First off, I would like to thank everyone who replied
to my inquiry about emotion and the MOQ. Rick, your
email was especially helpful because you were able to
put into words what I could not.
Next, I was wondering if I could get some comments on
a theory I have about why people are religious (when I
speak of religion in this passage I’m concerned mainly
with western religions such as Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam). I was brought up as a free thinker. My
parents believe that every person has a write to
choose his or her own beliefs. They kept me from
every possible religious influence throughout my early
childhood (and imagine what a battle that was with our
Christian-saturated culture) so that I would have a
completely open, and unbiased mind when I began
learning about religion myself. In this way I
wouldn’t be like 90 percent of Christians who are
Christian simply because they were brought up that
way. So, after looking personally into the Christian
world, studying and experiencing everything that I
could, I came to the conclusion that it was irrational
and I couldn’t find any reason why an intelligent
person would be Christian (please understand that I’m
am in no way intentionally offending anyone, I’m
merely expressing a personal opinion). I knew most of
the common reasons offered to explain this:
upbringing, an explanation of creation, hope of life
after death, the security of a big brother figure
looking after you, the security of belonging to a
group, to find love, and so on. But I think that
there is a deeper, more philosophical reason for this
attachment to religion. And of course what can you
blame most things on? SOM! As I’m sure most of you
know, with a subject/object metaphysical viewpoint,
Good is merely subjective and has no real importance
if it’s merely whatever you wish it to be. But with
religion you have a Good that truly exists and
transcends everything. A Good that man can grasp,
work towards, and gives purpose to his life. A sense
of intimacy with the universe is gained that could
never exist in SOM. And isn’t this the answer that
fills the gaping hole left by SOM, because isn’t this
Good equal to Quality? Well, yes and no. The place
where religion goes wrong is when it places this Good
(Quality) in a being, an entity sitting somewhere in
Heaven – namely God. Now, I know that many people
today accept the idea of God no longer being a being,
some people even equate God with Quality (this is due
to the dynamic, more liberal and modern part of
religion), but God is a being in the more traditional
and Biblical view (especially in the Old Testament)
(this is from the original static part of religion
(the separation of religion into dynamic and static is
a view presented by Henri Louis Bergson, who I believe
would be and MOQite if he had lived long enough to
read Pirsig’s works, in “The Two Sources of Morality
and Religion” )). But anyways, that is my theory,
that religion is an attempt to find Quality in the
face of SOM. I apologize if I became jumbled up
throughout the passage, I hurried because I’m a little
pissed off that this is the second time I’m having to
write it, because my computer deleted it the first
time (repetition and frustration are huge gumption
traps). I would appreciate any and all comments, so
please respond.
Thanks,
Adam
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