Reply #5: What do you think practicing one's religion involves? [View All]

[More Than A Feeling]

Religion is more than just a service in a church, or a prayer before dinner. Its supposed to affect one's whole life, because it addresses those very basic questions: "What is the world like?" and "How shall we live?". Since human life is lived against the backdrop of society, the answers to those questions would include political beliefs and actions.

Don't your answers to the questions "What is the world like?" and "How shall we live?" affect your political beliefs and actions? If you believe that science is a useful guide to the world, you want political actions that would benefit the pursuit of science, right? If you believe that society cannot function when governments promote one religion, then you support political actions that defend the separation of church and state, right?

Why are you right to justify your political goals based on your beliefs about the world and the good life, but I am wrong to do so (even if they are the same goals) if my answers come out of my faith? I mean, yeah, it justifies the fundies, but we don't have to agree with their goals. We weren't going to convince them to agree with us anyway. We can work for their defeat politically. It's harder, but more just than saying "If you do something based on religion, its wrong, even if I would have done the same thing, for other reasons."

I don't want the government to stop feeding the poor, just because many religions say feeding the poor is good, and I don't think you do either.