On Religion - 30 January 2018
                    -------------------------------

It has been quite a while since I have written my last phlog. I have not
been preoccupied with anything lately, my life is just mediocre; I  work
in  the  food industry and when I am not working I tend to spend my time
adrift in the stupidity of the internet.  Most of the time I do not feel
as  if  I  have  anything  of  worth  to  write about, so I don't write.
Recently however, my mind has been pulled to the topic of religion,  and
that will be the topic of this phlog.

I  am  and have been an athiest for years, so if any of my non-religious
readers would feel  "turned  off"  by  the  topic  of  religion,  please
continue,  as  I feel that I have some interesting things to say. I have
never been a true beleiver of any religion --- I grew  up  in  a  mostly
secular  household;  my  parents  were  christian  but we rarely went to
church and we only ever prayed before  thanksgiving  dinner.  My  mother
deliberately  raised  us without indoctrination, so that we might choose
for ourselves our religious views, and  that  is  something  that  I  am
tremendously  grateful  for.  I  have  shown  some  interest  in  worldy
religions in the past such as buddhism and wicca, but  these  were  only
fascinations; I never truly beleived.

Recently  my political and ecomonic views have shifted, and I have found
that I am becoming a conservative.   I  have  been  watching  a  lot  of
video's  on  youtube about conservative ideology; but with that ideology
frequently came an agrument for judeo-chritsian values and  religion.  I
found  people  like  Dennis  Prager,  Steven Crowder, and Ben Shapiro so
agreeable that I felt like I ought to give their  religious  views  some
consideration.

So why then might an athiest join a church?

The  first  argument  is  of  a  philisophical  nature. Drawing from the
terminology of mathematics, everyone  religious  and  non-religious  has
certain  philisophical  axioms,  things in which we beleive that have no
further derivation or proof. For an athiest this might be things such as
the  belief  in free will or personal purpose, and for a religios person
this might be things like the belief in god or divine purpose.

If one considers it illogical to accept the existence of a  supernatural
god  on  the  basis  of  having no evidence, one should also consider it
illogical to believe in any system of morality or philosphy on the basis
of  having no evidence. We live in a meaningless universe governed soley
by the laws of nature,  and  to  believe  in  any  notion  of  morality,
philosophy,   or   purpose   is  fundematally  illogical.  This  is  not
necessarily a bad thing.

It would follow then that any system of belief is equally valid,  as  it
is  equally  illogical and unprovable.  But why choose christianity over
any other religion? Many people claim  that  christian  values  are  the
backbone  of  western  civilization. There is also the argument of moral
cohesion -- the idea  that  morality  is  subjective,  but  it  must  be
subjective  on a societal rather than indiviual level for a civilization
to function properly. Since I live in the  United  States,  a  christian
dominant  nation,  it  may be a good thing to share the same ideas about
morality with everyone else.

The second argument as to why an athiest might join a church is that  of
earthly  benefits.  I  could not care less about eternal salvation, as I
think that when you die you simply stop existing; However, churches  can
provide  things  that  are  hard to find elsewhere, such as a feeling of
community and higher purpose. These are things that I crave deeply,  and
is most likely the biggest reason why I feel drawn to the church.

The final argument is that I never truly understood christianity. I have
spent years telling myself that the bible is full of inconsistencies and
terrible  things,  but  I have never even read the bible. How can I call
myself a rational person if I simply reject things which I do not  fully
understand? If nothing else, learning about christianity will strengthen
my ability to refute it.

These have been my thoughts lately, something that I just can't get  out
of  my  head. Perhaphs I'll go to church next sunday; Hell, I might even
make a gopher version of the bible!

--Auzymoto