Blasphemous heresy

Over the past two years, I've occasionally found time to seriously contemplate faith. In case you hadn't heard me sharing my religious views, which I did probably more often than anyone except the people who wore religious shirts at school, I view God as a possible but impersonal and undetectable being that may be behind the creation of the universe and may subtly influence the mechanics behind the facade of reality. That being said, I do not believe God has a specific message for us, that God's male or that he listens to us, or that any historical figure has been anything but human.

I recently read a book that demands we reject faith outright. It is called the End of Faith, and it outlines the damage religion has caused before, the dangers we face now on account of religion, the lunacy (according to him) of believing anything about the world strictly by faith, without evidence, and the advantage of approaching spirituality seriously and scientifically with reason and evidence. I don't agree with everything he says- I don't think believing in the Bible is lunacy, just misguided, just as you may or may not believe that I'm misguided, but I do believe that religion can cause great harm, and probably will in future. (Think about fundamentalism, especially Islamism.)

But as Yann Martel put it, "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation." I'm pretty sure he meant this as an attack on agnosticism, believing it to be wishy-washy, but I disagree. Because, doubt is not my philosophy of life, and God certainly isn't either. My philosophy is that we should minimise the harm that we cause others, and here's why.

The majority of humanity consists of sentient beings with their own emotions, beliefs, mind, and loves and is loved in return. They may be dumb schmucks, they may be assholes, and they may be criminals, but they are still humans nonetheless and therefore are worthy of our compassion. (Psychopaths are an exception to the rule, and we should attempt to understand murderers, but we should not forgive them.)

So how can we have compassion for others, how can we love our neighbours as Jesus wished us to, and still pursue policies that cause others to suffer? How can we not have compassion for others as humans? So how can we excuse the exploitation of the third world, the invasion of countries on false grounds, or the growing inequality between the rich and the poor? How can anyone believe that the majority of the world is destined to go to hell? What sort of God is that?

But we cannot eliminate suffering from the world. People will always be selfish because every selfless act has some ulterior motive, even if that motive is simply being proud of your selflessness. Therefore I feel that we should at least try to minimize the harm we cause others, and that is the philosophy I intend to live by.