moses2792796
01-03-2008, 03:39 PM
I am able to sympathise with the radical atheist position, having been one around the time I discovered www.anus.com. At first I was attracted to it primarily because I perceived it as sharing my view of religion as pure stupidity and denial of death. For an intelligent person it is easy to form this view especially in western countries where religion has become a way of conveniently ignoring reality, replacing it with a simplistic, moral, black and white world where following some basic rules assures immortality and eternal happiness. Radical atheists see this part of religion, but unfortunately overlook the more complex and beautiful aspects.
When I first began to realise that A.N.U.S. was not as anti-religious as I had originally thought I was not angry, but rather curious. I knew that these were people with knowledge that quite probably went beyond my own, leading me to believe that if they were not radical atheists, then they probably knew something about religion that I did not. Soon after this I read the Bhagavad-Gita, an important Hindu scripture, and was able to see that the ideas communicated were very similar to the philosophy of A.N.U.S. It promoted a transcendental worldview where the individual overcame their ego in favour of finding their place within a cosmic order. This gave them purpose and hope where before had been meaninglessness. With this in mind I noticed that other religious scriptures seemed to contain similar ideas, although they were more obscured in some than others.
The realisation dawned that religion was a way of bringing transcendence to the masses. While few could understand this ‘inner’ meaning in the scriptures, as long as they were in power, then the order of society would be based upon transcendental principles. In this way religion could play a major part in defining a culture and binding it together.
This new found meaning in religion did not blind me to the fact that modern Christianity was a sham; but I realised that the problem lay not in the religion itself, but in the fact that it had become subject to the will of the crowd. Much like modern politics, modern religion caters for the lowest common denominator and nothing else. That is why the Christianity preached in most churches is so simplistic and devoid of any beauty or meaning, because the people who now define it only want what is easy and pleasing at the time.
The radical atheist movement, led by those such as Richard Dawkins, is yet another modern movement that becomes obsessed with a problem that in itself is not huge, and loses its holistic focus. Much like the neo-Nazis with their fear of non-whites, and Christians with their fear of death, the radical atheists are essentially a negative movement which only tries to eliminate a problem, without offering a genuine solution. These negative movements are doomed to failure because they create an entire ideology out of one aspect of reality, and in doing so lose focus on everything else.
The solution is to perceive the cause of these problems and more importantly, how the process that brings them about can be replaced by a more natural one. Only a positive, holistic view that unites all aspects of society, including religion can stem the tide of modern decadence. Rather than destroy religion we should concentrate on restoring its inner meaning, that of transcendence; the individual aligning themselves with a higher order of things. By focusing not on a problem, but on the structural functionality of the whole, all the obvious flaws of modern society (Christianity, democracy) can be brought into line.
When I first began to realise that A.N.U.S. was not as anti-religious as I had originally thought I was not angry, but rather curious. I knew that these were people with knowledge that quite probably went beyond my own, leading me to believe that if they were not radical atheists, then they probably knew something about religion that I did not. Soon after this I read the Bhagavad-Gita, an important Hindu scripture, and was able to see that the ideas communicated were very similar to the philosophy of A.N.U.S. It promoted a transcendental worldview where the individual overcame their ego in favour of finding their place within a cosmic order. This gave them purpose and hope where before had been meaninglessness. With this in mind I noticed that other religious scriptures seemed to contain similar ideas, although they were more obscured in some than others.
The realisation dawned that religion was a way of bringing transcendence to the masses. While few could understand this ‘inner’ meaning in the scriptures, as long as they were in power, then the order of society would be based upon transcendental principles. In this way religion could play a major part in defining a culture and binding it together.
This new found meaning in religion did not blind me to the fact that modern Christianity was a sham; but I realised that the problem lay not in the religion itself, but in the fact that it had become subject to the will of the crowd. Much like modern politics, modern religion caters for the lowest common denominator and nothing else. That is why the Christianity preached in most churches is so simplistic and devoid of any beauty or meaning, because the people who now define it only want what is easy and pleasing at the time.
The radical atheist movement, led by those such as Richard Dawkins, is yet another modern movement that becomes obsessed with a problem that in itself is not huge, and loses its holistic focus. Much like the neo-Nazis with their fear of non-whites, and Christians with their fear of death, the radical atheists are essentially a negative movement which only tries to eliminate a problem, without offering a genuine solution. These negative movements are doomed to failure because they create an entire ideology out of one aspect of reality, and in doing so lose focus on everything else.
The solution is to perceive the cause of these problems and more importantly, how the process that brings them about can be replaced by a more natural one. Only a positive, holistic view that unites all aspects of society, including religion can stem the tide of modern decadence. Rather than destroy religion we should concentrate on restoring its inner meaning, that of transcendence; the individual aligning themselves with a higher order of things. By focusing not on a problem, but on the structural functionality of the whole, all the obvious flaws of modern society (Christianity, democracy) can be brought into line.