The role of religion
As a result of an existencial crisis at late adolescence, I became increasingly interested in religious books; bible, coran, lotus sutra, bhagavad gita. What commonalities did they have? I’ve never really been interested in the idea of there being a powerful force, and if this is more or less true. It’s irrelevant and speculative.
Rather, from our humble and fragile psyche, what positive influence could these man-made written texts have, and for what reason?
Psychologists and religion have fundamentally the same role in my oppinion. Help relieve humans from their inherent existencial suffering.
We have extremely advanced technology; data analysis, A.I, biology reasearch, statistics. And still psychology is inherently a vague amalgamation of different interpretations. There are completely opposing methods that are equally valid. A very uncomfortable premise for anyone that values determinism. Therefore, I believe it is just to say that we understand some behaviours, and there are general patterns that we follow. As for what consciousness is, we can’t define anything more than a subjective internal dialogue. A psychologists job, is to ask questions and listen to this persons dialogue within themselves. Their function is to ask questions that will break destructive self-descriptions, open up to new possible dialogues of opportunities, and improve the overall self-image, laying out a plan ahead that honours this perception.
When I realized this simple relationship of editing the internal dialogue. I came to understand religion’s role in our society. If you adopt the texts as a way of life, to the degree that you act out and reflect on the writtings, you will be rearranging your internal dialogue. It serves as a double benefit; for your own self, and for the people that surround you. Religious texts have rules, descriptions of archetypes, moral stories, and poetic truths. They serve as a map of ideas, and if followed through in actions, probabilities of positive outcomes increase.
That being said, there are many people that are not in any way interested in religion, have a positive internal dialogue, are kind, and hence create beautiful garden’s for company to flourish.
Religion should in no way be enforced. It is a structure that can be seen as beautiful and helpful. But if someone does not want to look at it, that’s ok. There are many beautiful aspects of life outside of religion, and we are free to enjoy what we wish.
