So, here's an idea.

People are naturally selfish, naturally proud, naturally good at making enemies, at escalating conflict, at hurting others unjustly. I grew up in a very well put together Christian family and I made very well put together Christian friends (who are still my super close friends today). I was naive about a lot of what others have to deal with. That has been changing since over time my family has been deviating from the Christian ethos. Members have been becoming less Christian in practice, in thought, and have married into not so well put together families. This has brought in problems to my family that we did not have before, and I've been watching it play out. My family, like many families these days, has been slowing crawling towards and existential crisis with manifestations snowballing of recent.

Anyways, I've been trying to figure out solutions, and the only thing I've been able to come up with is an adoption of the Christian ethos. Each person in my family related to these problems is causing some of the problems because of their pride and because they do not want to make sacrifices. Essentially they are making the exact mistakes that the Christian ethos attempts to solve. I've been mostly staying out of it, but it may be coming to a point where I might have to bring the Bible down on some heads. The one thing my family still humbles themselves to is the Bible, even if some are at each others' throats otherwise. Somebody has to get humble and somebody has to sacrifice themselves for the transgressions others have made. That's what Jesus did and that's the only way I can see that this won't tear the family apart. The need for humility and sacrifice includes me. Though I'm not a part of it, there are things I could have done that would have avoided the problems altogether. And I need to accept that instead of pointing the finger.


Anyways, that wasn't the reason I wanted to make this post. The reason is that I think that this is an idea worth considering: in a world where people are naturally selfish and naturally proud and naturally harm unjustly, in a world where families and friends and communities dissolve because of the natural tendency for people to blame others for their problems, in that world, it may be the case that a code to live by, an ideal held above humanly nature with ritual and practice, an ideal to which somebody can appeal in order to overcome their own pride before it's too late, that might be a higher order way of organizing lives. Some people scoff at religion, call it savage. I say those people are confused. Humans are savage already. Religion might be an important taming mechanism and might aid construction of fitness for survival.

Also I find it fucking hilarious that as the only atheist in my family, I'm the one saying the Christian ethos might be what the family needs most right now.



Thoughts on this idea?