As I was riding through the city streets the other day, basking in the light of the sun after many a rainy day, it happened that I heard the Beatles’ I’ll Follow The Sun on the radio. This led my mind into the labyrinthian subject of religion, and to consider why people worship this god or that goddess. It seems that most people maintain a belief in any given religion because they were brought up in that religion, and since humans are, after all, creatures of habit and comfort, they tend to tune out any real challenges to their belief-system-of-origin by playing the faith card. Other, more enlightened individuals, eventually take a more systematic, skeptical approach to their belief system, but it seems that the majority tends to hang on to something resembling their belief-system-of-origin. Why is this?
As a self-proclaimed agnostic who is leaning ever more towards outright atheism, I just don’t understand the proclivity to worship and devote one’s life to an invisible, unprovable phenomena that has no direct or obvious influence on day-to-day living.
It occurred to me that following the sun, or some manifestation of a “pagan” Sun God as did primitive man, at least makes some logical sense. The sun obviously exists; no one can deny it and you don’t have to rely on faith to prove its existence. Moreover, the sun interacts with day-to-day living in a variety of readily apparent ways. That’s more than can be said for the Judeo-Christian God.
So, while I’m not planning on converting to paganism any time soon and worshiping any sun god or goddess, I think that this line of reasoning fits comfortably with my budding atheism. Disbelief in any supernatural power doesn’t contradict a belief in the control that nature (with the emphasis here on natural occurrences as opposed to anything “supernatural”) has over the course of human affairs.
Obviously, all of this is up for debate and discussion. This is just the way it seems from my vantage point.
Comments?
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