tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7103429365570826394..comments2024-03-29T12:03:37.344+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Why are some people religious? Asking the wrong question...Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-42221472427639833752017-10-08T07:36:35.802+01:002017-10-08T07:36:35.802+01:00Well, no!
The point of the post is that we are of...Well, no!<br /><br />The point of the post is that we are often led to ask the wrong question; and once that is in place then the 'obvious' answers are themselves wrong. <br /><br />And the right question is often very difficult to find - that is the experience of science, where the major breakthrughs come from the 'paradigm shift' of a different question. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-43758320813648010262017-10-07T20:22:38.198+01:002017-10-07T20:22:38.198+01:00I think it is less a matter of asking the wrong qu...I think it is less a matter of asking the wrong question as of refusing to accept the rather obvious answers to certain questions that are perfectly legitimate.<br /><br />Why are some people Religious? Because it turns out that belief in a higher meaning to life even when going on living is extremely difficult has a positive survival value (whether or not that survival value extends past this life). One can appeal to the idea of evolution or intelligent design in presenting this view, but either way, it is clear that once you accept the obvious answer to the question, it is irreligion that is pathological.<br /><br />Are there differences between men and women? How should we identify some people as "men" and others as "women" if there weren't? The question immediately becomes "how do we define 'men' and 'women' so as to be able to distinguish one from the other?"<br /><br />Why am I unhappy? Well, that's a perfectly legitimate question as long as I'm actually unhappy...and willing to honestly look for the cause. I think that sometimes people do mistake other things for unhappiness when they are actually not unhappy...I've occasionally wondered why I felt so terribly empty and realized it was because I had neglected to eat, or felt terribly weary and fixed it with a good nap. But it is those who are actually unhappy who are most prone to avoid facing the glaringly obvious answers to that question.<br /><br />And since these answers are often the answers to other questions as well, we can trace the persistence in asking certain kinds of question to unhappy people refusing to confront the true causes of their unhappiness.Chiu ChunLinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03519192610708043962noreply@blogger.com