How Religion Can Remain Relevant in 21st Century
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Many, including myself, hunger to find meaning in the world that is not purely mechanistic, and is more satisfying than anything traditional religion can offer.
If religion is to ever be taken seriously by people who are capable of critical thinking, it is going to have to drastically realign its world view to become more compatible with reality as a rational person in the 21st Century experiences it. Here are some suggestions.
Quit being literal
My father, who is as good of a Christian and an open-minded humanist as you’ll ever meet, was recently attempting to explain the significance of mass to my eight year old daughter. What prompted the conversation was that my daughter asked, “Why do they eat crackers and drink wine in church?”
My father explained that it was to commemorate the last supper. “What was the last supper?” my daughter asked.
My father explained that it was the last meal that Jesus and his friends had together before he was killed by the Romans. “He was killed?” my daughter asked.
“Yes,” my father continued, “He died on the cross for our sins and was then put in a tomb. A little while after being put in a tomb, Jesus came back to life and went up to heaven.”
My daughter looked at my father quizzically and deep in thought. Finally she spoke. “Do you really believe that?” she asked incredulously.
Quit anthropomorphizing God
You know how the opening chapters of The Bible are full of terrifyingly dull begetting? Here’s some begetting of my own. Horace begot Zeus. Zeus begot Jupiter. Jupiter begot God. And none of them are that different from each other. Michelangelo’s God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, all muscled up in a display of potent masculinity, looks a hell of a lot like his Greek and Roman predecessors.
The real sin of anthropomorphizing God is that God becomes a psychological crutch upon which we can project our shortcomings and thereby make them divine. If I believe that women are inferior to men, then so does God. If I harbor prejudices against other races and creeds, then God does, too. If I am a football player and believe God is firmly on my side, then he is against the team that my team just beat.
I’m reminded of the old comedy skit where a sports reporter is interviewing a quarterback after his team had crushed the Kansas City Chiefs. The quarterback thanks God for the victory. The reporter asks, “So, why do you think God hates the Kansas City Chiefs so much?”
If there is a God, a prime mover, the fount of all that was, is and will be–the alpha and omega–we need to give up assuming we can know who God is. It’s too big, too complex, and we aren’t smart enough to come to any pat conclusions on that front. It would be like a dust mite assuming it knows my shape and motives by the view of things in a wrinkle of skin, between my toes.
Oh, hell, did I just anthropomorphize God with that analogy?
Quit hating on science
That has to stop. Science has its method, and that method has served us exceedingly well, and will continue to do so, so long as we have ethical scientists.
All that occupies this world does so between the very small and the gigantic. At the edges of both, science falls apart. Take the journey to the edges, which is paved all the way by science, and there you will find more mystery than a soul can manage.
Science’s expedition is to answer how. Religion is the why. So long as we have mouths with which to ask “why,” mystery and religion are alive.
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” ̴Albert Einstein
Go inside
Or, to state it in the negative, quit looking out to the world for salvation. Quit waiting for the second coming, Armageddon, the apocalypse, a band of angels or an anthropomorphic God to lift you up and skyward, or the winning lottery ticket you have prayed hard for. Sit quietly and look inside. If there is anything divine in this world, that’s where it will be found, as close to you as you are to yourself.
Religion needs to get more mystical and contemplative, and employ technologies and methods to help achieve inner exploration.
Jesus repeatedly used the phrase “kingdom of heaven.” Take “kingdom of heaven” and replace it with “inner divine wisdom” and see what you get.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter [inner divine wisdom].”
Get cozy with uncertainty
And that’s what it is really all about. There is no shame in admitting that we can’t know it all–it’s not possible. Paradoxically, I find the more I know, the more I don’t, but the more I want to. I don’t think God would have it any other way.
Oops. Am I anthropomorphizing again?
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I completely disagree with every word of this. Not every word. You said “tomb,” and I thought that was probably true. And you said “ethical,” and I cannot deny that. I definitely disagree with the other 809 words. Let me take it from the beginning:
1. Religion is taken seriously by plenty of people capable of critical thinking. At the exact moment they are taking it seriously, they are probably not exercising that facility, but other times they do, so they are capable.
2. “Quit being literal.” Real Instruction: No, be literal. “Quit being literal.” I can’t use that!
3. “Why do they eat crackers and drink wine in church?” Real Answer: Those are the only food and drink there, and if you consult the Bible you will find they are eating Jesus. It is a form of worship. We respect cows and pigs, right?
4. “What was the last supper?” Answer: It was the last meal Jesus ate, or so we hear. He is coming back and he may eat another one when He gets here.
5. “He was killed?” Nope, He went to sleep. To be killed means to cease to have life. He did not do this. God would not have allowed that to happen. C’mon, it was His son. There was a rumor of His death, which was greatly exaggerated and was exposed three days after it was spread. A few gullible people clung to the notion of His death, lest they cheapen the whole crucifixion trick. We have no idea if He had another meal when He woke up.
6. “He died on the cross for our sins and was then put in a tomb. A little while after being put in a tomb, Jesus came back to life and went up to heaven.” Real Event: He fell asleep on a cross, probably so they would take Him down, and then He slept hard. When He woke up, He wandered around showing people His sores.
7. “My daughter looked at my father quizzically and deep in thought.” Real Event: Your daughter had gas.
8. “Quit anthropomorphizing God.” Nothing greater than mankind in the universe. We want God to be the greatest. We cannot stop.
9. “Horace begot Zeus. Zeus begot Jupiter. Jupiter begot God.” Real Answer: I think Zeus begot Jesus. God begot Himself. It’s in the Bible. I don’t think we need any more proof than that. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to find a Biblical error.
10. “The real sin of anthropomorphizing God is that God becomes a psychological crutch upon which we can project our shortcomings and thereby make them divine.” That is one of the most profound thoughts I have ever heard. It is brilliant. However, God is also the sum of the unknown, and we know so little that he is certainly more than man.
11. “So, why do you think God hates the Kansas City Chiefs so much?” Answer: There was no mention of them involving God in the game. God answers prayers. It’s in the Bible.
12. “It would be like a dust mite assuming it knows my shape and motives by the view of things in a wrinkle of skin, between my toes.” Answer: You underestimate dust mites, sir.
13. “Oh, hell, did I just anthropomorphize God with that analogy?” No sir, you anthropomorphized dust mites.
14. “Quit hating on science.” It’s not hate, Drama Queen!
15. “That has to stop. Science has its method, and that method has served us exceedingly well, and will continue to do so, so long as we have ethical scientists.” Answer: Has it given us the promise of eternal bliss? That’s what I thought.
16. … “and there you will find more mystery than a soul can manage.” Answer: Not looking for mysteries. Trying to solve them. You are sending me back the way I came. I am not a racehorse!
17. “So long as we have mouths with which to ask ‘why,’ mystery and religion are alive.” Observation: If religion is dependent on our mouths, then it is not real without us. God, however, is eternal. You need to read your Bible.
18. “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Science without religion is not lame, but impossible, if you see faith as a religious attribute. Without axioms, we believe nothing. However, science is the mortal enemy of religion as we know it. Religion may think it needs science, but science does not think it needs religion and it will run it through with its sword if given the chance.
19. “Go inside.” I already am.
20. “Quit waiting for the second coming, Armageddon, the apocalypse, a band of angels or an anthropomorphic God to lift you up and skyward.” But He promised.
21. “Sit quietly and look inside. If there is anything divine in this world, that’s where it will be found, as close to you as you are to yourself.” I am screwed. The place you told me to look is completely empty.
22. “Jesus repeatedly used the phrase “kingdom of heaven.” Take “kingdom of heaven” and replace it with “inner divine wisdom” and see what you get.” Answer: Crap! That was painful. I lost paradise.
23. “Get cozy with uncertainty.” A very wise statement. Certainty is synonymous with closed-mindedness. It is illogical to seek the truth once you have found it. However, you have to be certain that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, which is to say, you have to be closed-minded, or you burn for all eternity.
24. “Paradoxically, I find the more I know, the more I don’t… God would have it any other way.” Very profound. Excellent. As a good Christian in the making, I reject it on that basis.
As usually, this was a great post, sir. However, despite your best efforts, I love God as much today as I ever did. Thump! Thump!
My daughter looked at my father quizzically and deep in thought. Finally she spoke. “Do you really believe that?” she asked incredulously.
LOL…she totally gets it 😉
I can imagine being the father. say “go to your room” or struggle for words, or accept it as a loss.
Or hope for a miracle! LOL!
Agreeing with MH on this one. One of your best posts ever!
Religion is a very complicated subject with everyone asking questions, it’s meaning and how it relates to themselves. I think that it’s a natural part of the life journey to have curiosity about “what’s it all about”.
To simplify it with dogma is to lessen it’s meaning.
The fact that you have conveyed these ideas and included possibilities of science in co-existence, outstanding!
Great job, Collin! A real gem of a post!
Collin,
This was excellent.John Myste has spoke of religion having more meaning when it’s viewed as “magic” and I agree, “no shame in admitting we can’t know it all” – perfectly put,man.
All of the posters/commenters here who express their atheist/agnostic beliefs do so with class, even if angry or ridiculing it is done in response to Christian intolerance and extremism. So I am down with all you guys.
On some of the liberal progressive FB groups, it’s a little different.Some exhibit a smug “oh look at the benighted natives,how amusing with their silly ceremonies” with comments that follow devolving into contempt.
There are people who rightfully condemn “living for the afterlife” rather than working for good now, and those who criticize the self-righteousness of relgious people, and so many other reasons for questioning or confronting or outright hating religion, I respect all of those and so many others. But those who I picture as smoking a pipe, looking out a window to gaze upon the rabble and patronizingly shaking their heads at the childish stupidity of that rabble, they insult my ancestors.
I mentioned it to my big girl, she told me she’s never seen China, but she knows it’s there and needs no scientific proof to confirm her belief. That’s me, I believe and can’t offer scientific proof for it, and if a pipe smoking professor offers scientific proof there’s no creator or afterlife – well he’s just some guy, why would I believe him?
It’s magic, and I believe!
There is a pedantic, “new” atheism that rails against the evils of all religions and can see no positive good for them at all, dismissing the very thought that mysticism aside, the rituals and ceremonies in and of themselves have meaning for many. (Its almost like the knee-jerk reactionary lesbianism I’ve seen. I bet both groups were abused by what they reject.)
Rather than giving some ideas more credit than others, they throw it all out as BS. I think they miss the point.
There is an intrinsic beauty in man’s attempts to understand the beauty and mystery of life. It is when man uses these in the ways so eloquently put in Collin’s post, that the problems begin.
Religion can be a force for good or evil. Its supporters need to be vigilant in keeping it a force for good, rather than a force for controlling others.
MH,
Your comments would be an excellent post in themselves, almost like the other one you did on atheism.
You put it so well, it’s analogous to an adult desperate to destroy a child’s belief in Santa,just because he/she feels the child needs to face reality.
I’m toying with doing a post on the new atheism- we’ll see.
There is a mean spiritedness in them I can’t fathom- like wanting to jerk away a kids binky or security blanket, telling them to “grow up already”.
As for the Femme-nazis (man hater types) they would never allow a man to be a feminist as he has a penis. I know very few women who have NOT been either raped, molested or had someone very very close to them experience something like it. The fact that nearly all are normal and well adjusted- well some people just don’t bounce back.
If the lesbians need the security blanket of hating all men to feel safe- then let them have it. I don’t want to hear them preach their man hate (and I don’t think it is healthy), but I understand their need to feel it.
Spot on analysis. In college I knew these angry lesbians who flat-ass didn’t like men. They would congregate at my girlfriend’s apartment and refered to me as “that man” to my face with a derisive tone. No amount of explaining on my part could convince them that I was a feminist, too. It’s the same ol’ story, believed by anyone who has ever had conviction. “I’m right, and your wrong.” It’s a perfect example of how any good cause becomes intolerant and closed minded.
Based on what I was allowed to listen to, what those feminist had in common is that they had all been raped or knew someone who had.
This is one of your best posts ever. I have used your anthropomorphizing argument against small minded bigots many times. To gather the best reasons all together in a succinct post- well that is an art. I’ll stop short of calling it divine.
This should be required reading for all Christians!
The Einstein quote, in fairness, would be read as meaningless nonsense if it had anyone else’s name after that. Nice rhetorical device, but one should really not try to present Einstein’s religious views as identical to one’s own if they’re also writing about a personal God who may have died for our sins. [Einstein believed in no such thing (if his own words are any indication), and his definition of God was pretty much just “that which keeps the laws of physics in order” and did NOT have a personality or a body or a personhood of any kind].
The rest, about keeping religion to yourself–great idea. Spot on.
Nice Post.
It gives me much to think about. Although I’m an atheist I do believe in balance. A ying,yang kind of thing I guess. The role of church and the other religions are all whacked. It’s possible
we just can’t comprehend what it’s all about.
“…inner divine wisdom.” Most excellent indeed! Bravo!!
Transubstantiation? To a little one? Good stuff! Who very plainly wanted exactly what I wanted: empirical data: show me! I know myself to be a spiritually aligned individual; taken me a life of experiences to reconcile certain aspects of the Unseen. Yet; I have and I do. Much like an ancient (Egyptian or Babylonian) I view it as sacred science. The customs and culture of cosmology, though it may keep us separate, each version uniquely fuels our dreams, provides a personal thunder in our declarations (concerning values / ethics), compels us to understand together instead of remaining solitary and asks us, in it’s best renditions, to be ultimately CURIOUS, to eschew stagnation or the ‘belief’ system that stays in place, never stretches its ideas and puts authenticity outside of the experience of the self. Fuck that shit. And I think the youth of today are thinking much of the same… well, the questing youth.
Collin… getting cozy with uncertainty is the most brilliant way to put it… take the risks! Great post dude.
Goddess bless you~!
PS – none of the monotheistic renditions accomplish much of the above though. It resolves generally through war and delegates authority through bogus hierarchy while disempowering the poor, women and children. For 4K years.