Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to I can't disprove that there is a tea kettle in orbit around Pluto.

Yeti's right
TB — (archived)

Proof works like he says. I don't have to prove there are no invisible and intangible leprechauns filling Albert Hall. It's up to those making the claim.

That being said, a little humility is in order for any proud atheists.

It should be pointed out that the number of human beings who remain rational and clear-eyed in the absence of all conventional religion is disappointingly small. Religion fills a deep need in the human psychology, and far too many people who discard conventional religions end up believing in something else irrational instead, often something worse.

I have a thought on this: The Golden Rule is some version of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

If there is a "Silver Rule" to life, I believe it ought to be "Moderation in All Things." The people in my life I have been most comfortable around are those whose religion (or lack of it) is a part of their life, but not the center of it.

Come to think of it, that applies to politics and pretty much any other human activity. It's so often the fanatics that wreck things, isn't it?

I come from a long line of Midwestern Christians who attended church, helped the poor and needy, prayed at meals, and tried to live a good life. None of them were the sorts of people who run around condemning non-Christians to hell, or demanding that everyone believe as they do or else. Most casual aquaintances would never have known what religion they were. The only time I ever heard the word "hell" in any church service I ever attended was in the Apostle's Creed.

Maybe the secret to filling that psychological need for order and meaning in the universe without creating social upheaval is to fill it with something benign and "off-stage." A "King Log" religion like so many of them really are.

Too many human-centered belief systems (or religions where human leaders interject themselves in the place of gods) end up with a "King Stork." A fuehrer.

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