It was some theosophist who said that religions have arisen properly, each to the civilization in which they broke out. It seems an overly poetic statement, implying a universal harmony existing only in fantasy, and violently refuted by history. Before civilizations, there are individuals, and for these are not usually offered a menu of beliefs, so that they can consciously choose the one most suited to themselves—worse would be to judge them essentially suited to their own environment. It would be correct to say that civilizations have shaped the religions that have flourished within them, whether they were appropriate or not. Religions have always thrived in the midst of intense conflict, real battles both on a social and individual level. The first test of a religion is to overlap the previous beliefs. From this we can see the obvious: if religions had been born so perfectly suited to their environment, we would have peace, and not, as history shows, a progressive and violent “adaptation”.
Tag: religion
Unpalatable Reasoning
I feel perfectly capable of imagining impressive effects coming from Buddhist Tantric practices, which are nothing but a process of mental re-education. But neither Buddhism nor any other Eastern school can convince me of the nonsense of denying reality, no matter how wonderful effects they promise by doing so. I understand the dangers of valuing on error, I understand, above all, the need to break with earthly ties; but my mind violently rejects considering myself a nothing in essence, wrapped in a nothingness devoid of any foundation: zeros and more zeros, and never anything. No! There are illusions, and I can distinguish them because there is also something non-illusory. There is the mind and the products of the mind, just as there is an external reality that differs from them. I am sorry, I am sorry, but I cannot accept as identical phenomena an imaginary punch in the face and a real punch in the face—and I can, what a novelty!, prove what I say.
Sobre Deus, by Mário Ferreira dos Santos
What Mário Ferreira dos Santos does in this work entitled Sobre Deus (About God) is remarkable. After a brief exposition on the scabrous subject, there follows a very high-level debate in which simply the best arguments for and against the existence of God are confronted. Mário, although he exposes his personal position on the issue beforehand, lets his opponents speak freely. The result is, above all, an enlightening work, whose outcome fatally exposes the terrible contradictions into which those who deny the existence of God throw themselves, that is, the existence of the supreme, eternal, self-sufficient, and indispensable creator. Logic dictates that we must admit it. But there is more, there is a very interesting effect resulting from Mário’s intellectual honesty and wisdom: there are no stronger, more complete and convincing arguments against the existence of God than those raised by Baron de Holbach; and these permeate the work unhindered, free to show their potency. It so happens that when confronted with the irrefutable logical proofs offered by the great scholars of the problem, the logical proofs that demand the existence of a creative principle and require of it the qualities that have generated so much controversy for so long, Holbach’s arguments lose their force, even though they are not being directly refuted. What an effect! Logic imposing itself sovereignly! Everything that could be said against God is said, and said emotively, eloquently, bringing together enough aspects to make no soul indifferent. And yet, the argument fails completely in the face of close examination…
The Common Man Places the Meaning of His Own Existence…
The common man places the meaning of his own existence mostly in relationships. Relationships are extremely fragile, and it is predictable that, for this reason, the common man falls into a very strong existential crisis. The religious man, however, the true religious man, who has nothing of common, finds something firmer to lean on. Whatever may be said, there is nothing like religion to give meaning to the human spirit, and this alone justifies the honorable role it plays in society.