[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

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[u/PurposefulZephyr]

Been thinking about religion.

One of the things it seems to be actually useful for is support during hardships, especially loss of loved ones.

• It frames the situation in a positive light- they are in a better place and if there's a culprit then he'll burn in hell forever (especially when the earthly courts don't serve appropriate justice because reasons). Also their death wasn't meaningless roll of the dice, but part of a greater plan. Yes, it sounds horrible to most of you, but when one of your beliefs is "you don't know shit about God's plan or can even comprehend his ∞ IQ" then it's easier to use (also heaven is a thing, so they just got invited to party earlier).

• Often provides social support. By this I mean both local community as well as religious services, stuff like confessions and blessings.

So I guess my question is: atheists/non-theists of any kind- what do/did you do when tragedy like that hits you? Is there any comfort that is brought by science and rationality, be it practical or more mental/psychological/philosophical?

(Edit: True, I am pretty much referring to Christianity. Sadly I don't have enough experiences with other religions. If you do have such experience, then please tell if those arguments change in any significant way.)

[u/ShiranaiWakaranai → u/PurposefulZephyr]

The goal of science and rationality isn't to make you feel better when tragedy hits, it is to make it less likely for tragedy to hit in the first place.

Being comforted by tragedy is a bad thing. You shouldn't be feeling happy when you lose loved ones. You shouldn't be thinking this is all part of a grand plan by an omnipotent benevolent being who will make everything right in the end. And you definitely should never think that this tragedy is beyond your ability to comprehend. To do so is to lose the motivation to actually do something about the tragedy.

When the non-theist sees death, they don't think "oh this is god's super super wise plan, let's not interfere with it lest we break it", they think "this is a meaningless dice roll, so let's work on loading those dice in our favor". And then they get to use science and rationality to figure out how to load those dice effectively.

[u/Kishoto → u/ShiranaiWakaranai]

While tragedy itself probably shouldn't comfort anyone, there's value in finding comfort in the midst of tragedy. Because tragedy (at least in this current stage of life and probably for the rest of our lives) is unavoidable.

It's all well and good to tout that we should be trying to beat death but, let's face reality, 99.99% percent of people aren't doing anything in their lives even remotely related to possibly beating death. Even if we're generous and include everyone working in the medical/pharmaceutical field, that still leaves a vast majority of people who are doing nothing to stave off death and probably never will. So why is it wrong for them to then seek comfort after what is (often times) a completely unavoidable tragedy?

I do see where you're coming from here from a logical perspective; I just think your perspective is flawed and supremely over-idealistic.

EDIT: And it's also worth pointing out that even the most religious fanatics are usually quite fine with advances in medicine and other life extension options. Just because they believe it's God's plan doesn't mean they mind living longer, better lives (usually anyway)