by Jeremy Broun

Created on: October 11, 2009   Last Updated: October 12, 2009

I would say yes but it would be a matter of choice. For centuries humankind believed in absolutes and absolute truth. It was believed to be an absolute truth that Hell existed and that the Earth was created in seven days. The current dominant thinking (since Einstein) is that everything is relative.

This is also humanly logical as we cannot be in all places at once or get into the mind of another human being (we may think we can) and that individual human experience is limited by personal perception and that is dependent on genetics and nurture experience. Right does not necessarily mean just. There may be a right or just war and then history will later paint a different picture. The important thing to understand is human need and if one human being needs to conform to the conventional belief system of his/her culture or needs to rebel against it (and hence choose a different belief system) then it has to be right for that person.

Even 'right' is relative to whom, because the Christian God demands you worship only him. As for me, the right religion is probably a humanist code best described in the bible but I part company with the Christian dogma when it uses guilt (original sin) to control its followers. As a carpenter there is usually a right way to do a job or fix a problem but there are also many options, some take longer, are more expensive or are more enjoyable. As a designer I work within a brief and it is important to analyse the exact wording of that brief. I have discussed the notion of 'right' and now I should define what is meant by 'religion'. Someone else here wrote that even atheism is a religion as it is a belief system but that is not absolutely true, some people who are branded as atheists by others, simply may not believe in anything and therefore there is no system about it! Football is a religion in England.

Technology is a religion and morality is no longer a question of right or wrong. There are grey areas, overlaps and mitigating circumstances. Developed civilisation is now very complicated. There are ethical issues faces humankind in the 21st century that are inprecedented and for which the human brain/mind is not prepared for and so the notion of 'right' is almost an old fashioned term! I do not wish to seem fickle. I am serious. We aredoing many things to ths planet which are not 'right' and moving further away from nature and nature is maybe the mother of all religion? There is a very good reason why the Sun was worshipped for so long.

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