I'm an atheist. I come from a long line of atheists, and practically everyone I know is an atheist.popeye1945 wrote: ↑February 12th, 2021, 6:44 pm Ecurb, I think the bible should be studied as literature, actually, to understand the culture it is necessary to understand it. I agree it has wonderful literary treasures within. It however, can no longer even pretend to be a guide for a modern humanity. I take it you are religious, so we are probably at odds with each other from the start, as I am an atheist. I believe Joseph Campbell was an atheist, but, he certainly knew the value of myth and ritual. Humanity is foundering right now, really without a functional myth. I have my doubts if humanity will survive much longer at anyrate, so creating a modern myth to carry us into the future may be futile. All we can do is hope for best.
I see religion as one of the Humanities. At universities, the Humanities include the Departments of Anthropology, History, Music, Art (not Fine Arts degrees, but the study of art), Literature, Languges and (of course) Philosophy. If we want to understand humanity, we do well to study the Humanities. Literature, music, art, and language are among the greatest human creations, as is religion. But although we have created these things, we should recognize that they have also created us. Without language (as one example) we would be very different creatures -- it informs both our manner of thinking, and the subject matter of our thoughts.
Religion (i'd suggest) is a guide for modern humanity whether we like it or not. It has been a key feature of culture for millenia untold, and the Desert Religions have influenced Western Culture to such an extent that our modes of thinking about ourselves have developed in concert with Christian thought. A modernist, scientific approach to knowedge has practical value. The basis of this approach is the notion that we understand the whole by looking at the parts. We can disect cadavers to understand humans. Of course there's both truth and value in this approach. However, the religious approach is more holistic. We understand the parts (says the Christian) by looking at the whole (God). To the scientific mind this seems backwards, but even science has trended in this direction in the post-modern era.
Here's Walt Whitman's take (Whitman was a deist, but not a Christian):
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.