What
is Religion?
Fear of the unknown would be a good place to
start describing what is Religion. Religion is the curiosity that brings us to
ask ourselves where we are from, what we are doing here? Science has helped us
become close to our biology, our anatomy, our origins as a species, but what is
next? Is our purpose here on earth simply to pass on our genes? Males is to
pass on their DNA and women to carry the forthcoming generation and then pass?
There is a questioning that we do, that is more powerful than anything we can
sense. It is easy to sense things, and we can, with time, learn much that is on
earth, but what happens then? We die. We die and we are left to wonder what
happens to our soul. Whatever happens to it, we will never know, but we can be
sure that we’re going to think about it.
We think all the time of the beyond; some
people even live their lives in advance of their soul, always planning to
become the next-level CEO. But what is beyond time? Even if we look at a Mobius
strip and understand that the Universe is eternal and it will always be and
always has, STILL there is a curiosity for knowledge that we cannot hold. I
share this sentiment as I strive to learn the bit of Gaulish the world
contains. I know it is impossible to learn it and yet I try, because my
curiosity is at its peak. We only want what we can’t have. This is
important because my definition of Religion focuses on this aspect of our
curiosity. Humans are the Universe made self-aware and so we attempt to harvest
everything we can, if we want it—some of us are more curious than others—and
with science we find it. With Religion, we keep on longing to find our roots,
our fundamental roots.
Religion is the core of our selves, of all
that we have the potential to be. And yet, it is the unreachable, the fact that
we will never be able to know everything because there is so little time. Life
is fleeting and life is also the most beautiful thing that could have happened
to us. The statistics that brings you being you right here right
now bubble down to the luck of the die. You won, and now you have to suffer through
the horrendous and splendid path that is life. We are not Greek Gods, walking
into their lives worry-free, lucky, rich, powerful and perfect. We are humans,
the matter of the earth, the chaos and the order, and the most intelligent
beings the earth has ever seen. Religion, in a sense, is the power that lies
behind the beyond, that we know is so close and yet so beautiful because we
accept that it is so far away.
We suffer this life, this tortuous and
explosion of everything that we make of it. Other people will hurt us, we will
hurt ourselves, and we will hurt others. Such things make up what we have
discovered of life until now. But we are here, and we will be here until we won’t
be. At that time, we will becoming the earth once more. Je suis née du sein
de ma mère, et je retournerais dans le sein de la terre. But is that it?
Isn’t our short time here a great and wonderful thing? It is. I say it is, just
because of the beauty that we find. The homeless man who will help find a mutt
find food, the woman who will stand in front of the world’s most dangerous man
to protect her son, the friend who will carry the heaviest of burdens that is
not his, but that of another, the flicker in a dream where we see a loved one
that is passed, this is the fundamental basis of Religion. It is all that we
find akin to us. It is pure Beauty, it is Universal Grief, Virtue and the hand
that rolls the die that will determine what is in store for us. It is all-powerful
because we are all-powerful and it is the very kindle of our anima and yet the
enormity of the world beyond our comprehension. It is Unity, it is God, it is
what we will never know. Isn’t just the simple fact that we can never know what
it is and yet love it beautiful? I think so, but that’s only me, and what am I?
A flicker of light, a speck of dust, a pile of flesh, a warm skeleton, a network
of neurons and yet, a powerful being, with a mind, a tongue and fingers to type
this onto paper. I need nothing but myself to tell you what I think Religion
is: the total acceptation that we exist and the thankfulness that somewhere in
the cycle of existence, we became who we are.
We are cruel; we are kind
We are Gods in our minds
And for this I thank power. I thank the power
that is embedded in the hearts of those who believe. This is faith, in some
sorts, but it is based on the simple truth that we exist and we do not know
why. We will never know why we exist because we cannot prove why we don’t
exist, us, you, me, them, they, I and the rest that have already come and gone.
To this, I bow to, slowly, feeling my body bend to the force of gravity as I
stand here on this floating organism in the midst of nothingness and everything.
I look up, take a moment to breathe and admire that I stand here, now, and that
it was I who won the roll of that particular die.
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