Religion and Humility

Civil War Man · Post by **Civil War Man** » 2005-07-05 01:09pm

I've heard a number of religious people use an argument that their faith provides them with a sense of humility, I guess since they are giving their attention to their god as opposed to themselves. At the same time, many criticize atheists as being immoral because they don't have a god to prostheletyze for. I don't doubt that those who do that believe an atheist's lack of this characteristic is egotistical, concerning themselves only with humanity and not with gods. DW's fundie phrase dictionary describes the fundie definition of humanism as "A secular (evil) system of (im)morality which worships sinful Man above Almighty God."

Now that that's set up, I have a question. Which of the following statements is more humbling?

1) Humanity does not even qualify as a blip on the radar screen. If you were to write a 1000-page book about the history of the universe, all of human history would be contained within the last letter of the last word. We live on a planet orbiting a single sun on the fringes of an average-sized galaxy among hundreds of billions of galaxies. It is likely that nobody noticed our arrival on the stage, and it is just as likely that nobody will notice our departure.

or

2) God created us in His image. And He created the universe specifically for us.

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-07-05 01:57pm

I've always considered it bullshit. Humility compared to what? Almighty God? As option B suggests, we hold a "special place" in the universe, whereas option A gives good reason to be humble before all of existence.

Of course, as an atheist, I feel far more humility knowing that my presence is not even worth mention in the grand scheme of things, whereas someone like a fundamentalist Christian has his imaginary friend to tell him he's important. Hardly what I'd call humility.

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2005-07-05 04:17pm

A truly humble religious person would not build great monuments to his belief system, nor would he try to force others to follow his beliefs, nor would he run around trying to convince other people that his beliefs are right and everyone else's beliefs are wrong.

The sort of person who accuses atheists and scientists of lacking "humility" is inadvertently proving that he himself is far from humble, by elevating his beliefs above direct physical observation of the universe and then running around attacking anyone who doesn't share those logically unsupported beliefs.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-07-05 05:07pm

To the fundamentalist Christian, humanity's "special place" in the universe is to be a pet, an eternal sycophant. I don't see how being created out of God's loneliness for the sole purpose of stroking his ego makes our existence any more meaningful than that of the irreligious speck.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-07-05 05:18pm

To believe that the universe was created for US, the human race, and that an omnipotent god cares about YOU, personally... it's hard to be more arrogent than that.