State and Church

[AdamSmith]

The other day another thread (http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/12717-jindal-wants-to-eliminate-all-income-taxes) got briefly onto the topic of religion: fer it or agin' it. Just now I was browsing Wikipedia on physicist Paul Dirac, and noticed this relevant bit, which I think has a lot to it.

...Heisenberg recollected a conversation among young participants at the 1927 Solvay Conference about Einstein and Planck's views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg and Dirac took part in it. Dirac's contribution was a criticism of the political purpose of religion, which was much appreciated for its lucidity by Bohr when Heisenberg reported it to him later. Among other things, Dirac said:

"I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest—and scientists have to be—we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. It is quite understandable why primitive people, who were so much more exposed to the overpowering forces of nature than we are today, should have personified these forces in fear and trembling. But nowadays, when we understand so many natural processes, we have no need for such solutions. I can't for the life of me see how the postulate of an Almighty God helps us in any way. What I do see is that this assumption leads to such unproductive questions as why God allows so much misery and injustice, the exploitation of the poor by the rich and all the other horrors He might have prevented. If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit. Religion is a kind of opium that allows a nation to lull itself into wishful dreams and so forget the injustices that are being perpetrated against the people. Hence the close alliance between those two great political forces, the State and the Church. Both need the illusion that a kindly God rewards—in heaven if not on earth—all those who have not risen up against injustice, who have done their duty quietly and uncomplainingly. That is precisely why the honest assertion that God is a mere product of the human imagination is branded as the worst of all mortal sins."

Heisenberg's view was tolerant. Pauli, raised as a Catholic, had kept silent after some initial remarks, but when finally he was asked for his opinion, said: "Well, our friend Dirac has got a religion and its guiding principle is 'There is no God and Paul Dirac is His prophet.'" Everybody, including Dirac, burst into laughter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac

[Guest hitoallusa]

I don't agree to part of documentary hypothesis on who wrote the Bible. I can see there were multiple authors but if you look closely into each manuscript it shows a bit of reality each author was placed in and how they try to overcome problems they were facing. And that made me to find a middle point for reconciliation between the Christianity and homosexuality.

I think religion is more than unverified assertions. It represents a long unending struggle to understand where we came from, how we should live and how to treat one another. As long as we pratice critical thinking and do not fear to exercise it, religion can enrich our lives as science has.