Sunday, September 19, 2010

Just thinking, that's all.

 The incredible human ability to reason is what separates us from other forms of life. Faith is by definition the lack of reason, and without reason we are denying the very thing that makes us remarkable as a species.

I often remind myself that animals, though overwhelmingly non-sentient and almost completely instinctual, don't believe in a God, either. They don't know what is "wrong" or "right," they do not operate out of fear for being cast into Hell, they do not ask forgiveness for their "sins," they do not thank anyone or anything for putting food on their proverbial tables. But they also could not ponder origins of the universe, the speed of light, or how to keep a wound from getting infected.

Animals lack faith not because of their smaller brain capacities, but because faith is not necessary to survival, or even (I daresay) to happiness. 


They are simply wandering life forms. The difference is that our brains grew so exponentially quickly that we had to invent a system to explain the universe. Fortunately, after all those beliefs and histories were invented, our brains continued to develop. We are at a point in our existence where there is no necessity for those absurdities in order to have a moral or reasonable concept of the world we occupy.

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