thread: 2007-02-26 : Exorcism followthrough
On 2007-02-28, Christopher Weeks wrote:
Why is there such a powerful human urge to seek religion? When I was little I bought into the idea that people just wanted answers and were too lazy to find the real ones and too weak to admit that we just don't know. But there's so much more, I think, to the religious experience—sense of belonging, order, hierarchy, security, etc. I've never been religious—I was five the first time I heard of the notion of God, so I'll never have an insider's view. A friend of mine thinks that religion is primarily part of our drive, as social animals, to line up behind the alpha male. His stance and my childhood belief both have partial merit, but are obviously too simple.
The question of the benefits of religion and how to get them without self-delusion is an interesting one. Three ideas on this:
My mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about 18 months ago and was most likely going to die. She's about as good now as anyone could be after having her insides scraped out and baked in poison for a year, so it's all good. But one of the things we talked about was the stats that show the people of faith have better recovery rates. She did more research than I on the issue and settled on speaking affirmations as an approach to gain one of those benefits of religiosity. So she recited stuff like "I'm worthy of survival" and "In six years I'm going to see my grandson graduate from highschool" and whatnot. Obviously there's no telling if it helped, but I think she found that there is evidence that it does. Whatever the mechanics behind that, it's neat stuff.
My in-laws' house burned down. They live in a small town. They're deeply nestled into the social fabric of that town—they're the dentists. They have attended the UU chruch in the nearby larger college town for almost forty years. When the house burned, they lost everything. Both of these groups sprung up suddenly and without asking to help take care of them in their time of crisis. There were places to stay, hot meals, entire wardrobes and sets of pots and dishes. It was really cool. (Part of me thinks it's also creepy, but that's the dumb part, I think.) I guess it seemed natural that their neighbors and patients would step up and help out. But honestly, their church—40 miles away, is who really supplied most of the comfort and aid. It never occurred to me before watching it. So my wife and I were talking. If that happened to us, we'd be screwed. Overwhelmed. We move every five years. We're not particularly gregarious. We're atheists and have no church-like safety net. (Not really a relgious thing—you obviously have help when you need to paint, but it is for some.)
Lastly, I wonder what my kids are missing. I wonder what I missed. My exposure to and opinions of church-going from my own life are primarily negative. But I bet it's not that simple. I wonder if my kids would be better served by some kind of church-like experience.
