Choosing Faith

THERE ARE HUNDREDS of varieties of Christianity. Within the past two hundred years the United States alone has spawned no fewer than half a dozen; Mormonism, Christian science, Jehovah's Witnesses, among others. Estimates as to the number of religions in the world range from a few hundred to a few thousand, depending on the method of classification. They all claim exclusive possession of the truth. As Pilate said: "what is truth?" Either God favors religious diversity, there is one true religion among all the varieties, none of them are true, in which case none of us knows what we're talking about, and all religions are inventions of the human mind and culture. The latter theory is the most supported by evidence. Goethe said: "when I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine." According to many sociological anthropologists, religion emerged from within human culture as a response to curiosity, fear, and the inherent human need for societal cohesion. There is no evidence that religiosity improves human behavior, individually, or societally. Quite the contrary, in fact. Concerted analysis indicates that religion serves, in a sense, as a sort of excuse for bad behavior, and as justification for it. Religion engendered science. science, in a sense, has replaced religion as our means to gain knowledge about the universe. To the extant that we worship anything, we should worship the divine ability within us to pay attention to the world, and to achieve at least a rudimentary understanding of it. Einstein, when accused of being "the man who knows everything", responded that he didn't know one millionth of one percent of anything. Neither does anyone else, though you'd be hard pressed to prove it by listening to devoutly religious people reveal their truth, which by nature they consider to be inviolable and universal, tragically. Science is self correcting. Religion defends error. When considering whether science or religion has given humanity more benefit, simply log on to your computer, and ask yourself: "which religion is responsible for this blessing?"