religion - 2 - moral persuasion

The most obvious function of religion has to be moral persuasion. When I say moral persuasion, I mean the definition of a uniform good and evil.

Why is it necessary to have a common definition of good and evil? Even as I ask this question, I have the answer. What is good for me can be bad for you and vice versa. One man’s nectar is another’s poison. Therefore, when looked at from the outside, people needed to be told what was right and what was wrong.

The logical question is why cannot people decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong? I have a question in reply. When has humanity, when asked to do things individually, done something which makes sense for humanity. People are generally shortsighted. They do not see beyond the choices that they make (please excuse the plagiarism from The Matrix).

What I mean by this, for the sake of short-term gain, people forget what is best in the longer term.

Religion, when it comes to moral persuasion is a negative indicator. It says what not to do rather than what to do. It is as if, other than the following list of things, which are not permitted under me, you are allowed to do the remaining. However, I wish it were that simple. Even in the permitted list of things, we can do to a certain limit.

Religion, regardless of which religion, does not allow over indulgence, does not permit killing of another human being, does not allow one to steal, and does not permit infidelity. The list is endless. I wish that it were possible to list all the things that are not allowed. I hope that I have made clear what I wished.

What will happen if religion was not present? Without religion to provide the moral standard that one follows, what would the world be like?

Would it result in anarchy? I do not think so. The difference is I strongly believe in evolution. When I say that I believe in the power of evolution, without religion to support us, we would have, over the years found out alternatives to the moral support that religion offers us. Looking at it in a different light, it almost seems that evolution designed religion to make sure that human beings survived.

The implication of the moral persuasion is that without religion, man would be doing things, which are presently termed as bad. The question who terms them bad is altogether another discussion.

Finally, I may have rehashed the same thing over and over again in this post. All I wanted to say was religion offers humanity a way that a life is supposed to live. Without this, each and everyone will be living life according to their terms and this may not be the best path for humanity as a species.