Religion 1
Religions are belief systems that can bring an individual closer to the divine without any understanding of what the divine actually is. It necessarily operates on faith, and because of this, can lead to wildly inaccurate views of reality. In a proper religious journey though, the believer will come to better understand the divine by experiencing it. Overall, religion persists into the modern age because of its usefulness to mankind, the pleasure it brings, and its ease of adoption when compared to more complicated world-views. While I don’t actually belive in God, in comparing religions and finding consistent descriptions of the divine, I must conclude that all thriving religions have an element of truth to them. The most interesting question to ask about any religious belief is then: “How is this meaningfully true?”
Belief Systems
A belief system is a logic web. It is a series of conclusions that make sense when you briefly consider it. The accuracy of a belief system always depends on faith. If you examine a belief system for long enough, you will see the faith upon which it is anchored. If you examine the faith, the belief system will be threatened. Unthreatened belief systems become a feedback loop, where reality is interpreted through the lens of the system, thus increasing the complexity of the web. The more complex the belief system, the more difficult it is to untangle. Belief systems exist on a gradient of truth. The more true, the easier the belief is to maintain.
Faith
Faith is trusting a process before outcomes can be observed. Any religion requires a practical understanding of faith, and will provide an answer for where faith belongs. Faith can be placed in an omnipotent being, wishful thinking, fate, or any number of metaphysical constructions. Finding the most deserving place for my faith has been my meta-journey as I’ve explored the truth behind different religions. Ultimately, one’s own senses are the best place for faith to rest. Everything we know about the world has been subjected to our mental biases, and this explains how different observers can have different beliefs about reality. With this knowledge, I must have faith that my senses are accurate, or I relinquish my ability to know anything at all. Trusting your senses gives you data and the scientific method. The more I interrogate my biases and test my sense data, the closer I get to understanding reality as it is.
The Divine
The divine is a subjective experience. It has been described as the person of God, a state of mind, a location, life flashing before one’s eyes, a spiritual presence, etc. All descriptions of the divine experience are equally valid pieces of evidence, and commonalities between descriptions should be explored if we want to understand what the divine actually is. In my limited knowlege, the divine seems just beyond reality; a nonexistant concept that reflects much of existance in it. To experience it feels like the true maximum of goodness that a human can experience. I can experience the divine when I stop trusting my physical senses, because then all my brain has left to interpret is the divine and itself.
The Moral Sense
The personal experience of God can also be explained by the moral sense. Because one should put their faith in their senses, the moral sense is the best explanation for where we get concepts of right and wrong. Any event or action gives us an internal feeling of good or bad, and as we should live in accordance with reality, we should not ignore this sense. When the moral sense is taken into account for all of our decisions, good outcomes will be observed. If this comes from God, it would be evidence that he rewards good actions. If this comes from moral sense, it is evidence that the moral sense is accurate and trustworthy. The moral sense and divine experience are compatible, and suficiently explain all supernatural evidence without the need for theism.