DOES
MODERN LIFE AND RELIGION PUSH OUR EVOLUTION TOO FAR TOO FAST?
It is
claimed by many that we have violated evolution by being too advanced in science
letting it make us too indulgent and lazy. That is blamed for much of the rampant
mental illness and even physical illness that we see around us. We are not
living lives reflecting the animals we actually are. Have we overstepped?
Do we need to live more basic lives?
Many of us
have gone back to basics and feel much better.
And as for
those who think we have gone too far why are they not protesting about certain
religions?
It is obvious that we seek and cling to things that make us feel
different to animals and godlike in comparison. The smartphone
has as much power over you as the idol had over those who worshipped
it in days long gone. When people say they want a spiritual meaning
to life, want to revel in the spiritual dimension, what they mean is
feeling that some part of them, the more important part, will resist
the worst of what nature or anything can throw at it. Giving a
lot of love can be motivated by trying to create and sustain that
illusion. One thing we think of at this point is, people want to
live as if death is not really going to happen to them and if it
does then something is there to protect your core, your
personhood, from final destruction.
We try to think and feel that despite having an animal side that we
are not animals. Doctrines and ideas that can help with that
illusion are many. Here are some. That we have souls, that we belong in a glorious Heaven,
that we are the image of God, that God values us above all other
creatures. Surely then we are using religion to do the same thing as technology does?
We are trying to move too far
too fast. The luck that made us what we are will always be
bigger than us. In other words, trying to be some kind of
magical creature defies what we are.
Christianity says that
even if survival of the most adaptable or the fittest is true and the
cornerstone of evolution we must defy it.
It claims it makes us concentrate on empowering the strong and the clever for
nature will eliminate the sick and the weak. For Nietzsche, this is
going too far. And if you believe in God who says he really wants you to
care for the vulnerable? And if survival of the fittest is true then
Christianity by commanding love for the sick cannot defy the truth. Isn't
it the religion that says that defying truth does nothing for the truth is
always bigger than you or anything? It will rush in. If I have to
see everything else as a possible taker, a competitor, if I have to see nature
as something that is no better than an enemy, that is what I will be forced to
see. Not looking makes it worse. Christianity if natural selection
is true already knows it deep down and is lying about it being untrue.
Either way it makes itself part of the threat.
Is it not against evolution to put more hope in a good afterlife than in
the life we have?
If evolution
calls for diligence then religion telling us that no matter how good we are, the
goodness is really God’s it dissociates us from ourselves.
That harms our nature if we are advanced animals. We make what
we do as the clock makes the tick. The dissociation is unnatural. It
may be the reason why believers apart from a few are not exceptionally kind.
We admit that atheism has the same problem. But if faith is causing
believers to be too negligent then that is an issue on its own. The issue of why
atheists are lazy is a separate subject. And a lot of it is down to dependence on scientific advances.
But that is a human issue rather than a specifically atheist one.
The bottom line is religion thinks we are not animals but children of God
who happen to have some things in common with them. The Genesis story
has Adam finding no beast suitable as a partner. Animals were already there
when he was made from the dust. He had to be made separate to highlight
that he was not just another animal. If it is true that we are animals, we
need to keep thinking in line with that. We need to live in line with it.
Harm will happen otherwise. or more harm than would otherwise happen.
The damage cannot be avoiding by trying to say we are
some kind of mini-god or a zombie with some spiritual ghost living in it.
A bit more self-awareness and we would see our animal nature.
We see more than we realise but there are religions out there that seek to
confuse us. We would see that
we need to be more
consistent with that nature.
Some believe that the religious or spiritual impulse comes from fear.
Others say it is gratitude. Why does it has to be one or the other?
Everybody reports that they feel thankful and fearful towards the unknown, the
supernatural mystery. And a lot of gratitude is rooted in fear. You
fear that if you are not thankful enough what you have may be taken from you.
And thankfulness is partly based on the notion that life does not have to work
out for you. You feel good because you got something that you might not
have got. You know you will lose it so that is why you feel so good now.
And you fear that if you do not work up thankful emotions the happy occurrence
cannot reach you. You need to let yourself enjoy it fully. Fear has
more to do with the religious drive than anything else.
Control and psychological control are different. But
control is control. You can sense you are in control by
surrendering to the car that drives for you. Your surrender is
control. If you were driving the car rather than it driving
you would be in control in an active sense. Either way you are
taking control. God is not God to anybody. Jesus is not
Lord to anybody. They are only God or Lord if you let them be
meaning you are the real power, the real God and Lord. Control
and power is the real drive behind faith and religion.
So we might still wonder what are people seeking to get out of religion
anyway? Is religion about running after a fix without drugs? We all know
nature has the power to drug us. Is that is what
is really searched for? Are we trying to get our brain hormones and chemicals to
make the fix for us? Religion relies heavily on people who have at least
one momentary experience of transcendence. It seems to just happen.
But do we really want a Heaven where we have that experience forever? It
seems we will accept just having a moment of significance and then back to normality but having the
uplifting consequences remain with us forever. In psychology, this is a
case of a person finding some kind of safe space in life to go back to. I
mean in the midst of turmoil now they may hark back to the experience and they
feel better. This works the same way that a film or good song on the radio
can take you out of your bad circumstances momentarily. The power to
switch off is there. This is normal in life and we have no need to go down
the mystical road and talk of transcendence in such terms. Transcendence
must mean escapism and nothing else.