God Is Too Big For One Religion

Both revelation and delusion are attempts at the solution of problems. Artists and scientists realize that no solution is ever final, but that each new creative step points the way to the next artistic or scientific problem. In contrast, those who embrace religious revelation and delusional systems tend to see them as unshakable and permanent...

Religious faith is an answer to the problem of life...The majority of mankind want or need some all-embracing belief system which purports to provide an answer to life's mysteries, and are not necessarily dismayed by the discovery that their belief system, which they proclaim as "the truth", is incompatible with the beliefs of other people. One's man's faith is another's delusion...

Whether a belief is considered to be a delusion or not depends partly upon the intensity with which it is defended, and partly upon the number of people subscribing to it.

 -Anthony Shorr
 Feet Of Clay

There's nothing more dangerous than a misinformed, intolerant fanatic. Any belief system which has as its goal the creation of mindless, impotent automatons--I have some "crazy", Brave New World-type theories on drugs and alcohol--and which discourages the objective, unemotional analysis of its precepts is one which is probably not worth adhering to.

Posted via email from Pier 51