Thoughts on Religion

Maybe I've written about this before, but it's on my mind today, so we're talking about religion. I was not raised with religion; I value it now as an adult, but I still believe it needs limits regarding its place in the world.

What I value most about regularly attending organized religious services is the community. But couldn't one get community anywhere else? What makes a religious community different? Maybe nothing. Like you could be a regular at a soup kitchen, there every Wednesday to serve, and you're also receiving soul-nourishment and likely seeing the same people over and over (community). You're going to fulfill something for yourself and see/be with/help other people. So what makes going to an organized religious service weekly different?

At least with the soup kitchen, you're doing something. Prayer is also doing something, but it is for you. For example, you pray for a cancer patient to get better, since there's nothing you can otherwise do to help them, help their cells, help with their chemo-inflicted nausea, etc. The prayer is for you to feel like you're doing something and hope that some higher power really can do what you can't, help this person get better. Serving at the soup kitchen is doing something for others, something more tangible and measurable than prayer. So why go to a religious service?

All I'm saying is, it's hard to describe. I go for the community, the learning, the music. I'm listening/reading for some tidbit of knowledge to give some eureka moment, help me understand the world and/or myself better. It's nice to believe that by gathering together, we can bring about peace. There's nothing wrong with doing something just because it makes you feel good. I'm pretty sure doing the ear candle thing is not actually good for you, but it does feel nice!

There's also something comforting in the fact that I'm following the tradition of my ancestors; I'm connected to them by speaking the same words they did, knowing they grappled with the same conflicting emotions and thoughts. It's not likely that serving in soup kitchens goes back 2000 years. To that point, I don't have proof that my ancestors were super religious either, even saying the words I'm talking about; but again, it's nice to believe.

But religion needs boundaries; the Bible/Torah is not meant to be literal. Yes, there will always be arguments about how true it is; did these people really leave Egypt as 600,000+ strong? Look at how other cultures cared little for facts though at that time, such as with Greek myths. It was more about qualities, exaggeration for the point of making a point, and stuff. So 40 years in the desert? The number 40 gets repeated a lot; it's just "a long time." Even people thousands of years ago had trouble with what was written in the Torah; that's why they created midrash and Talmud, ways to reconcile stories that couldn't possibly be true or laws that couldn't possibly be allowed. For example, stoning the wayward son - they came up with all kinds of "the parents must be this specific way, the kid must be only this age, only this time of year, etc," all the way to basically saying "no, you should never stone your son."

As a kid, I was against religion because I said it starts wars. I guess more adult-ly, I should say people use religion to justify their wars and attacks. This comes from fundamentalist, literal thinking, as well as "they're different from me, therefore they're bad!" So this is what I mean by religion needs boundaries. Religion for the community gathering, dreaming of peace, having peace and good behavior on the brain throughout the week so that you actually act that way, that's good. Using literal meanings to put others down, say you're better, that's not good.

Every culture is going to say, "we're different because we do X; we speak X; we believe X; we were chosen by God, etc." (therefore, we're the best). So let's get over that; we're all the best, and none of us are the best. We're all special and none of us are special. Let's not take the "chosenness" literally.

There are some horrible things in the Bible, especially many of the Leviticus laws restricting women and demonizing homosexuality. This is when we have to see the document for what it is, a thousands-year-old manual for life that doesn't apply to today in every aspect. Same as the US constitution needs to be changed and doesn't apply to everything today (looking at the 2nd amendment, which had in mind the ramrod guns that shoot one bullet per 10 minutes).

We can't take everything those old people said as truth or fact! Some will argue, "but the whole Bible is God's word!" I can get behind the divinely inspired idea, same as when a person writes any other book and it just flows out of them. But I absolutely do not believe it's God's word. It's only sacred to me now because my ancestors valued it, and I want to read it for their sake. It was important to them that it get passed down, so I believe I'll do the same.

But in studying it, just like in studying any old book, you have to go at it with footnotes and an understanding of the times. You can't understand all of a Shakespeare play without some context, why he wrote it, who was playing in it, what certain old words mean. So we need to do the same with the Bible: what did they mean by this word, this action (who "falls on their face" in today's society?), this phenomenon (dolphins in the desert, anyone?).

My only question now is, how do we change fundamentalist thinking? I guess there is no changing it, other than making the alternative more alluring, more logical. Maybe we can at least get the conversation going around the "let's not take it literal" with more flexible thinkers. We can still gather, learn, take away lessons on good behavior (same as you could learn from any other book). We can be inspired and feel love of community. But we've got to find a way to remove religion permanently from government and laws.

It's really hard to articulate my thoughts on this, but I'm trying. Hopefully this post wasn't too rambling or confusing. Let me know your thoughts on this subject. It likely makes a difference based on if your religion allows you to question or not - if you'll be able to accept something as metaphor due to this. But we have to try. Religion is valuable, but it needs boundaries.