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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   3171 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 25, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Is there anything that you can only get from belonging to a religion that you can’t get from secular alternatives?

There are things that you can get from both religion and secular alternatives (such as moral guidance, community, solace). Is there something about religion that makes religion the better place to seek them?

Divine intervention is what comes to mind as the biggest. I guess that depends on what kind of denomination you belong to. But, certainly, I'd say a lot of Christians I know do think that God will act on their behalf if they behave appropriately. You even see this in agnostics and atheists who make deals with the universe or themselves (Just let me do x one more time, and I swear I won't do x ever again). I actually think it's interesting how widespread such deals are regardless of a person's beliefs. Though, of course, religious people might feel inclined to pray for something routinely (like good health for themselves or others) with the expectation that God will bring it about because of their faith.

I don't see why God is necessary for this. I also have faith that behaving appropriately will yield inexplicable rewards- I just accept that the nature of these forces are beyond my understanding and unknowable. Perhaps they're predicated in placebomancy, or in human driven serendipity, or in the tendency of agents to reflect the kindness expressed to them back into the world, or maybe there is in fact a divinity driving things behind the scenes, or it's all just a simulation. But none of that matters. What matters is the feeling of spiritual wholeness, the kindness, the joy one can bring to those around them, the duty to one's brethren, and so on and so forth.

I notice that a lot of these structures are Christian in shape- merely with an appeal to an abstract Divine rather than a concrete one. But this itself seems to indicate to me that the architectural purpose of 'God' was always just a concrete placeholder for something ineffable.

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