Essay - Create Religion in the God Part of the Brain, Matthew...

Create Religion

In The God Part of the Brain, Mat*****w Alper argues that the human quest for religious truth is biologically-based, precluding ***** ex*****tence of any external creative deity. Whether or not external deity or deities exist, religion plays a vit*****l role in human society, human history, and human psycho-social development. ***** personality ***** self-concept can both be shaped by one's ***** *****liefs. For instance, the Catholic will demonstrate different psychological reactions to death than a Hindu. Bec*****use ***** ***** be a domin*****nt force in personal and collective experience, an org*****ized religion still serves a definite and useful function whether or not God actually exists. The Humanist Faith is based on the fundamental principle that human beings need faith. Humanistic ***** is, however, devoid of ***** types of religious dogma found in other world *****s. Lack*****g a canon of holy texts entirely, the ***** Faith does not offer its followers ***** mythology. Our truths and our ideas are formulated through scholastic inquiry, taking into account the wisdom of ***** sciences as much as the wisdom ***** the *****ities including art, literature, and music. ***** ***** human experience is where we derive our understanding of the universe and ***** our individual ***** within it.

***** grounded perspective allows Human*****tic Faith ***** wide leeway in their choice of lifestyle, habits, or conceptual understanding ***** God. We allow atheism as ***** as ***** allow theism, because the fundamental purpose of Humanistic Faith is to provide a social venue ***** which ***** beings can ga*****r, d*****cuss, and debate religious and philosophical issues. Codes of ethics and morality are likewise flexible, open to rhe*****rical dialogue. However, we do have a few fundamental ethical underpinnings from which we *****not stray. These ***** underpinnings can be summed up neatly in the word ahimsa. We leave most ***** ***** detailed moral questions up to the individual practitioner ***** contend with, ***** the aid of our community ***** ***** recommended sources for truth-seeking we suggest. So long as the ***** ***** not harm or interfere with the lives of others, we do not condemn or condone any specific behaviors.

The ***** Faith proposes neither a concept ***** ***** nor ***** concept of Evil. We allow each individual practitioner to conceive of God in whatever way best suits their *****ity or cultural environment with the one caveat: that God never *****s that ***** person or group ***** people are superior or inferior to ***** other. Sexism and other ***** biases will ***** be tolerated ***** the Humanistic Faith.

Our rituals are simple but are constructed ***** a variety of worldwide sources. Influenced by Buddhism, ***** suggest ***** our practitioners examine the concept of the F***** Noble Truths: ***** life is suffering, and that all suffering is caused by desire. To understand that pain is an integral part of life is, we believe, the door***** to genuine religious understanding. All living creatures suffer at some point and going through *****ing ***** open eyes ***** a willing heart can help eliminate many