Should we ditch religion? Often when I look at religion I see the good in it. Every religion is full of doctrine and essentially rules that the members are supposed to follow, and often these are things that encourage people to do the right thing. However I feel that when people take a religion too seriously it gets in the way of doing the right thing. Humans inherently know right from wrong, and often religious thought can help to encourage us to make good choices. However, if taken any farther than this and religion becomes dangerous. And I think that Sam Harris, Author and CEO of Project reason would agree. He argues that religion concerns us with things that really are not important and that will better the human experience on earth. Such things as being concerned with pleasing a God with performing rituals, and placing rules and limitations on our lives. This is seen in politics as religion often comes first (not politics) and initiates conflict and keeps just initiatives from moving forward.
Sam Harris would argue for us to give up on religion as it does not seem to help humans in moving forward. This goes along with what is discussed in the article "Why We Believe" from The New York Times Magazine (March 4, 2007). Religion seems to not have a particular function in the survival of the human race; It consumes energy and takes up time. One explanation is that it is a byproduct of the development of our advanced brains. Which makes sense when you look at the fact that less intelligent creatures do not seem to involve themselves with seemingly useless religious matters. Also, it seems strange that we would adapt to believe in things that are not objectively true, such as when someone dies and we go to thinking that they are still with us in some other way.
To me, it seems that God is a byproduct of our development; however we makes use of this byproduct and use it to better our experience as humans because it does have benefits on the communal and individual level. Yet, when the religious experience is taken too far it becomes detrimental to our lives, and yet it is often taken too far by many people. Perhaps we should ditch religion because we cannot seem to manage it and keep it from hurting others.
