Playing In The Sand

I know of some people (heck I know some people) who recognize the social and moral value of religion but dislike the belief structures. They want a nice, neat world where people are nice to each other and there is genuine community, but they see religious metaphysics as, well as a lie. Some of them seek to build a religion without a metaphysic. Some reject metaphysics altogether (often while making broad metaphysical and epistemological pronouncements without realizing it). My good friend Jason Pullen recently characterized these people to me as "people who want to build sand castles without playing in the sand".

And that's about right. Dostoevsky saw what some atheists seem unable to see: that the so-called 'death of god' has real moral and existential consequences. Something I've never seen secularists get their hands on is the thrill of evil. Rebellion can be an end in itself. Not for social recognition or to gain specific ends, but as an assertion of the glory of absolute freedom. Put people in nice, logical boxes, and they will tear them asunder just to show that they can. Most of Dostoevskys work is aimed at this very thing.

There is no way out of this through moral reasoning alone. There is no way out of it short some kind of risk, indeed metaphysical risk. The metaphysics of religion is the thrill of life. The risk of building sand castles cannot be avoided if one wants to speak to the real reason religion exists, in a philosophically anthropological sense.  

Digression: Philosophical anthropology is the study of human nature. So I'm saying you need metaphysics for a religion that really satisfies people.

Playing at games of building metaphysical systems simply to satisfy people's needs isn't going to work either. If you can't believe it, and you just want to make it up to control other people, what kind of monster do you think this will make you into? Do you think you can avoid the moral hazard here?

No religion, to 'work' must seek truth. It must not eschew metaphysics, either. But every such metaphysical endeavor is inherently risky. It can bring with it no certainty. Life's a risk, deal with it.