As some of you are aware I exhibit some extent of animosity towards religion. That's absolutely true, because the concept itself has, from my perspective, been damaging. What's also true is that many other people throughout time have been hurt from it as well, that religion itself is innately irrational, and that every good thing religion can accomplish can also be accomplished through ethical—secular—means. For the most part I can thank Christopher Hitchens for these views, because I draw heavily on his written work.
However, having read part of his book—God is not Great—he did mention in page 8 that we're only partly rational mammals... that evolution has made our prefontal lobes too small, and our adrenal glands too big. We aren't solely rational animals. Thanks to the glands, chemicals, and other matter within our brains we're subjected to a whole host of emotions, irrationalities, and beliefs. We look at objects or experience certain feelings... and we apply names and meanings to them. For example, we humans consider the round, juicy, sweet fruit used for making cider... and we call it an "apple." But then, since man is man—and man has a proclivity for the subjective—what we here call "apple" is called by many different names in many different tongues, both past and present.
Throughout time things have changed. What was given a name 3,000 years ago by a certain people will have a different name by a different people... in modern times. What I've been trying to say is that humans aren't strictly rational. We have emotions, we're not outstandingly bright, and we suffer from a myriad of feelings and beliefs—not all of which is solely religion. Religion is merely a facet of the problem: "humanity," or whatever that is.
So, humans believe. Humans feel. We fear. We are scared of the unknown. We are scared of things that we can't possibly know, like death, or should I say... what is "after" death. What we don't understand we find ways to explain it away. There is no possible way to explain "why" we're born on Earth. That is where religion and beliefs come into play. Instead of coming to grips with the terrible feeling of overwhelming emptiness—that there is no inherently objective meaning to life—we find ways to cope. We... find "hope," faith. We want to believe that there is something else after death. We hope to find explanations for our existence, behaviors we don't understand, and also what "may be" after death.
For example the Egyptians a few millennia ago were convinced that only the king—the Pharoah—could live on forever after death, and that everything he owned would come with him on his ethereal journey. As centuries passed.... this "privilege" of eternity included the nobility as well, and then theirslaves, and, ultimately, every citizen from the highest class to the lowest. If a noble wanted slaves to accompany him in the afterlife, he'd have them killed upon his death.
I don't want to write a pamphlet to explain why I now disbelieve. All I can say to really make a difference is that you, if you believe, should read the works of Christopher Hitchens. Unlike dogmatic atheists who make it a habit of shutting out opposing beliefs while clinging to theirs, Hitchens himself stated in page 10: "I don't feel arrogant enough to exempt myself from self-criticism." From reading his books and essays I can confidently say that he did have a streak of humility in him in which he would imply that, though he was intelligent, he was sure to not always be right, or fall into the trap of dogmatism. One should understand the empirical facts, note contradictions wherever found, but not become arrogantly sure of one's own beliefs.
There are reasons why I disbelieve, and some that are more personal than others. If you want to know and understand why, please fire away. I'm prepared to explain my views in this thread while trying—trying—to be neither dogmatic, condescending, or arrogant.
