Welcome to the Good Apocalypse Guide, a Substack by me, Alex Evans, about how we can survive and thrive during the liminal times we’re living through, and unlock a breakthrough rather than breakdown future.
I, personally, think people require some source of faith in order to persevere. Not sure you can remove the religious or spiritual elements or God from the equation. Generally, there is a reference to something transcendental — something beyond ourselves. No way to sanitize it.
God or gods have been part of the equation since the earliest civilizations were established.
And at the same time, organized religions are responsible for death, genocide, oppression, slavery, etc. I feel it’s a bit of a double bind — no way around and no way out.
A few select quotes from Sam Harris, The End of Faith
Religion - like nationalism - is a neurotic response to reality. ✔️ Yep. definitely can be.
Humanity has invented myriads of reasons to kill one another, and the belief in God is only one of them. But it is, inarguably, the most deeply revered. ✔️ Yep.
Religion has fundamentally failed to address the emerging bane of our civilization: the prospect of nuclear warfare. ✔️ Yep.
As long as religious tolerance does not grant Indians the freedom to convert to Christianity or Islam, it is not the value Western liberals imagine it to be. ✔️Yep.
Reason and humility require that we keep an open door of our tolerance open to every sane person who steps out of a religious community, leaving only its unhinged believers behind. ✔️ Yep.
But, then, these quotes from Harris from the same book are a bit disturbing:
The only solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism is to abolish the faith that creates it.
There are individual Muslim women who share [the] yearning for spiritual purity, but their charity and sincerity are not enough to lend 'divinity' to a system that is unwittingly pressing humanity into the brink of destruction.
Wonder what you think of Sam Harris. Have you read this book? My only exposure is through the podcast, Decoding the Gurus. The hosts are quite critical of Sam Harris as I recall. I’d have to relisten to podcast to know the nature of the critique.
I love the hopefulness you give us explaining that an apocalypse will reveal what we need to know. I see politics as becoming the vehicle for all these wonderful things that religion also can provide. Just last night I watched a special YouTube live event hosted by Oprah and with Kamala Harris. Your 5 item list was clearly used to structure the entire program! @matthewburdette has some really good thoughts on this. https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewburdette/p/we-no-longer-know-what-a-human-is?r=3n812o&utm_medium=ios
I love these questions, Alex! Thank you for sharing. I'm finally having a chance to catch up on your Substack! I'm excited you will be writing more over these coming months. It's nice to see the religion-shaped hole conversation surfacing, something I have been thinking about a lot, and feels more relevant now than when we talked about it last year. Perhaps now is the time to revisit that great event series we talked about... :)
I love this reminder of the need for the connection between the inner and the outer in order to sustain us. I have been pondering this a lot, as well as the religion-shaped hole.
Really interesting, and thank you. A question: is it a religion-shaped hole? Or a God-shaped hole? And what are the implications of the difference between the two?
Ah that is a REALLY interesting question. I suppose I would see *God* here as the transcendent or metaphysical heart of religions, and *religions* by contrast as the (very human) institutions, congregations and communities constellated around that Being / reality / idea* (delete as applicable depending on your worldview)
In practice, I think you can be interested in the roles that religions have historically played in society - like the five capabilities listed in the post - without necessarily having to believe in God.
Of course, that does then raise the question - which I am itching to get into in future posts - of whether it's possible to have new institutions that perform the social functions that religions have historically played, without the theology / belief that's at their heart.
Years ago when I was a special adviser at DFID, we had a civil society team that was really up for working on development with "faith communities", and the great Richard Chartres (then Bishop of London) used to take the piss out of us for this, essentially saying 'you guys think that religions are basically service providers who also happen to have some weird metaphysical ideas - what you don't get is that it's only *because* of the weird metaphysical ideas that religions can play all the other roles'. I have thought about this a lot since then :-)
I, personally, think people require some source of faith in order to persevere. Not sure you can remove the religious or spiritual elements or God from the equation. Generally, there is a reference to something transcendental — something beyond ourselves. No way to sanitize it.
God or gods have been part of the equation since the earliest civilizations were established.
And at the same time, organized religions are responsible for death, genocide, oppression, slavery, etc. I feel it’s a bit of a double bind — no way around and no way out.
A few select quotes from Sam Harris, The End of Faith
Religion - like nationalism - is a neurotic response to reality. ✔️ Yep. definitely can be.
Humanity has invented myriads of reasons to kill one another, and the belief in God is only one of them. But it is, inarguably, the most deeply revered. ✔️ Yep.
Religion has fundamentally failed to address the emerging bane of our civilization: the prospect of nuclear warfare. ✔️ Yep.
As long as religious tolerance does not grant Indians the freedom to convert to Christianity or Islam, it is not the value Western liberals imagine it to be. ✔️Yep.
Reason and humility require that we keep an open door of our tolerance open to every sane person who steps out of a religious community, leaving only its unhinged believers behind. ✔️ Yep.
But, then, these quotes from Harris from the same book are a bit disturbing:
The only solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism is to abolish the faith that creates it.
There are individual Muslim women who share [the] yearning for spiritual purity, but their charity and sincerity are not enough to lend 'divinity' to a system that is unwittingly pressing humanity into the brink of destruction.
Wonder what you think of Sam Harris. Have you read this book? My only exposure is through the podcast, Decoding the Gurus. The hosts are quite critical of Sam Harris as I recall. I’d have to relisten to podcast to know the nature of the critique.
Here’s two of their episode if you’re interested:
https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/sam-harris
https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/sam-harris-right-to-reply
Definitely hear you on the double bind! Thanks for the links, will check out
I love the hopefulness you give us explaining that an apocalypse will reveal what we need to know. I see politics as becoming the vehicle for all these wonderful things that religion also can provide. Just last night I watched a special YouTube live event hosted by Oprah and with Kamala Harris. Your 5 item list was clearly used to structure the entire program! @matthewburdette has some really good thoughts on this. https://open.substack.com/pub/matthewburdette/p/we-no-longer-know-what-a-human-is?r=3n812o&utm_medium=ios
Thanks so much Suzanne, will check out Matthew’s piece and hunt down the Oprah / Kamala event!
I love these questions, Alex! Thank you for sharing. I'm finally having a chance to catch up on your Substack! I'm excited you will be writing more over these coming months. It's nice to see the religion-shaped hole conversation surfacing, something I have been thinking about a lot, and feels more relevant now than when we talked about it last year. Perhaps now is the time to revisit that great event series we talked about... :)
I love this reminder of the need for the connection between the inner and the outer in order to sustain us. I have been pondering this a lot, as well as the religion-shaped hole.
Really interesting, and thank you. A question: is it a religion-shaped hole? Or a God-shaped hole? And what are the implications of the difference between the two?
Ah that is a REALLY interesting question. I suppose I would see *God* here as the transcendent or metaphysical heart of religions, and *religions* by contrast as the (very human) institutions, congregations and communities constellated around that Being / reality / idea* (delete as applicable depending on your worldview)
In practice, I think you can be interested in the roles that religions have historically played in society - like the five capabilities listed in the post - without necessarily having to believe in God.
Of course, that does then raise the question - which I am itching to get into in future posts - of whether it's possible to have new institutions that perform the social functions that religions have historically played, without the theology / belief that's at their heart.
Years ago when I was a special adviser at DFID, we had a civil society team that was really up for working on development with "faith communities", and the great Richard Chartres (then Bishop of London) used to take the piss out of us for this, essentially saying 'you guys think that religions are basically service providers who also happen to have some weird metaphysical ideas - what you don't get is that it's only *because* of the weird metaphysical ideas that religions can play all the other roles'. I have thought about this a lot since then :-)