Lacking Belief
I was going to title this post “I don't believe in anything, and I'm fine with that”, but it seemed a bit long.
It's already 1:30pm. After working straight through lunch yet again, I'm trying to force myself to stop for a while. Writing a few words into a forgettable blog post should at least stop me from responding to email for a little while. The half-built piece of software swimming around my head is a little more difficult to ignore – the temptation to return to the source code is huge.
I just watched a video shared on Facebook of a funeral taking place in Orlando, and the Westboro Baptist church trying to stage some kind of demonstration outside the gates.
It made me think.
With the education we now have in the “developed world”, how on earth do people still have belief in any form of religion? I sat on the fence for years – not wanting to cause arguments with people around me, but as you get older you perhaps get a bit more confident in yourself, and don't mind “not fitting in” so much.
There is no material evidence for, and no evidence has ever been found (as far as I am aware) that would prove the existence of any form of deity. The fact that a huge majority of the world's population actively believe in some sort of mythical construct amazes me, if I'm honest. It's difficult to wrap my head around.
As far as I can see, most people who follow a faith, or whatever you might like to call it, use it as a crutch. Those organising, or perpetuating the following of that faith are very selective in selling it to those that have already invested themselves. When something fortuitous happens, they say their prayers were answered. When somebody dies, they claim it is the will of whichever omnipotent imaginary icon they sell.
Are people generally so weak minded that they need a catch-all “everybody else believes in it” roll of paper to cover everything they would rather not think about?
The fact that so many people believe in completely different gods always amuses me. That they placate themselves with the belief that everybody following alternative gods are following the wrong gods borders on the idiotic. The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Sumerians they all followed a panoply of different gods – all of which they utterly believed in. The Romans were far more clever (and cynical) – often absorbing the Gods of religions they encountered in order to win hearts and minds. It's easy to forget their empire ruled over Europe for many times longer than any modern civilisations have existed.
It's difficult though – not believing.
While I firmly believe that everybody should be allowed to think and believe what they want, I hate the idea that all major faiths promote the idea of “spreading the word”. It flies in the face of any confidence people have in their own faith – because if something is real, and good, they shouldn't need to advertise it, or defend it.
I could go on and on. I'm going to choose not to. It's time to get on with my work anyway.