Purpose/Introduction
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What is religion? A religion is a set of beliefs that has proved useful for the very survival of primitive societies, and enforced practices relating to the way an individual relates to society. Law is a codification of these practices which occurred soon after the advent of writing. One of the survival aids that religion brings is a belief that there is something or someone 'out there' monitoring our deeds and misdeeds, and at some point we will be rewarded in some future life. This gives reassurance both to bereaved families and to the brave young men needed to fight wars and die for their cause. It also excuses the excesses of leaders and justifies manifestly unfair use of force, including warmongering, the use of repression, torture and selective killing.
On 12th December 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations. This secular, perhaps humanist document synthesises the best principles of many religions and cultures, and provides a sort 'religious doctrine' of equality,liberty and freedom of expression to which most people might aspire.
Generally religious establishments consider that they have divine and absolute revelation about everything, and are therefore very conservative. Somewhere between these two extreme views, there may be a better religion, that preserves the rich traditions and joyous ceremonies of antiquity - but which also places on everyone those modern rights and responsibilities which are essential for a just, peaceful and exciting future, free of war, famine, disease and injustice. Impossible? Perhaps, but a noble and worthwhile quest that Wikipedians might usefully share anyway.
What better way to commence our search for a universal religion than to examine what is currently known about the universe and its living contents? Using knowledge carefully compiled over many centuries and replacing assumptions with facts—this is, after all, why the majority of us no longer live in caves.
Communal decision-making (moral or practical) is facilitated by valuing the attainment of a communally valued purpose, one which is readily recognized as applicable to all—a universal purpose. Unfortunately, as the next two chapters relate, to the best of our current understanding nothing about either the universe or life necessitates that they be purpose-driven.
Scientists can’t prove that a purpose was necessary for the universe or life to form; neither can they prove that a purpose was not necessary. All they can state is that both the universe and life are present, both change over time, and nothing more than that described by a few laws, principles and theories of physics is needed to explain their existence and ensure their evolution. As Chapter Nine notes, our current physics is not powerful enough to determine whether or not a purpose existed before our universe began—the only place a predetermining purpose might be found.
However, there is a possible way around the dilemma created by our failure to find a universe-governing purpose. This is discussed in Chapter Ten which suggests that a possible consequence of life’s behaviour could be used as a “surrogate” purpose. It turns out that this “consequence” has a number of valuable contributions to offer (it can readily be used to guide moral decision making, for instance—an exercise explored in Chapter Thirteen). Part Three concludes by constructing a reason to think that the “possible consequence” might even be a “probable consequence” (which would greatly increase its value, should it be adopted to be the “purpose” that heads a universal religion).
But first, we must update Genesis I.
The four parts are:
Part One, Thinking And Moral Problems. This part includes Chapter One Thinking, Chapter Two Solving Problems and Chapter Three Making Decisions.
Part Two, Religions And Their Source. This part includes Chapter Four Religions' Origins, Chapter Five Revelations And Conversions and Chapter Six Present Day Religions.
Part Three, Purpose. This part includes Chapter Seven The Universe, Chapter Eight Life, Chapter Nine Looking For A Purpose and Chapter Ten Life And Exploiting.
Part Four, Developing A Universal Religion. This part includes Chapter Eleven Why Bother?, Chapter Twelve Possible Applications, Chapter Thirteen Determining Moral Behaviours and Chapter Fourteen A Universal Religion.
The four parts attempt to explain why the world needs a "universal religion."
To properly understand the need for a universal religion, we must first understand why religions are needed. Part One, Thinking And Moral Problems, of this book examines the neurological and environmental conditions that create the mental need for a religion. Essentially, our minds are problem-solving and decision-making entities, handling practical situations proficiently but often finding moral ones difficult. Religions help by shaping the background “environment” that defines the moral problem that confronts us.
Unfortunately, none of our existing religions could become the basis for a universal religion. The rationale for stating so is developed in Part Two, Religions And Their Source.
Part Three, Purpose, searches for a purpose that is significant enough to be used when universally applicable moral decisions have to be made. It gives reasons for stating that life’s behaviour itself may provide such a purpose. Part Four, Developing A Universal Religion, presents some philosophical and practical reasons for using such a purpose then illustrates how it might be used to develop a rational code of “moral” behaviour. Part Four ends with a few suggestions about religion building.
The emphasis throughout this book is on the importance of choosing a suitable (i.e., universal, timeless and rational) purpose and using it to make decisions that impact upon civilization’s progress. In that such a purpose will generate moral solutions, it may eventually head a “universal religion.” However, this book explores only the reasons why such a religion is needed and how one might be derived; the possible development of one is a task that others might like to think about undertaking.
Some points in this series may promote discussions and dissensions. These are welcome, of course, but may can make following the text difficult if included within the text. I suggest that:
- facts (as defined in wikipedia [[1]]) are included as changes in the text, but
- opinions (as defined in wikipedia [[2]]) are added to the discussion page. Please give your name or a pen-word, so that others can refer to your entry in any replies.
N.B. Changes in text can be found by referring to the history page.
Since the text is being modified, you may wish to read, or print, parts (or all) of the original book. You can do this by downloading the PDF file.
David Hockey 20:53, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
