Religion and Me

 When I was young my Mum used to take me to the Methodist church. When we lived way out in the country there was one about a mile away. Also out in the middle of nowhere. When we moved into the "big city", about 15,000 people, the church was about 2+ miles away. And for a lot of Sundays my Mom would dress me, and the brothers and sisters still at home, up nicely and take us to the service.

This church had a 9 pin 2 lane bowling alley downstairs where one had to set the pins by hand. I discovered that fairly quickly. My Mom had a lot of us to watch so slipping away was not that difficult. And I always liked to explore. So I did and I found this bowling alley.

So I would often go downstairs and hang out by myself in that bowling alley. I was the most social introvert you ever met. I craved company and hated having people around me. Weird I guess. I actually tried bowling once during the service. And of course, it made too much noise and one of the church folk came down and caught me.

Anyway, what they wanted us to believe in that church, or any house of worship of any brand, of this god out there in the universe has never made sense to me. Not ever. And I tried to be a dutiful kid, never any good at it and I did try at times, and find a way to believe in this sky god out there as a father figure. And I never could.

Part of the issue that I had was knowledge. My knowledge that I had already gained.

When I learned how to read I very quickly began reading anything that I could get my hands on. And one of the very first things that I got was a big yellow book with simple writing and big simple pictures. What that book did was give me a very simplified look at the Greek Myths. Gods, Demi-Gods, Heroes, Villains, etc. And then I branched out into other mythologies. And from there History as I wanted to understand the people who believed these things.

And then you all introduced me to the christian bible and told me that was The Truth. Yet, it looked a whole lot like all of these other stories that I read that was called Mythology.

So, we need to look at the word mythology. And once again we go to dictionary.com:

Mythology

1) a body of myths, esp one associated with a particular culture, institution, person, etc

2) a body of stories about a person, institution, etc

      the mythology of Hollywood

3) myths collectively

4) the study or collecting of myths

Mythologies

1) a body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person

      Greek mythology

2) myths collectively

3) the science or study of myths

4) a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered

      the Fascist mythology of the interwar years

By this then myths are the stories that we tell ourselves to explain who we are. And I agree with this. As a person who has been studying mythology and history pretty much from when I learned how to read, from 6 to 7 years old, I think this is correct.

And the problem that I have with religion is that it takes the stories that our ancestors told about themselves, in a world that they did not understand, that scared the living daylights out of them, and insist that this is the revealed and only truth.

It also insists that we are born broken and alone and that the only way to be whole is to be filled up by this sky daddy that they call yahweh, god, allah, or some other title.

And that has never made sense to me. Not at any age.

For a long time I tried to believe. I remember a time in my teenage years where I tried a couple of religious studies. Got fairly deep with that. Tried some strictly "spiritual" ways of believing. Went thru a lot of explorations.

And for each them always came that moment when it just made no sense to me at all. I could no longer rationalize the things as they were being presented in any way that would get thru my need for clarity.

I also was presented with the circular logic that was supposed to explain everything. Faith is a belief in the unseen and unknowable. If your sky god exists why in the hell would that being, supposedly all knowing and all loving, make it so impossible to actually know as a being?

And the more I explore the more that I have found that there is no rational reason to believe. And especially any reason to follow a religion.

Now, to be clear, I do not believe that any god out there exists. I just do not. I have seen absolutely nothing that says that is anything resembling a reality. And, I do not know that one does not. If one does exist then so be it. Present me evidence.

I am reminded of an encounter a long time ago. I was in Northampton MA one very nice day. Warm, not too warm. Humidity was almost non existent. Crowded sidewalks, yet not overwhelming. Easy to move thru without having to dodge around. I was with my then Lady.

As I was walking I saw a young man ahead of me by about 15 feet. Just standing there looking around. And his eyes locked on to me. I saw him just as he saw me. And he had that look. The look of one who had just "found jesus" and wanted to spread the good word. To me.

So he walked towards me and as he opened his mouth I just looked at him and said "Not today man. I am just not in the mood", and walked past him. And he said to my back "Don't you care where you go when you die?" I turned and looked at him for a moment and then said "That's none of my business". He looked at me with a "now what in the world does that mean" look on his face.

So I continued. "Where I go when I die is none of my business. My business is to live this life as best as I can. To take care of others when I can. To serve others and be a full member of human society. And when I die I go where ever we go next. And right now I have this life to live".

He looked at me in very befuddled way and said nothing. And, over his shoulder behind him, I could see his advisor or whatever looking at this and looking like he was wondering what to do with this as well.

After a moment, when I got that there was going to be no reply, I said something like have a good day and continued on my way with my then lady. She looked at me and said something to the effect of wow that was good.

I tell that story so that you can understand that I don't give a damn what happens after this life is over. If the sky daddy exists and loves me or is angry at me or something else entirely that is just what is gonna be. I do not believe that to be the case however.

I think it is possible that religion has some tin corner of a truth buried in it somewhere. That is possible. I do not think it at all probable.

It is possible that there is this god out there that exists and has created this universe. I find that very unlikely.

I also think that if your god and your saten existed, as your stories say, that the biggest trick saten ever played was the invention of religion. For if your god existed then the biggest barrier to having a relationship with said god is religion.

I do not believe in any god. I do not think any religion has any more than, possibly, a very tiny corner of truth in their structure.

So what do I believe?

I believe that in this Universe that we live in we cannot possibly know all that there is to know about things. That we need to keep existing as the Family of Humanity. We need to keep growing and helping others to grow. I believe that Science is the path to knowledge and that we need to keep investing in science with all of it's questing uncertainties.

I believe that we need to keep Evolving to become... something.

I believe that the only path to the future and any enlightenment is to let go of all our anger, hate, suspicion, all of the negatives that live inside us, and embrace Wonder, Delight, Curiosity, and, most crucially Acceptance.

We must accept each other, the world around us, and everything in this universe, exactly the way that it is and is not.

Accept all of this with Delight and Wonder at our Similarities and our Differences.

We must become the Explorers of Wonder.

With Love

Namaste 🙏