Last week, a survey conducted in the United States by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life showed that believers knew something less in religion than atheists. On average, respondents correctly answered 16 of 32 questions and results are as follows: atheists and agnostics were 20.9, Jews, 20.5, Mormons, 20.3, Protestants, 16 and Catholics, 14.7. The results should not be very different in Quebec. As for me, I had 27/32. I have small gaps in Hinduism and Buddhism, and American history. The issues here are .
Why atheists have they fared better than the believers? It seems that the educational level of the former has been greater than that of the latter, at least in the sample. This does not mean that knowledge makes atheist! It means rather that education reduces ignorance.
I am an atheist and I apostate. The term "non-practicing Catholic" was hiding too much hypocrisy for my taste. I do not believe in God and did not need a disciplinarian, who sees everything we do and who we would blame at the end of today to lead a good life. In addition, there is no scientific proof of the existence of God because it is outside the scope of the experiment. That is why there is faith. And Pascal's wager, very little for me: I'm not gambler!
Nevertheless, religion, whether we veuillons or not, is part of one's identity - it is impossible to understand without knowing the individual's culture, so its myths, its beliefs and customs - and many need to believe to be happy. That is why I am in favor of the course Ethics and Religious Culture . Finally, there are bad teachers everywhere and people have never questioned the mathematics curricula or geography. Why so hard on the course RCTs? Because it makes the individual free to follow the way he wants, notwithstanding the objections of fundamentalists, religious or not, who want to impose their beliefs.
Jesus a philosopher?
Recently, I asked about the distance between the original message of Jesus and that of Church. (Special thanks to Bishop Ouellet!) It seemed that many speakers of the official Roman doctrine often betrayed the teachings of Christ, let us remember, is summarized in a single formula: "Love one another .
In Christ philosopher (Paris, Seuil, 2009), Frederic Lenoir revisits the history of Christianity from its origins to today and highlights the modernity of Christ's message which preaches equality, individual freedom, the emancipation of women, social justice and the separation of church and state. Briefly, values that have been overshadowed by Rome, which has confused the political and religious powers, for over a millennium. These values have resurfaced in the Renaissance, in response to clergy abuse. Modernity is thus born as a reaction against the Church by drawing its source in the ethics of Jesus.
On a more spiritual, Jesus, according to Lenoir, would facilitate an indoor practice makes it essential that any mediation or no human institution, as is implied in the parable of the Last Judgement :
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, of all the angels, then he will sit on his throne of glory. Before him shall be gathered all nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. It will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on the right: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you come see me. "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when we happened to see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and you drink, a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you, sick or prisoner and come see you? "And the King will answer:" Verily I say unto you, insofar as you did for one of these least brothers of mine, is mine that you did. '"(Matthew 25:31-40)
Indeed, the essence is there! And whether I am an atheist and apostate, I may still go to heaven!
Small readings
Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America. How Stupidity Became a Virtue In The Land Of The Free , New York, Doubleday, 2009. Markos Moulitsas
, American Taliban. How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind jihadists and the radical Right , San Francisco, Polipoint Press, 2010.
Americans are fascinating. On the one hand, they have created one of the most advanced societies in the world. On the other hand, they are capable of falling into the most abysmal stupidity. Pierce, in American Idiot, talk of war with the expertise that exists in the United States, mainly for economic reasons and Policy, whose objective is to eliminate this crazy idea that knowledge is good to establish that we should listen to those who know the least. Because, let's not forget, the experts are part of the evil elite! The opinion of the pastor of a church on the obscure theory of evolution is largely that of doctor of molecular biology! Why elect someone smart, so we just choose the one with whom one would have a beer? Why is the consensus of thousands of climate scientists on global warming he would carry more weight than a dozen "scientists" who confuse climate and weather and devoted to attacking the messenger rather than finding faults in the rigor of the message? In short, three principles that animate American Idiots:
- any theory is valid if it sells enough books or boosts ratings, brief if it is profitable;
- is true that everything has called strong enough;
- and a fact is something that is believed by enough people, the truth is determined by the fervor of believers.
In a similar vein, but a record of more slobbering, Moulitsas trace links between the values of the American right and the Taliban: the pervasive moralism, the goal of establishing a theocracy, the use torture, the need always to declare war on someone, censorship, misogyny and slavery of women, the erosion of freedoms, etc.. It's a bit spoofed, but frankly funny!
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