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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
You're saying that the purpose of life under a human-based religion is first to show reverence to each other and all life on Earth and, second, to preserve life? That would be the purpose of this new human-based religion?
Yes. Thanks for putting it so succinctly.
One of the major functions of religion over the millenniums has also been to provide humans some comfort in the face of their deaths.
That's one other powerful source of religious belief. It's a way of dealing with our own mortality. We're the first species, the only ones, to understand our personal mortality. Actually we have a powerful motivation to want to rationalize ourselves into immortality. The way that's done in traditional religions is through the promise of paradise and everlasting life. And the way it's done in naturalistic circles is by identification of ourselves more closely with our species and our planet.
If you look out over the next 50 years, how do you personally find comfort or deal with your own intimations of mortality?
That's very easy. When you talk to most thoughtful humanists, they agree that once they've gotten over their idea of personal immortality, they're freed. It's an enormously liberating experience in one sense, now giving you a whole new set of guidelines by which to live your life. And at that point you start measuring the value of your life according to what you can give back to humanity and to the long-term future of life on Earth.
This would place a great importance on caring about future generations. But in your article "Is Humanity Suicidal?" you present what you call the dour scenario that "people place themselves first, family second, tribe third and the rest of the world a distant fourth. Their genes also predispose them to plan ahead for at most one or two generations." To what extent do you believe that that's not just a dour scenario but actually true for humans -- that we have a lot of trouble thinking four, five, six generations out?
Unless people make an extraordinary effort, they're aware and concerned about only a relatively small number of people and for a relatively small number of generations. And this, of course, is more easily acceptable if you have a traditional religious point of view -- you're concerned with the disposition of the immortal soul. But if you have a naturalistic viewpoint, you don't believe in an immortal soul. Therefore where you can put your most altruistic impulses and best reasoning is the physical and physiological welfare of future generations.
But if the evidence thus far is that we have trouble thinking out more than two generations, is there any evolutionary basis to think that humanity can make the transition to looking five, six, 10 generations out?
I think so. By reasoning. By building scenarios in our mind and actively cultivating an authentic ethic of the welfare of future generations, not just talking about it.
Let's try to make a distinction between what your mind and heart would tell you. In terms of pure intellect, if you were an analyst who came here from another planet, would you feel humanity is suicidal? That we don't have much chance of existing the next two, three, four, five hundred years?
No, I don't think we're suicidal at all. My favorite quotation is from Abba Eban, the Israeli political leader. In 1967, when everything seemed to be insane in the Middle East he said: "After all else has failed, men turn to reason." So we do have these wonderful, deep innate impulses to preserve the tribe. That can be expanded to mean humanity and the rest of the biosphere. And we do have a powerful and extremely ingenious set of emotions and psychological devices to look after our children and our grandchildren. We can extend that to an indefinite number of generations.
In other words, these universal, ethical impulses do not countervail what we already have built within us. And by the same token we can take the best of our religious and spiritual impulses -- the awe and aesthetics and sense of mystery -- and expand them beyond the ordinary confines or traditional religions to encompass our continued exploration of the universe and preservation of the planet as our home.
Given that we have only 5,000 humanists and 15 million Southern Baptists alone, how can one envision the growth of a human-based spirituality quickly enough to make a difference in saving the environment?
That's easy: through the secularization of traditional religions. Already most of them accept the idea of evolution. Already most of them accept that the human mind really does have a physical basis. And, furthermore, most of the Abrahamic religions of Islam and Christianity have shown themselves very prone to the conservation ethic when the information is made available to them. There's a very strong green movement in Christian sects at the present time. So that is part of the evolutionary process.
What I see in the future is not some kind of mass conversion to the humanistic position. The best in people will still be manifested in traditional religions as they have been. But traditional religions will evolve in a secular direction until finally what most people will live by will be a naturalist view, even if it is not fully humanist. Certainly the fellowship of religions today are extremely liberal by historical standards.
