So man created God in his own image

Romain Gagnon

Description

Does the Creator of the Universe resemble the anthropomorphic description of God as depicted by the main religions? And does such a supreme being really care about the fate of mankind? If life senselessly ends at death, what purpose does a human strive for during his brief passage on Earth? Shouldn’t he strive to contribute to mankind’s collective well-being, and incidentally his own, rather than dogmatically obeying commands from a bygone era? In short, is it possible to be both realistic and happy? And what is true happiness beyond what religion or capitalism tries to sell us? With the exponential increase in the use of anti-depressants, we sadly cannot claim that all is well in society. But in order to repair a watch, one must first understand how it works. Fortunately, recent scientific discoveries decisively unveil the biological mechanisms underneath the hood of happiness.

Informations

• Publié par: Option Santé, Productions-Éditions
• Date de parution: 26 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9782981793898
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

SO MAN CREATED GOD IN HIS OWN IMAGE
______________________
The Science of Happiness
ROMAIN GAGNON
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Library and Archives Canada cataloguing in publication
Title: So man created God in his own image: the science of happiness / Romain Gagnon; Foreword: Yvon Dallaire; English translation: Danielle San Marco.
Other titles: Et l'homme créa Dieu à son image. English
Names: Gagnon, Romain, 1963- author. | Dallaire, Yvon, author.
Description: Translation of: Et l'homme créa Dieu à son image. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190032189 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190032197 | ISBN 9782981793850 (softcover) | ISBN 9782981793843 (MOBI) | ISBN 9782981793898 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion—Controversial literature. | LCSH: Life.
Classification: LCC BL2775.3 G3413 2019 | DDC 200—dc23
Layout: Word-2-Kindle
Cover page: Josiane Roy, Alejandro Natan
Photograph of the author: Marc Dussault
© 2019 Éditions Stratégikus
All Rights Reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
1. The sordid reality
2. Our relative insignificance
3. This psychosis, affectionately called faith
4. A brief history of time
5. From the origin of life to free will
6. The evolutionist strategy of love
7. The decline of the human race
8. The return of the Dark Ages
9. Our fragile planet
10. Veganism, or the new face of asceticism
11. Finding earthly happiness rather than heavenly happiness
12. Hedonic adaptation
13. The hierarchy of needs
14. Morality is immoral
15. The wisdom of philosophers
16. Yin and Yang
17. For a utilitarian and ecological ethic
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of other men - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends.
Albert EINSTEIN 1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Even for such modest work, I would not have arrived at the final result alone. I would like to thank here the 25 people who have all made a contribution, particularly when challenging my arguments or suggesting additional reading. Among them are Muslims, devote Catholics, feminists and even a vegan.
These people know who they are, and to avoid them potential trouble, I will keep them anonymous. It's sad, but that's how it is in 2019.
And all of you, readers, I thank you for giving me the privilege of reading my book and recommending it to others that may find it of interest.
For Mélanie…
FOREWORD
Romain Gagnon is a perfectionist and a realist, and certainly not a coward to dare to write everything he wrote in this book. It takes balls to write reality as he sees it and go against so many religious, social, scientific, and even philosophical prejudices. He demonstrates with an extraordinary art all the paradoxes experienced by humans.
To say that it is man who created God (and not the other way around) and to add that the human is the least pragmatic of all living beings - while believing himself to be the most reasonable and the most intelligent - is really taking the risk of having a fatwā declared against him.
"Religion is the opium of the people," said Karl Marx. Romain Gagnon shows us how right he was. He is one of the few people to say and write what many people believe but do not dare to share out loud: that religious beliefs control the populace in a state of fear, in a refusal to accept their smallness and finiteness. This is the strict reality; we are only a speck of dust in the universe. Planet Earth is just the tip of a needle compared to Betelgeuse.
The author constantly brings us back to our contradictions and particularly to our belief in, or illusion of, free will. We are much more instinctive beings than we dare to admit, always in search of pleasure and shying from pain, like all animal and plant species that exist on Earth (and probably elsewhere). Whether in love or sexuality, we are fragile creature who are not as strong as we wish to be.
Paradoxically, Romain also talks about happiness and the means to achieve it. As he says so well, "From chaos came life." It empowers us in the state and evolution of humanity. For this, man must find meaning in life and free himself from the imaginary friend whom he has created and whom he calls Jehovah, Allah, or otherwise. Religion may have allowed a social framework to be built from spirituality in the past, but at the same time it was at the source of the worst atrocities, barbarities, and discriminations that history has experienced. Romain gives us many examples… examples that make us shudder.
Achieving happiness (according to the author) must be based on ethics… ethics far beyond any religious belief and illusion, a spiritual, non-materialistic, non-capitalist, atheistic ethic. Ethics based on our scientific knowledge and human values ​​of compassion, empathy, respect, pro-choice and justice. Ethics he calls utilitarian.
In his last chapter, he even dares to suggest many avenues - realistic and achievable - for a real humanity, a humanity freed from all its shackles; avenues that politicians should dare to put forward as soon as possible. We may not agree with all his proposals, but at least Romain Gagnon has the courage to write them and make us think.
Yvon Dallaire, M. Ps.
Author
http://yvondallaire.com
PREFACE
Like many others before me, I deal with the uncertainties that all human beings feel about life, whether poor or rich, believer or atheist, scholar, or Philistine. I'm talking about the common denominator of all human beings: death, but more so the relevance of the life that precedes it.
Our contemporary era obsessed with cybernetics and globalization leaves little room for spiritual reflection. We are constantly stimulated intellectually, making inner peace (which is the peremptory to such reflection) hard to achieve. As much on a personal level as a professional one, we are continually solicited by phone calls, emails, text messages, messages, news, and notifications. Our electronic agenda sets our daily schedule 2 . Our young people are even more affected by this unrestrained life and have even developed an unhealthy dependence on it.
While many countries are secularizing, others are radicalizing. With the dizzying life we ​​lead today, it's tempting to numb our pain of living rather than find a real meaning to life. Whether one is a believer or not, the spiritual quest remains no less an essential ingredient of serenity. While religion may rely on fanciful beliefs, the need for spirituality is very real.
Those who read this book might think that it is another ring-winged manifesto, but this is not so. However, be warned that the text is not politically correct; far from it. Today, in this unequaled era of political correctness, it's hard to find a politician or public administrator who will reveal the true substance of his thought, but being neither I do not have to restrain myself to this type of censorship.
Happy reading.
Romain Gagnon
2019-10-01
INTRODUCTION
Humans are the most intellectually gifted creatures, but also the most presumptuous. Indeed, man is the only animal to claim to be conceived in the image of God. Being at the top of the food chain ostensibly flatters the ego!
Although smarter than other species in the animal world, humans are paradoxically also the least pragmatic. Indeed, man is the only animal who believes in resurrection, who wastes his time praying, who imposes unhealthy fasts and who prides himself on his chastity! It is plausible that Christians believed, in another day and age, that small, plump angels were laying around on comfortable clouds, playing the harp. However, I am astounded when I meet today with intelligent people (at least in the logical, mathematical sense) and even scholars who are believers.
Religion is often harmless. This is the case when a Jehovah's Witness rings the doorbell, trying to scare us with end-of-the-world claims. However, it can also prove murderous. We only have to think about the Catholic crusades of yesteryear and the Islamic jihad, which today is the Muslim version.
Humans are distinguished from beasts sometimes by an unrivaled greatness of soul, sometimes by unparalleled cruelty. Man has excelled by improving his living conditions, particularly with the invention of the wheel or later with hygiene. Paradoxically, man is just as good at making life miserable through pollution or war.
Admittedly, humans are very different from beasts, but we must not confuse "human" with "humanity." A big part of what we are is in actuality a product of our civilization. A baby abandoned in the wild will not develop great knowledge. The superiority of mankind is probably more due to his social sense than his mathematical skills.
Our emotions do not differentiate us from animals, at least not from mammals. You must only observe animals to realize that they share nearly everything. In my opinion, the most important and noble difference in man and beast is man's ability to intellectualize. It's what you are doing now by reading this book. Only man tortures himself trying to understand how the universe works and in finding a meaning to life.
The same great existentialist questions have haunted the human conscience since the beginning of tim