As someone who never came across religion before adulthood, I’ve been trying to figure it out. Some of it’s claims seem pretty damn nonsensical, and yet some of it’s adherents seem pretty damn well-adjusted and happy. The latter means there’s gotta be some value in there.
The most important takeaway so far is that religious claims make much more sense if you interpret them as phenomenological claims. Claims about the mind. When buddhists talk about the 6 worlds, they talk about 6 states of mood. When christians talk about a covenant with god, they talk about sticking to some kind of mindset no matter what.
Back when this stuff was written, people didn’t seem to distinguish between objective reality and subjective experience. The former is a modern invention. Either that, or this nuance has been lost in translation over the centuries.
As someone who never came across religion before adulthood, I’ve been trying to figure it out. Some of it’s claims seem pretty damn nonsensical, and yet some of it’s adherents seem pretty damn well-adjusted and happy. The latter means there’s gotta be some value in there.
The most important takeaway so far is that religious claims make much more sense if you interpret them as phenomenological claims. Claims about the mind. When buddhists talk about the 6 worlds, they talk about 6 states of mood. When christians talk about a covenant with god, they talk about sticking to some kind of mindset no matter what.
Back when this stuff was written, people didn’t seem to distinguish between objective reality and subjective experience. The former is a modern invention. Either that, or this nuance has been lost in translation over the centuries.
My shortform on religion being about belief taxes may interest you