every setback, frustration, lost love, death, and all the other negative things we have to deal with, as living beings. To argue thus is to argue down is up and up is down.
We all need something to worship. It is a fact of life. Look at people. Those that don’t believe in God, believe in horoscopes, crystals, witchcraft, and any other plethora of nonsensical beliefs that have negative consequences for there adherents. We can clearly see that in the modern hedonistic society that we find ourselves in, the number of fanciful beliefs, grows daily. Probably the most pernicious is worship of the Earth… a stone age belief system.
Lack of belief in God fosters a hedonistic society where it is common to hear “I would rather die owing a million dollars… then having a million dollars, because then, I will have spent and gotten the benefit of that money.” This philosophy of life is as pernicious as any. Disregarding the fact, that it discount’s the needs of one’s heirs, it insures that a person will not have a well lived life. The person who believes this will not have a correct moral compass. Lack of a functional moral compass will lead a person into all sorts of negative outcomes.
Some people, who consider themselves enlightened, will argue, it is unenlightened to believe in any theory that is unproven. These same people have an unwavering faith in Anthropomorphic Climate Change, Quantum theory, Einstein’s theory of relative motion, evolution and many other “scientific” explanations for the perceived world around us. Even the most dedicated cosmologist has no explanation for what came before the “Big Bang.“ All of these theories have applications and all of these theories are very incomplete. To have unwavering faith in an incomplete theory is simply a belief.
We have to ask ourselves, will a stone age belief system serve us well in the Twenty First century? One that allows for any action, possibility or legislation? Remember, one of the most important functions of a belief in God is the moderating effect it has on these areas of humanity. Is all research good research? Are all actions good actions? And is all legislation good legislation? Don’t we need a means to control the hot tempers of today against the interests of the next generation? This is one important function of a societal belief in God we cannot do without.
But if we add to the argument that there is a very real possibility that God does exist then we have to admit that it is pure selfish delusion not to believe in God. If we admit there is the possibility of God we have to also admit the possibility of punishment for our transgressions and the possibility of a reward for our good actions.
This subject is far too complex to be treated well in a one page blog.
