There's hope for the future...

[Beebub]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wee ... 52069.html

Moya O’Sullivan, Secular humanist

I have, in the past two or three years, since about the age of 14, found the question of how religion, in this case, the Catholic Church in Ireland, can have such influence and devout followers perplexing. I cannot comprehend, with science now answering much of what the religionist people of the Middle Ages did not understand, how religion, and “faith” thought to be virtuous survives, when it is, to me, incompatible with our wonderful ability to reason, which separates us from animals.

I define myself as an intellectual and philosopher, with unshakeable faith in human reason, and find religion incongruous with the miracle that is the human mind. How an intelligent species can be vehement in their belief that water is “touched by God”, that Jesus was born to the “Virgin” Mary with no biological father involved, a physiological impossibility, that Jesus was fully human yet fully divine, and God, while remaining his son, and that “he” hears your prayers while simultaneously hearing those of another seven billion, is beyond my understanding.

The correlation between education and atheism doesn’t surprise me. As Aristotle says, the mark of an educated mind is the ability to assimilate an idea without absorbing it, and I know, even from my little life experience at 16, that knowledge which nurtures the human ability to reason is much more conducive to fulfilment, contentment and joy than religious “truth”.

[chemicals]

is there really ?

As a scientist by training, I will always be searching for answers to life’s hard questions. But in the lived experience and teachings of the church, I have found a wisdom that continues to challenge me, while always pointing to the great dignity of the human person. On my journey of faith, the core message of Catholicism that I have discovered is that I am loved by God and that my life has a purpose. This has sustained and guided me through many ups and downs in life.

My faith has motivated me to get involved in the church – recently as a member of “Catholic Comment”; a group of lay people who are available to engage with the media.

Louise Hildebrand, Christian

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wee ... 52069.html

[aZerogodist]

Fair play to the IT to give the general public the chance to give thier current views on religion in Ireland today.

Reading the views from christians shows a completely different attitude than the normal christian authority voice, ie RCC, IONA, which quote census figures to support their claims to speak on behalf of Irish catholics.

One of the comments suggest that the older generation are the backbone of the catholic church, but I think that's an unfair judgement, a neighbour of mine in her 80's recently and cautiously said to me that she was glad the Catholic Church was losing it's powerfull influence away from the government, when I agreed, she went on to be very very critical of the church, she told me that she mentioned it to a friend of hers a priest, and he agreed with her that the church had far too much political power. Maybe the perception that the older generation is more pious to the church, is because they never had the freedom/means to voice their opinions, like today we have the net, and the media is more public view friendly, but imagine 30 years ago, anything in a newspapers/TV about religion was probably written by priests or deeply religious people reinforcing the views of the church.

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Moya O'Sullivan's piece is intuitive and so well written, I would love to read more, any idea if she has written any books or a Blog?

[Nimeniton]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wee ... 52069.html

Moya O’Sullivan, Secular humanist

I cannot comprehend, with science now answering much of what the religionist people of the Middle Ages did not understand, how religion, and “faith” thought to be virtuous survives, when it is, to me, incompatible with our wonderful ability to reason, which separates us from animals.

I would say that in part, it is because religious ideas go deep into culture and even the unconscious. Look at your own writing where you make a distinction between humans and animals as if humans were not animals or assuming that animals do not have some rudimentary ability to reason . This distinction between animal and human has its roots in religion. The idea that the human is more than just an animal.

"Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” Ecclesiastes 3:21. Though the RCC says that animals do not have souls and humans do.