I am not religious by any commonly accepted measures. I don’t identify with any specific religious group or adhere to specific religious rules that could be attributed to a certain religion. I do read different religious texts and follow many well know religious thinkers.
I do however, think that the wisdom that religions have to offer are on balance amazing! Now I can site all types of examples of specific church situations that are negative. What I have found is that most of the time it is the person that is the real problem not the religion. So when I hear that another “strong” Christian cheated on his wife, I don’t think Christians suck, I think that guy sucks. When I hear that another Islamic “terrorist” did x,y,z I think about the futility of violence and sadness of the event. I don’t think about Islam.
When I read some particularly gruesome ancient law in a religious text I shake my head and count my blessings that we are beyond that. I could never take a single religion lock, stock and barrel. Life is change and variance, we have to be flexible to reach our potential. I take what I can from the worlds religions and try to give back what I can as well. Someone will tell me that such and such religion is bad to the bone. Well if it really has nothing to offer, then fine I will move onto the next, but so far I have found so much good stuff I am optimistic there is more to learn.
A single religion cannot give me all the answers, but I think that all religions together have found many of the answers. Religion is not good as a shortcut to a myopic view of the world. On the other hand, the knowledge of the worlds religion is fertile ground for those of us who wish to dig in the soil of new ideas in the hopes of cultivating our own garden of wisdom.
Good luck in your personal quest for wisdom and fulfillment!!
Steve Valenta said,
January 21, 2009 at 5:17 am
Let’s get our hands dirty my man…there’s a lot of unturned soil under our feet. Full of the nutrients of life to sustain us and our children’s children. Minerals of abundance to shared around. Very good stuff here – thanks for the perspective. There’s too much to be held in one container!