It feels as though I haven't had much time to think these days, as my lack of updates must make clear, and a glance at my activities hopefully absolves me to some degree, but I cannot make excuses for lack of intellectual activity and I feel I have progressed in some ways, so today I hope to expound upon a matter I have come to understand in new light: Religion.
In my younger days I held animosity towards religion for various reasons, at first the ceremonies eating into my play time, later on the rituals I did not enjoy or understand, later still beliefs I did not share, and eventually complete philosophical rejection. My disdain for religion came from me simply not wanting to go with it I suppose, I just wanted fun, and by the time I'd severed myself from its ties it was too late to realize just what it was all about in the first place. I cannot take the entire blame for this, though. I was a horrid child, there's no denying that, long into my teens and even now I remain quite wretched, but I feel that many, even religion itself, have forgotten what it is for, why it exists.
Before every known religion became the social club they now are, they all had something in common, they all had a message, a desire, a connecting philosophy that can be traced between each, from ancient Native American folklore to the tales of Jesus and Mohammed and the teachings of Siddhartha and Confucius. Each share similiar ideas, each want the same thing, each express the same philosophy and urge people towards a common cause: be good to one another. The overall idea, the philosophy that ties all religion together is that life is a mystery of unknown proportion, so vast the sheer madness of it cannot be comprehended. Religion offers an explanation for all the unending mysteries life has to offer, all the mental roads that always lead nowhere, the ultimate crisis of existentialism solved: for you were created by an omniscient God that loves you and will reward you when you die with an eternal life of joy, providing you follow his rules, of course.
This is where religion veers from its intended course. It takes the rules of their creators as commands for others, not suggestions for the improvement of the self. It amazes me that so many congregations point fingers when their prophet gave one of the most beautiful analogies for the treatment of other humans, roughly "you must first remove the log from your own eye before you attempt to remove the sliver from your brother's," a metaphorical way of saying check yourself before you wreck yourself, essentially an expression that one cannot correct a person of a fault they themselves are equally, if not more guilty of. Despite this teaching, Christianity seems, in many cases, granted some of them fictional depictions, to have abandoned this teaching, allowing their log to take root as their pluck away at the eyes of strangers like vultures. It is this quality above all others that soured my perception of all organized religion.
Here in Macon there's a church whose sign reads "The perfect church for people who aren't." Mort Sahl, responding to a statement he made about having a Christlike vision of himself, said "If you're gonna identify with someone, you really gotta GO, y'know?" Lenny Bruce elaborated on this, musing that Christians are those that strive to live by the example of Jesus, treating others as they would be treated, "unless you're that Paul Malloy Christ...The only medicine that's good for you is iodine because it BURNS you, sinner." The Old Testament is backstory, it is a building of a world and a crafting of a justification. The New Testament is an elaboration, made after the life of Jesus to tell more of the God the Old Testament created, to relate the love and teachings of a man that just wanted us to be better to one another. Jesus was not the first to relate these ides, he will not be the last, but he went above and beyond the call to get those ideas across. It's a shame that so much later so many cannot see the forest for the trees, taking his teachings as instructions for others, not themselves.
I am a man of science, and through science I have come to understand much about the life we live and the necessity of religion for humanity. Facing the unknown is a task nigh impossible for the most fortunate and wealthy, let alone the impoverished and suffering, the disenfranchised and unfortunate. Religion offers all humans a justification for their lives, a reason to go through them regardless of the hardships they face, treating every human they meet with love and respect. I'm not rushing to join any congregations or groups, but I do find that beautiful.
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