#philopsophy

Sooo

Another Redbubble design: Behold! A Man

You heard it here, folks. atheism is steadily rising across the world. why is that? as we are rapidly becoming a world culture that is able to acquire vast amounts of information at our fingertips, we are lightyears ahead of our previous generations.

While our ancestors grasped for answers as to why things occurred, they began to craft mythos to explain ordinary things that we take for granted in our current world. they craved an understanding for why the sun rose and set, what the stars were, why the seasons changed and most importantly - what is the reason we are all here? there had to be some meaning to it all.

Religion offered that. religion also offered codes, sets of laws, moral behavioural standards. it’s easy to see why people clung to it, why they adhered so strictly when it seemed like their belief punished them more than praised them. they found meaning, and they found a social community. for all of this, historically, we must respect the place religion has played in our cultural development.

Yet, our culture is developing in a different direction. we have science, information, technology and so much more. our lives have meaning without any god or gods. we are able to think for ourselves, to question, to figure out our own identities and create our own social circles completely devoid of religion.

More and more, people are questioning the religion of their parents. they are finding it outmoded, nonsensical and in many cases, humiliating. there are entire cultural circles of people who have been shamed and excommunicated from religions the world over for simply being who they were born to be. as our world grows smaller and we are able to ask these questions and hear these stories, we’re finding that we believe in nothing.

It can be a frightening concept, to believe in nothing. after all, the sole focus in many religions is the comfort that death is only the beginning of a new path, that they have a better place than the suffering they may have endured in this world. to embrace the idea that death is simply the end is an existential nightmare. some fear secularism as they feel it will give them no cause to remain moral, but if that were the case why are there atheists who have higher moral standpoints than some of the most zealous believers?

Technology has a major part to play in this. it’s not just science, but the social aspect. people who in past generations had questioned these same paths are now able to speak up, to feel safe to challenge what might be considered stigmatic topics, to find others who feel and think the same things. previously, religion offered that social foot in the door that all social media can do regardless. there is a mass sharing of ideas, growth of the mind and the wealth of discussion happening all around the world thanks to social media.

WHAT CAN THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE?

Who is to say? secularism won’t push out any one religion. instead, it would be optimistic to hope for a future with more tolerance, more freedom to seek knowledge and more scientific advancements to better us as a culture. there could someday be a future for atheists in political seats of power, maybe.

Atheism can be learned or it can be understood even in a child’s formative years. are you an atheist? if you are, when did you know that you were? how did you now?

“If the soul is immortal, it demands our care not only for that part of time which we call life, but for all time; and indeed it would seem now that it will be extremely dangerous to neglect it. If death were a release from everything, it would be a boon for the wicked, because by dying they would be released not only from the body but also from their own wickedness together with the soul; but as it is, since the soul is clearly immortal, it can have no escape of security from evil except by becoming as good and wise as it possibly can. For it takes nothing with it to the next world except its education and training...” 

---- Socrates, Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

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Re-watching Game of Thrones so that I’m refreshed for the new season, and it get’s to the scene where Melisandre is seeing Arya’s destiny or whatever the hell it is she predicts. Well this got me thinking it’d be kind of hard to write prophecies out of thin air and then build your story on it. So I came up with these three easy steps to making a fictional prophecy. 1. Have a vague Idea about what path you want your character to take. Ex. Arya learns how to change her face to be a better assassin.