This is just a thought I have been playing with recently:
While I consider myself spiritual, I am not very religious. The other day I watched An Inconvenient Truth and I started wondering: Are we avoiding responsibility by placing our faith in a Higher Power? Be it Buddha, Jesus, Allah or Jah, The Great Turtle or The Source, should we not rather accept responsibility for our actions here on Earth, instead of praying to some deity to come and save us?
Is it possible that, like children who expect their parents to come and save them from the messes they get into, we are blithely destroying our environment simply because we have misguidedly and collectively decided that since there IS a Higher Power, it is that Higher Power's responsibility to come and rescue us?
Would it not be better for all of us to become adults and, like adults, to accept the consequences of our actions? When I think about it, I wonder if the world would not be a better place with a little less praying and a little more action.
WE are destroying our environment. WE are going to suffer because of our thoughtless, inconsiderate lifestyles of consume, consume, consume. WE are depleting our resources. WE are causing global warming.
It reminds me a bit of an old tale (I can't remember where I heard it):
Once upon a time there was a very religious man, living in a valley. A warning was posted, that a storm was coming and the valley would be flooded. The man stated that his God would save him. He refused to leave the valley, or take any precautions, placing his faith in his Lord.
Soon enough, the storm arrived, as he had been warned and the whole valley became flooded. A neighbour came past with a cart, carrying all his possessions and with his family on board.
"Climb aboard!" the neighbour called. "There is plenty of space!"
"No," the man replied. "My Lord will save me."
The neighbour passed, and the water started rising higher.
As the water started flooding his house, travelers fleeing the storm came past riding horses.
"Jump on!" they called. "We have space for one more!"
"No," the man said. "My Lord will protect me."
The riders passed. The water rose even higher, soon flooding his entire house, forcing the man to climb onto his own roof.
A boat came past, battling the waters, with the last few stragglers clinging on.
"Get in!" they called. "We can make room for you!"
"No," the man repeated. "My faith is in the Lord."
As the boat passed out of sight, a wave swept over the man, tearing him loose from the roof and drowning him.
When he arrived at the Pearly Gates, he indignantly demanded to speak to the Lord.
"Lord!" he accused. "I placed my faith in you, I was your most loyal worshiper, I believed in you, praying to you every day - and yet you left me to drown! Why?"
The Lord replied: "My child, I sent a warning, a neighbour with a cart, riders with horses and even, finally, a boat to rescue you! What more did you want Me to do?"
The faithful would counter that belief in a higher power does not preclude personal responsibility, and actually encourages it toward whatever purpose they deem fit (fealty to God, to make it into heaven, etc.)
More than likely, this isn't really a religious issue. It has more to do with diffusion of responsibility in large numbers, which is a social and psychological matter, not spiritual. The cliche story about a boy drowning while dozens watch, no one taking the risk of saving him and expecting another to do it....but on a larger scale.
"It is God's planet - and he's taking care of it. And I don't believe that anything we do will raise or lower the temperature one point." -Jerry Falwell
You seem to agree and disagree a the same time. I concur that "belief in a higher power does not preclude personal responsibility," but my argument is that, as in your example of the boy drowning while everybody expects somebody else to take action, we put TOO MUCH faith in a Higher Power and we do not accept enough responsibility for the consequences of our actions.
I posit the theory that if we (as in the faithful, religious masses) had a little less faith in a higher power, we might be more inclined to start acting ourselves to protect our environment, since we would accept the fact that nobody is going to miraculously appear to rescue - we will have to do the rescuing ourselves!
Robtard:
That is exactly what I am talking about!
Mindship:
Ha! What concerns me, is that we might be forced to accept the responsibility. That for every action, there is a consequence. And we might not like the consequences very much...
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Last edited by Dreampanther on Mar 12th, 2008 at 09:07 PM
Well, I agree pretty much with all of that, since I don't really have a religious power that I answer to. I just don't see it as a problem that needs to be tackled from a religious perspective, and think that other causes for this are much more pervasive. The drowning boy is the cliche example for it, but diffusion of responsibility isn't (generally) linked to one's beliefs, but simply to the statistical certainty that apathy toward problems will increase as the number of people involved in perceiving the problem increases.
It's social and psychological, not religious. Most people have fairly standard levels of "feeling of responsibility" toward a given problem regardless of their religious bent.
There's nothing wrong, per se, with having that faith; it just should not be placed in a supernatural parent metaphor. Taking personal responsibility is a mature act. "God" as concept needs to mature as well.
Question at large (if this is not too off topic): Is there a difference between being responsible for a consequence and being at fault?
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Okay, I think I see your point: For you the issue of evading responsibility is not necessarily a religious issue, but rather a general human trait. Well, in this instance I find myself agreeing and disagreeing.
What I noticed is that predominantly, most faiths (with a few rare exceptions) tend to portray their deity as an all-powerful, omniscient, responsible father figure with a plan for all of us. THEREFORE we tend to act like irresponsible children, because, just like children, we figure the grown-ups (or in this case, the Grown-up) are taking care of things, leaving us free to play and evade responsibility as long as we like.
But, if we stop putting our faith in some unfathomable father-figure, perhaps we will be able to rid ourselves of this human trait of irresponsibility.
Or, to put it another way: I am starting to form the opinion that our tendency towards religion is what is CAUSING our general human tendency to lean towards apathy, diffusion of responsibility and to try and avoid the consequences of our actions.
A metaphor might be of a child who tends to believe that a father is smarter, stronger and wiser than himself, and therefore capable of handling all problems, until that child starts a family himself and realise that all the answers are not miraculously forthcoming, but rather a result of simply forcing yourself to be more thoughtful, considerate and respectful of others. That all of us can be fathers, it is simply a matter of assuming responsibility.
Mindship:
I started teaching at a school recently (after a long time working for a university), and I think that your question specifically is one that I try to address with my classes as frequently as possible: I tell my learners that all of us are human, that if we never made mistakes, we would all be perfect and able to walk on water and turn water into wine.
What is rather more important, I emphasise, is that when you are at fault you acknowledge that fact and that instead of trying to evade responsibility, you try to learn from your mistakes and that you do not run away from the consequences of your actions.
i think your wrong here. perhaps your misunderstanding the point? to my understanding is, her message is,with to much faith in god, our responsibility is lessened. ive felt this for a long time. it applies perfectly to muslims. god has TOLD me to blow up this van and kill 30 people therefore it is ok, is difinitely shirking responsibility. its not his fault its "gods."
i've had a similar idea/feeling a while ago and kinda forgot tot write it down, but i completely agree. to an extent religion is a scapegoat to do things you normally would not be able to do. IE: the crusades. without religious authority giving the go ahead, this wouldnt have been allowed.
untrue. what if your a pregnant woman and you drink alot of alchohol and do drugs. your baby dies, but its not because of you and your abuse of drugs and alchohol, no its "gods" fault.
I said if you are the type of person that "leaves everything to God", then you are not taking responsibility for your own life.
However, if you beleive in God, because it comforts you, you're not alleviating responsibility. Drinking and doing drugs is an irresponsible behavior on its own, and beleiving in God or not has nothing to do with this.
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Mar 12th, 2008 08:26 PM
