What is Religion Actually for? Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury on Religion

are you a religious man no I'm not you investigated religion and came to the conclusion that uh no I can't say I investigated religion with any particular interest but I was interested in the Bible as a work of literature and so I wrote a two value book on that as one of the earliest if not the earliest serious histories we have the book of Kings the book of Chronicles the book of Samuel uh and also as a repository of great poetry uh probably the greatest poetry we have certainly the greatest early poetry we have and also as teachings of rather excellent ethical uh of of of ethical statements the one thing that the Bible isn't that some people seem to think it is it's not a biology textbook it's not an astronomy textbook the first the first chapter of Genesis the first couple of chapters of Genesis are H the 6th Century BC version of how the the world might have started we've improved on that since I don't believe that those are God's words those are the words of men trying to make the most sense that they could out of out of the information they had at the time there were many people at the time who were what should we say Messianic uh who were believed to be Messiahs by one group or another and Jesus survived many founders of great religions were dismissed by people of the time except those who believed in them you find no conflict between religion and science absolutely none they are uh the the processes they're going through are almost are the two halves of a coin because everything ends in mystery I mean the scientists have theories and the theologians have myths and they're the both both the same thing because we end up in ignorance we don't know what gravity is we have theories about light but they're only theories which are being revised even Mr Einstein is coming under scrutiny again in the last few years with some of his theories these will be revised and changed in the next 100 years and again 100,000 years from now the important thing is we should gather as much data as we can as many facts as we need and on these base our theories which help us to survive and where the Mystery Begins theology takes over say two halves of the same coin we have to think about the unthinkable which is what religion does and science does too at times trying to figure out what in heck's going on you know how do we get here where did we come from where are we going we don't have the answers and we never will have them so we make do with Theory and with Theology and with the two of them as tools one to work with the basic facts one to take up where the Mystery Begins will'll make do and go on into the future and live for three billion years in space not just here but on on out to the Stars the gods the Terrors must have served us at least well enough for us to have maintained them all of these eons why do you want to take them away from us they served us because we knew so little about the world we live in uncertainty we know that at any time disaster might strike we cannot foresee the future it is very uncomfortable to live under such conditions people make up ways of controlling the future they dream about fairy godmothers who give them gifts they go and ask questions of fortune tellers of all kinds to give them a hint as to what may be in store for them and how May best persuade Fate To Deal kindly with them or if they're religious they'll pray to God something like that it gives them a feeling of security now there's no use having false security if there's nothing else available that's what people go for but now if for instance a person insists on some sort of mumbo jumbo instead of let us say taking advantage of modern medicine then you know he's virtually committing suicide and and I would hate to see people go to these Faith healers and things like that the get rich quick schemes that people fall for and what they lose money over well this is a kind of a getrich quick scheme of the Mind these are con men of the spirit if you will they're selling you something a full security that sounds good knowledge of the future that doesn't really exist assurance that you'll be safe when you're not really safe people have often said to me do you believe in Darwin Darwin's theory I said yeah I believe in that do you believe in L Mark's theory of of the movement of the generations of animals a wishing themselves to new forms secret desires yes I I believe that do you believe in Genesis the first book of the Bible uh yes I believe that they said how can you believe all three I said because nothing is proven nothing is proven so there's room for a religious delicates huh I take some of these some of those and some of them huh have you seen these various uh documentaries on TV the last few years tonight you're going to find the secret of life how did Life come on the earth huh what makes the Sun burn etc etc etc well you tune in and hell they don't tell you that they don't know the the Earth came out of the sun took a billion years to cool the rains fell the first primitive plants came up the the ponds of scum created amiea likee uh creatures but there was no life here lightning struck the chemistry of the world the inanimate minerals decided to live how come how come we don't know we don't know it just it just happened that's not much of an explanation is it huh it just happened that's really scientific is it well hell give me some lightning I'll go make my own life thing is there's room to believe it all because you are the inhabits of a miraculous world what are we doing here there's no use having a universe is there there no use having a billion stars there's no use having a planet Earth if there isn't someone here to see it you are the audience you here to witness and celebrate to witness and celebrate and you got a lot to see a lot to celebrate

Channel: C. S. Lamrinus

Views: 298,767

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Id: _0ezbNV8Asw

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2023