This post is a brief overview of some of the ideas in Losing My Religions as a preface to the next two posts.
To have the best life possible, understanding our world and ourselves more honestly is important. (Unless you can really live a lie, which is possible.)
The Genes that Tie and Bind
We humans are not equipped to see things as they actually are. Our genes have built us to get more copies of themselves (our genes) into the future; these “selfish” genes will program us – their vessel – to do whatever it takes to maximize this outcome. This includes, but is not limited to:
- The craving for “more” – more calories, more stuff, more money, more status;
- The drive to have sex, the love of / desire for babies;
- The inability to see the world clearly or understand ourselves.
(Obviously, we don’t all share exactly the same drives to the exact same extent.)
I talk about this and the below in Losing My Religions; Robert Wright covers this in more detail in The Moral Animal and Why Buddhism Is True.
Our families have also programmed us. Not to be happy and fulfilled – oh no, no, no – but to do what they want (except in rare exceptions). In short, those genetically related to us are programmed by their genes to want us to propagate the genes we share with them.
It’s selfish genes all the way down.
Some people have kids to fulfill their drive to procreate, and many (but not all) also want love from their children. (“Some people have kids and want those children to be happy. Others have children and want the kids to make them happy.”)
The above can be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and, if necessary, overcome.
Religion – The Great Obfuscator
Then we have society.
Perhaps the most insidious lie foisted upon us by our society is one our family also programs into us: religion. Our ties to family make it stranglingly difficult to even question the faith in which we are raised, let alone free ourselves and see the universe more clearly.
Which religion is programmed into our synapses depends on where and when we’re born. Recognizing that particular fact can be helpful in freeing us from the shackles and torture of our parents’ beliefs – there is no reason to think that our mother and/or father just happen to have the right view of god(s) when the vast majority of humans have believed something else.
Once we recognize that our parents don’t have a monopoly on cosmic truth, it is still difficult to clear the stained glass completely. The vast majority of people believe in some form of god(s); making belief without evidence the norm. In addition, we understandably want to feel like the universe is not a “cold, uncaring, and meaningless place,” which is what some people fear would be the case without god(s).
Additionally, we have the solace faith can provide us in the face of death.
Despite all this, no actual evidence gives us reason to believe in any “higher power.” True, we don’t currently understand how the Big Bang came about. But if we think everything had to be created, and thus the Big Bang must have been created, then what created the Big Bang’s creator? At least we have evidence of the Big Bang, and it is a falsifiable theory.
Additionally, think about everything else that was previously unknown and used to justify belief in god(s). Now we understand what the Sun and Earth are and how they came to be, for example, as well as how the diversity of life evolved.
We haven’t learned these things through faith, of course. Religions have thwarted the advancement of human knowledge. The imprisonment of Galileo for noting that the Earth isn’t the center of the universe is only one example. The general “it’s god’s will” anti-science attitude has caused so much suffering. (Another topic in Losing.)
Although we can’t, of course, prove a negative (“no god(s) exist”) we have no reason to have any affirmative belief, especially not one that affects how we live.
Free Will – The Greatest Illusion
We do, however, have reason to believe we have free will. It totally feels like we are in control, actively controlling our thoughts and driving our actions. Showing that free will is an illusion is beyond the scope of one blog post. Even though I am not down with him on many things (just search this blog for his name), Sam Harris is very good on the topic. Here is a post that introduces his short book on the topic; here is a short video; here is a longer video.
Recognizing that free will is an illusion – a nearly perfect illusion – is astonishingly difficult. Possibly harder than giving up god(s). This isn’t just because we feel like we have free will, but also because many people think they would not be an individual if they weren’t “in control.”
This can seem scary, but really isn’t. In my experience, giving up the illusion of free will is a necessary but not sufficient insight for enlightenment – the topic of my next (shorter) blog post. Accepting that free will can’t exist is the heavy lift, and is the one topic I think is worth your time to explore, starting with the three previous links: a post that introduces his short book on the topic; a short video; a longer video.
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