Religion

Last summer, the Thai Buddha in my living room led to some questions from my almost eight year-old granddaughter while she was visiting for a week-end. She wanted to know what it was. I briefly explained about the Buddha, who he was, what he taught, that this is one of many interpretations representing stages of his life, and she mulled that over.

A bit later she said, I guess you are into goddesses. I replied, actually no, I am in no religion as such but would call myself Christian if I called myself anything. That quieted her for a bit. She has been hearing a lot about what a Christian might be from a fundamentalist little friend of hers, who had made saving my granddaughter her duty; and she knew that I'm nothing like that.

The conversation went off and on for an hour or so, and maybe she was satisfied with the answers regarding her grandmother's view of spirituality, or maybe she just gave it up for awhile. She did come back to it later on the way into town when she mentioned she thought it was a bit like the chicken and the egg question to decide what is true. Not bad wisdom from an eight year-old.

Because I have some negative views of religion and how it has impacted people through the ages, I didn't want to inflict those on her. I believe with grandchildren, it's important to expose them to ideas but not push them. I do want her to be wise about the world.

A bit later, I did more thinking about the conversation she had begun. I asked a spiritually wise friend of mine what he thought was the purpose of religion.

"In its more basic consideration, 'religion' is little more than a specific pathway for anyone to use to reestablish their consciousness with the higher frequency realms of existence," he said. "In the secondary pathways, once attuned, just about anything can be accomplished, because we can override what scientists call “physics”. He added those purposes for religion have mostly been lost or twisted.

For me, to define religion simply would say it's a refined (through group experience) set of beliefs and practices which can be taught, where groups can participate together to give them a sense of empowerment as well as belonging.

A positive religion would explain mankind's connection and obligations to life and/or to the holy. When it's good, it explains this through stories and teachings that improve life for all. When it's bad, it throws virgins into volcanoes.

Religion could use music and dance as methods to bring human vibrations more in tune with the Divine or the opposite. It certainly can be used to build group hysteria, to maintain power for the religion itself, and to go off on holy crusades which might mean wars or simply visiting foreign lands to rewrite those people's views of the cosmos.

Generally, religious leaders, whether they are called pastor or shaman, supposedly stand between the spirit world and humans in terms of interpreting the will of that particular god. Too often they convince humans that they can abdicate their own responsibility to figure things out as they trust in that spiritual leader to do it for them. These leaders serve as buffers to protect people from the wrath of the divine mystery and power. They are those who can explain what is required to be saved. Many religions have some concept of heaven or the other side and believe through following the dictates of their religion, the practitioner can attain a better future life-- here and afterward.

Sometimes instead of helping men have a better life here on this earth, more in tune with what is, religions force them to deny reality and the natural universe as a sign of their faith. If a religion contradicts the existing world, what can be seen and measured, it gradually causes the 'believer' to deny their own insights, their own view of life, their own ability to reason. A faith not in tune with reality is as phony as the worldview it is presenting, but it is now protected from anyone denying it is the truth-- since it is the only truth that they can consider. The extreme examples lead to drinking poison kool-aid or blowing up their own bodies to achieve some special reward in heaven.

Unfortunately, too many people today look to a candidate's religion to decide if they are going to be trustworthy leaders. In our country, they believed Bush when he said that he ran for the presidency because he believed god had told him to do so-- and they needed to know nothing more about him. In defining who the candidates were in a recent debate, the religion they espoused came second on the list. Could an atheist be elected president in the United States?

Discussion to be continued next blog.

(This sculpture was one I photographed many years ago on Vancouver Island, in a small park off the side of the road leading north. It appeared to be made of stone, was bigger than lifesize. I have no idea where it came from nor what it represented, but over the years I have felt that it does stand for man or woman as well as the mystery of life.)