I just cannot fathom in any way how there is anything of a higher power or order.
It is actually distressing for me when people talk about religion because it is so fucking absurd.
I want to hear an argument that in some way validates religion.
the universe is rather complex and mysterious. we don't know fully know what goes on on really really small scales (subatomic particles). we may be living in a spacetime structure (our atoms being components of this spacetime structure), and perceive 3 dimensions simply due to how we are arranged in this spacetime
we are looking at the universe from the inside. to look at the universe, we use our brains, which are simply patterns within this spacetime structure. our brains somehow create our entire internal world... since it has this ability, when it makes mistakes or simply follows its natural functions, we can get into
magical thinking
magical thinking is one big factor for perpetuating religion, and it's a rather illogical one. if you want a good argument for religion, don't look at the sources of all of the silly myths and such (magical thinking) but instead look at what sort of amazing philosophy has come from religion, and how they came about (the ecstatic state, mentioned later)
does religion have any "validity" for us? well, religion has made progress. it has developed over the centuries along with our developing culture/economy/globe. there are large changes from time to time in any major religion, as a charismatic prophet-like figure comes along and challenges the hypocrisy that is present due to how the religion stabilized and solidified into a structured institution
(a new religion tends to start off as radical and ideal, based around one or a few "charismatic" figures... but in order to retain this religion and its practices, the religion solidifies into an unchanging structure that succumbs to human vices... like preachers sucking money out of their churchgoers and spending it on planes and sports cars (this is for real))
so, for example, jesus was one such prophetic charismatic figure that challenged what became of religion. he threw those tables like fuck all this shit! (hehe)
so, religion isn't all bad... it is an integral part of human culture and thinking. as a humanist, i do hope and expect that religion will die off within my lifetime as we develop enough emotionally and intellectually. but we can't deny its role in our social evolution
this is all about how religion could possibly be good, but it's all human stuff. perhaps you want a good argument for "the supernatural"
for that, look into the ecstatic experience. read trip reports, or read writings by religious people or philosophers that have had peak experiences. these events feel amazing, and sometimes it feels like all of the power of your mind is unleashed at once. every good pot high i get, i feel like my entire world is present in my head at once. you can feel like you are meeting an alien entity (very common in these states of mind) or god (my friend met jesus in my bathtub during a bad trip..)
the mistake that people make, is assuming that these things are real. we are basically playing with our own brains, unleashing the potential of our own brains. but people usually say "that can't possibly have come from me... i'm not that intelligent" or something like that. so they say the experience was supernatural in origin
well, again, since our brain creates our entire world... of course it can feel that way without any supernatural interference
since we have *no idea* how consciousness itself is produced,
there is some room for religious ideology. but that has always been the case. before we knew what stars were, magical thinking led us to believe that they were gods with personalities (over a long period of time as ideas developed/evolved socially). right now we don't know what consciousness "really is"... but that doesn't mean we'll never find out. and when we do, religion will probably find another "gap" to exploit
p.s., i'm definitely going to take this post and turn it into a paper for my origins-of-religion class
