Damn shame they're only available at Christmas time.
Anyways! How quickly I digress.
Perhaps it's my own selective vision, but I detect a tone from a lot of my friends (and non-friends who happen to be my proximate age). There seems to be numerous crises of faith in many lives. Actually, I know this goes on all the times in the lives of those I don't know exist, but what I mean to say is that i recognize a trend in the lives of those I do interact with in some way.
Many of my peers and friends are now beginning to hit the stride of adulthood. Needless to say, it's not what we envisioned. It also appears that to many, traditional religion just isn't cutting it for us anymore. The standards we likely had indoctrinated into us at an early age have just become... empty. Everywhere you look, religious groups are increasing just trying to hold the center together while the edges fray under the winds of change. They exclude more than they embrace. And for those of us who choose to grow alongside a dynamic society, religion has become a vestigial appendenge, like the monkey tail our ancestors shed millenia ago.
If you're from the Creationist camp, I probably just lost you right there. In fact, some of my remaining readers may be having reservations... if they're still reading. Take my hand and hear me out. Yes, these are my own musings, but perhaps there may be a tiny kernel that is rewarding in this rant of mine. Kinda like when you happen upon an unshelled sunflower seed in a bag of David's. Tiny things like that make my day. How bout you? Wha? No? Oh, okay then. Back to the task at hand.
Religion is not the answer.
Before you jump down my throat and call me a heathen unworthy of my new ordained reverend status, allow me to explain I do think religion has merit. I'm not one of those from the "opiate of the people" camp. I gave up my communist tendencies a while back, but long after I gave up my capitalist ones. (wink)
There is a bit of a paradox in being an agnostic minister, I know.
Don't confuse agnostic with atheist. That's a common mistake I made long ago also.
"Belief in spirits almost always includes a belief that the spiritual realm and the physical realm will, on occasion, interact with each other. Agnosticism is a faith system which actively seeks this interaction. A person who looks for evidence of the interaction is an agnostic; if the evidence is convincing, then presumably the agnostic would change belief system to whichever religion exposed the interaction between realms. If the evidence is not convincing, then the agnostic would remain agnostic. Note that an agnostic is not an atheist, but that an agnostic might convert to atheism in the same way that conversion to any other religion is possible: the agnostic would need to find convincing evidence supporting the adoption of that faith system."
Now where I differ is... while I seek bindings between all facets of life, I'm perfectly happy marking myself as "unaffiliated." I do believe in the miracle of God, but instead of looking up to pearly gates I look for the miracle inside each and every one of us. We all possess the potential for limitless love and hate. It's never a black and white world. But placing our lives and societies in the context of a black and white world is not only easier for most to comprehend, but it's an easier (i.e.- lazier) method of influencing others to see things from our own point of view.
That being said. I'd like to point out that Secularism is not the answer either.
Obviously. Exhibit A is everywhere from VH-1 to E! to CNN now.
But you see, life isn't limited into these two camps.
Seeing things in terms of two absolutes is the surest way to lose yourself. No one can ever exist entirely in one dominion or the other. Perhaps we need to seek truth between the two camps.
Everyone knows that the dots you see in the intersections are mind tricks. When you focus on one, the other dots get more pronounced. Is it possible for us to never see the dots? To only see the black and white with no illusion of an in between?
No. We are incapable of seeing just the absolutes. There is more to be perceived. More to view... more to accept... more too embrace. It may be undefined, but it's there if we believe it.
While that illusion helps to explain the fallacies of seeking defined limits, it also serve to illustrate that life exists in the spaces between black and white.
The path to salvation and fulfillment doesn't have to have a particular sign on it. You can be Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, Buddhist, Pagan, Sikh, Atheist, Confucianist, or anything that makes you comfortable. But don't mistake your path for the path of others. Your own religious label is the robe you may wear, but you will always be you underneath.
Maybe organized religion are the training wheels to help people begin to think and believe in things other than the self. I always felt that when “born-againers” and others of their ilk proclaim to have “found God,” they really are just discovering the rest of the world. Altruism can be life-changing, but we should always be more willing to think outside ourselves. And to stop placing trust in "quick-fixes" when we should be recognizing the strengths and potential within.
Every deploarbale action has an equally reprehensible behavior in the "opposing camp."
Stop thinking that a specific prayer for any given occasion is significant. That thinking is the same as someone "living better through chemistry," popping pills to service symptoms rather than tackling the bigger picture.
Don’t be forced to limit yourself. We humans tend to put the most annoying synthetic boundaries on ourselves. Property, morality, currency and worth are all foolishly tied down instead of allowed to just be.
Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter that is our bodies.
Let the light out. We don't have to live in darkness anymore.
Our entire existence is more than what we perceive. Some people go their whole lives not believing anything that doesn’t present itself before their own eyes. Life offers so much more than we can perceive. We are more than flesh and bone. Life is more than your job. It can be about love. Love for your spouse. Love for your kids. Love for your friends. Love is everywhere. It's all of us, if we let it.
You don't have to wait until Christmas to see that it's a wonderful life.
But you do have to wait for those Christmas tree cakes with the crunchies.
Mmmmmm. Crunchies.
4 comments:
Nicely done.
Deep man, really deep. And I totally get it.
Hey Mister, where's the rest of your posts?
Interesting to know.
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