Sit back for a moment and try to define that for yourself.
Is it a belief?
Some people believe that 9/11 was an inside job. Is that a religion?
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| If you define religion by fanaticism, maybe for some... |
It's a belief in a higher power, or a practice that worships god/s.
Well, Buddhism doesn't adhere to that, but it's considered a religion.
What is religion then?
Is a religion even what I'm really looking to find?
Hit the jump for more.
A teacher proposed these ideas regarding religion during class recently, and I thought it was pretty good stuff. He said that while science explains the 'how,' religions explain the 'why.' Why was your mom born a woman? If you say "because that's how the gametes of her mom and dad combined and how her DNA coding caused her to form," that's 'how' - that's science. If you answered "Because that's how god wanted it to be," that's why. That's religion.
I thought this shined an interesting light on my search for the right dogma. While I already defined the why, perhaps I should define more specifically the what.
Saying that I'm looking for a religion isn't quite right. I'm not really interested in the whys behind a lot of things (why did it rain today? Don't really care, I just know it meant it wasn't fun to be outside), and I'm comfortable with letting modern science work out the hows (It rains because of precipitation, pressure, etc).
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| You know, all this stuff. |
Many religions claim to have the answers to these sorts of 'hows,' and they also try to answer the 'whys' at the same time. Their adherents would back up these claims with personal examples and anecdotes. I'm exploring different dogmas to look at these different answers, and find what works best for me. So while I may not be looking for a pantheon of gods or a place to worship, I'm also not looking for a strict and scientific path either.
So what am I looking for? I guess I'm looking for something that straddles the line between science and religion. Religion provides guides and orders one's life: Science explains the physical interactions between oneself and the surrounding world. I want something that lets me combine both in one package.
For example - I don't belief that I have bad dreams because demons/imps/psychic monsters are climbing through my window at night and MAKING me have them.
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| Chest-sitting possibly naked nightmare-causing imps are jerks. |
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| Pictured: SCIENCE! |
I think anyone who completely discounts religion for being non-logical is missing out. You don't have to be Christian to enjoy gospel music: you don't have to be a pagan to find fellowship around a fire: you don't have to practice Vodun to dance and feel the energy in your body rise. Neither do you need to completely understand the mechanics of your body or light to feel warmth on your skin, to feel full after a good meal, or to enjoy a good nap. I think it's a good thing some of the time to keep theology and science separate, but what I'm looking for will give me both the 'how' and the 'why.'
For now, earth-based religions are holding my interest pretty steadily. Ritual magic - either by prayer, by spell or by chant - has worked the best for me so far in helping me get in touch with myself and my dreams, if by nothing other than manipulating my self conscious. As such, a lot of what I'll be looking into will be related to such practices.
Even if, at the end of all my searching, I find that having faith in the powers in and outside of myself to have the ability to directly affect my life and wanting to know more about such powers is folly, exploring such has taken me interesting places.
And I have no plans to stop searching any time soon.
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