Thanks DK5 but no thanks, I’ll pass on the offer of an “image”.
The temp here in north NM is now is 70F and I've got the door propped wide open, so that inside and outside merge... delightfully so I must say.. but at a time of year that has previously been the dead of winter.
What do we believe in? What do we turn to, in times of desperate need? What is our refuge in times of last resort? It occurs to me that we must all finally depend upon individual human beings -- not on ideologies or political affiliations or religious doctrines. Just ordinary, confused, unsure, faith-based individuals like ourselves. These are the people we must finally count upon, as well as whatever society surrounds and nurtures them.. But does this have anything to do with what religion they espouse, or what political affiliations they hold?
I would contend that human social consciousness could not even exist, without some sort of fundamental,and communal religious orientation. The very word “religion” refers to a binding together (as in “ligature, or ligare”) and not to Its current manifestations such as Hindu vs Muslim vs Christian vs Jew vs Atheist vs Shia vs Sunni and so on. And yes, I consider Atheism to be a form of religion, one among many.
These distinctions and various doctrinal disputes, these various explanations of “what it all means” are contradictory to the origin and purpose of religion itself. Or are they? Are religions in general intended to bind people together, or to separate, divide, and include/exclude them?
In general I would say that whatever binds individual humans together in cooperative effort and belief, is by definition religious. And that whatever pushes people apart and divides them is irreligious.
Which is not to say that religion is always preferable to irreligion, or that the dominance of any religion is always preferable to the absence of religion. Black sheep are an essential component of all faiths, even though they usually get sacrificed to what is called “the greater good”.
