I want to start this off with religion, I know this topic has been talked about on the escapist for a long time, but it'd be nice to start with a secular, open question, especially as the concept of existentialism relies heavily (I think) on this world being it.
We live in such a huge and vast universe, on such a tiny planet, and have actually existed for an extremely minuscule amount of time relative to the rest of the cosmos, what would be the point of anything without religion? Religion, it seems, follows a central concept throughout it's evolution, "Good vs. Evil". Now where the Good and Evil have varied based upon societies perceptions and experiences throughout the ages, they have kept a consistent, if socially malleable theme. Now, as reasonable people (lol internet), is this attributed to the human factor, of us as a collective species expressing a vaguely common moral basis, or is it due to a higher presence, moulding our idea's into the correct form over a large period of time?
Religion guarantees a sense of purpose and fulfilment and can provide ease to those troubled by their own mortality, and Existentialism shows us exactly how insignificant we are, but also how special and rare we must be.
Either way, as far as Christianity puts it, the whole God creation thing seems a little...thin.
God creates man in own image, plays around with them for a bit, gets annoyed that they didn't do what he said, smites around a bit, decides to sell off all the bad ones to a former co-worker and keep the best to have a re-union in his Big holy house land, piecing himself together again with all the respective good souls until he is blissful and eradicates the bad ones?!?!? *gasp for air*
To me, this just seems circular. God exists, creates, sheds, exists. Religion itself is existential. There is no, ultimate, point. This kinda applies to all the religions that end with "eternal happiness" or "eternal bliss" or "heavenly concept".
So what true purpose do either religion, or existentialism have, if they both have each other's qualities?
Discuss.
We live in such a huge and vast universe, on such a tiny planet, and have actually existed for an extremely minuscule amount of time relative to the rest of the cosmos, what would be the point of anything without religion? Religion, it seems, follows a central concept throughout it's evolution, "Good vs. Evil". Now where the Good and Evil have varied based upon societies perceptions and experiences throughout the ages, they have kept a consistent, if socially malleable theme. Now, as reasonable people (lol internet), is this attributed to the human factor, of us as a collective species expressing a vaguely common moral basis, or is it due to a higher presence, moulding our idea's into the correct form over a large period of time?
Religion guarantees a sense of purpose and fulfilment and can provide ease to those troubled by their own mortality, and Existentialism shows us exactly how insignificant we are, but also how special and rare we must be.
Either way, as far as Christianity puts it, the whole God creation thing seems a little...thin.
God creates man in own image, plays around with them for a bit, gets annoyed that they didn't do what he said, smites around a bit, decides to sell off all the bad ones to a former co-worker and keep the best to have a re-union in his Big holy house land, piecing himself together again with all the respective good souls until he is blissful and eradicates the bad ones?!?!? *gasp for air*
To me, this just seems circular. God exists, creates, sheds, exists. Religion itself is existential. There is no, ultimate, point. This kinda applies to all the religions that end with "eternal happiness" or "eternal bliss" or "heavenly concept".
So, I started some point about existentialism and religion...but i forgot what it was and got carried away ranting :/
Sorry.
Sorry.
So what true purpose do either religion, or existentialism have, if they both have each other's qualities?
Discuss.