Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Midterm Post 3, God's Debris - Chris Lowry


This post is all about different religions.


How do I know which religion is the right one? All of them believe they are the true way to heaven (or nirvana, inner peace, etc, etc).

That is a very tough question. In God's Debris I have found two of my favorite ideas on the subject of different religions.
#1 Road Maps
Texas, beotch.

Let's say that two people travel separately to the same place. One has a blue map and the other a green one. Neither map shows all of the possible routes, but both show an acceptable, but different, route to our destination. If both have successful trips and return safely, they will naturally each spread the word about their respective maps.
Religions are like different maps whose routes all lead to the collective good of society. Some go over rugged terrain, others take easier paths. Followers of each map will train others to respect it and to be suspicious of other maps.
The maps were made by the people who went first and survived; the maps that survive are the ones that work.

All dogs really do go to heaven.



#2 Curious Bees

Why do people have different religions?

This is what the package delivery man asks the "Avatar", as he is called. He explains it like this:
Imagine that a group of curious bees lands on the outside of a church's stained glass window, each bee landing on a different color pane. To one bee, the interior of the church is red. To another, yellow, and to another it is blue. The bees cannot experience the inside of the church directly, they can only see it through their pane of glass. If the bees could talk, they might argue over the color of the interior, each bee sticking to his version, not capable of understanding that the other bees were looking at the same thing, just through different pieces of stained glass. Nor would they understand the purpose of the church or how to get there.

But these are curious bees, remember. When they don't understand something, they become unhappy. In the long run, the bees will have to choose between permanent curiosity (an uncomfortable mental state), and delusion. The bees don't like those choices. They would prefer to know the "true" color of the interior and its purpose, but the bees' brains are not designed for that level of understanding.

The bees that choose discomfort will be unpleasant to be around and will be ostracized. The bees that choose self-deception will band together to reinforce their version of a red interior, a yellow interior, or a blue interior.

So are we just dumb bees?

Worse. We're curious.




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