I’m going to write down why I think religion is, and always has been, a bane in the morality of mankind. Sometimes I will discuss religion in general, sometimes I will discuss particular religions, and sometimes, just issues that all religions play on.
Let’s get started. Assume this scenario:
It’s Sunday and you and some friends are supposed to meet up at Starbucks around 1pm. It’s always great spending time chit-chatting with friends, especially with some really good coffee on hand! It’s 1pm, and you’re here. You walk into the Starbucks and see your friends all gathered around a table in the corner.
Perfect! Everyone is here!
You quickly walk over to the Starbucks counter and order your favorite drink. You pay for your coffee and walk over to the table your friends are at while waiting for them to prepare your coffee. As soon as you get there, you notice a bunch of your friends just have a bunch of empty coffee cups.
“What’s the deal?” you ask while pointing at the empty cups. They all look at you like you’re a little crazy and ask “What do you mean?”
“How long have you all been here? Do any of you want any coffee refills?” you ask.
“We just got here; we all brought our own coffee, why would we want some of the coffee here?? It’s nowhere near as good as ours!” exclaims Mike.
You decide to bite and follow. ”OK, well, where is it, let me try yours then…”.
Your friend Michelle turns to you and gives you an empty cup, “Here you go, give it a try!”
Not really sure what to do, you look into the cup and nothing is there. You figure, what the hell, and lift it up to your lips to take a drink. You tip the cup slowly just in case your eyes are playing tricks on you. Eventually, the cup is completely upside down and you’re looking up – nothing.
You lower the cup and give it back to Michelle. She shouts, “It’s the best coffee in the world, isn’t it!!!”.
“OK, enough jokes” you laugh and go pick up your drink from the counter. Everyone starts to look at you funny now. They seem to be waiting for you to try your coffee, so you take a nice slow sip. The incredible taste is overwhelming! Satisfaction!
“Well, what do you think, isn’t ours better?” Mike asks.
“Funny” you state.
Mike gets this odd look on his face again. ”Dude, our coffee is 100 times better than any coffee here. The coffee here is horrible, made wrong, it’s completely off. It is not the coffee you should be drinking.”
You realize they are all being serious. They think their coffee is real, they think it’s the coffee everyone should be drinking.
Think to yourself, what is wrong with this scenario? They have faith; they truly believe that their coffee is the greatest coffee in the world. Yet, you can clearly see, there is nothing in front of them. There is no coffee. There are a couple of lessons you can derive from this story.
The crowd is not always right. Plain and simple, numbers don’t constitute truth.
The greater issue at hand; however, arrogance. The definition of arrogance is, “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions”. These individuals truly, unquestionably, believe their coffee is the best coffee in the world. All other coffee in the world can’t compare. Their coffee is superior, in turn, making them superior simply by being the ones who drink it.
This is the same scenario seen every day when talking about religion with religious people. They all have invisible coffee that is the best coffee in the world. No questions asked. No proof, no evidence. The coffee they have is better than the other persons “imaginary” coffee, even better than real world coffee.
Just a normal average guys talking about the things he finds most interesting. Somehow, usually end up talking about taboo subjects... hmm...
Why do we all attribute someone’s faith… whether it be in a higher power or not.. whether it be in crystals, science, voodoo, whatever…as arrogance? Aren’t we all arrogant then to have “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions?” Why can’t we all just respect someones belief as their own and not take offense to whatever “coffee they’re drinking”…
The arrogance comes into play when you can’t backup a claim. When you claim to be correct without anything to prove it.
Now, the question currently is, why do you think it’s disrespectful to consider it arrogant and where did the idea of offensive come from? Arrogance is simply that, arrogance, it’s not offensive, respectful, or disrespectful.
These are pretty much too arguments so trying to ensure the questions/ideas are kept seperate.