A rational 'religion'

Almost all religions are delusional; they require belief in a being or beings and/or concepts that are not supported by evidence. Most are divisive, they support their own adherents and they exclude people of other religions.

Plainly it is undesirable to believe things that are not true, yet there seems to be a human need for a form of spirituality at least in the sense of the "deepest values and meanings by which people live".

Perhaps this need for a spirituality could be provided by what has been called World Pantheism or Scientific Pantheism.

This page was written 2018/05/18, last edited 2023/01/26
Contact: David K. Clarke – ©
 


 
The World Pantheism organisation calls for a "reverence for nature"
Native bush
If future generations are to have a world that is not greatly damaged we do indeed need to have a deep reverence for nature.
 
Sunset
According to the World Pantheism organisation the basic concepts of Scientific Pantheism comprise:
  • A reverence for Nature and the wider Universe.

  • Active respect and care for the rights of all humans and other living beings.

  • Celebration of our lives in our bodies on this beautiful earth as a joy and a privilege.

  • Strong naturalism, without belief in supernatural realms, afterlives, beings or forces.

  • Respect for reason, evidence and the scientific method as our best ways of understanding nature and the Universe.

  • Promotion of religious tolerance, freedom of religion and complete separation of state and religion.

The more detailed statement of principles can be read on the World Pantheism net site.

My own thoughts on ethics leads me in this direction, although I don't think I'd call myself spiritual. My belief in the need to contribute to the community, the environment and the good of the planet, and to have compassion for all living things, also seems compatible to the above concepts.

The faults of conventional religion

I have written elsewhere of the cruelties and injustices documented in the Bible, of Christian intolerance and the threat to freedom and a rational society posed by Islam. Here I will just mention the burnings of those who Christians consider to be heretics, the cruelty of the Inquisitions, the wars between Catholic and Protestant Christians, and between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

On a number of other pages I've written of the faults and failings of conventional religions.

An alternative to theistic religion

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion; it does not require belief in a god or gods, but it does require a belief in an immortal soul, a concept that, on examination, can be shown to be absurd.

Could Scientific (or World) Pantheism provide the spirituality that some people seem to need without the delusions and divisiveness that come with religions?





Related pages on this site

Ethics

Milestones in the development of human society

My religion

Science, humanity's greatest discovery

A list of pages on religion and related subjects on this site