0.5.3 Limits of Religious and Cultural Perspectives

Version 1.6 March 2013                                      Previous Version

The founders of the world’s major religions brought some brilliant new insights to their communities, that we can examine in the light of what we have learned since.

Today, our religious or spiritual leaders, people “of faith�, too frequently ignore the scientific reality and the facts of history.  They often support useless or bad rules.

●  Leaders of traditional religions are often so political and into marketing that they don't firmly say what they really believe, and it's often hard to know their true beliefs.

●  Many clerics don't share the traditional or fundamentalist beliefs that many of their followers have, but allow their flock to continue to hold false beliefs.  Such clerics are effectively being dishonest with their congregations, hiding their true selves. 

●  Some clerics, especially Catholic Christians, have committed and covered up sexual abuse.  In attempting to preserve the good name of their Church, they are destroying it. 

●  Some clerics, such as Wahabi or Salafi Muslims, have advocated violence to further political causes, and in so doing brought disrepute onto the Islam of peace and onto Allah the Compassionate and the Merciful.  Some evangelical Christians have committed violence against abortionists, some – in modern times – still burn witches.  The Hindutva movement of radical Hinduism in India has also committed atrocities.

●  On the other hand, there is a world wide decline in religious fervour, especially in the young, except for parts of Africa and the Muslim world.

●  Many non-traditional spiritual people, such as pagans or ‘new agers’, seem to have no firm beliefs: they can’t clearly say what they believe or what they mean.  They often mix pseudo-science with primitive religion, but seem to swim in a mire of confusion.

Modern discussion of religion, by the religious, Atheists and Sceptics, is limited, often because each side is shouting at the wrong set of opponents about the wrong things.

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Artists, writers, film makers, and so on, try to make sense of it all, to reflect the insights we can gain from these areas, to give us another perspective. 

·       But too much “artâ€� is junk, appealing to the lowest common denominator.  On the other hand a lot of “artâ€� is too sophisticated for the average person. 

·       Art is inextricably linked to the media used to create and distribute it.  The internet allows individuals and small groups to distribute their creations to a wide audience.  But there is a downside to the internet.

·       Internet porn is a worry.  Censorship of the internet is a worry.

·       Too many young people learn their history and culture from computer games, comedy shows, sitcoms and TV dramas.  That’s a worry.

To date, we have had limited ways to objectively evaluate art, culture and the media

We propose to provide more detailed reviews of the related literature in future.  more