These days too many of us seem inclined to cover our ears, close our eyes, and blindly follow the most narrow, conservative tenets of religion; or else seek comfort in the ancient traditions of New Age ritual.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of our lives. We relax so totally that people believe the most ludicrous propositions, and are willing to organize their lives around them.
That sense of sacredness, that thinking in generations, must begin with reverence for this earth.
I have the greatest love for the rituals of organised religion - the sense of community and belonging it can confer to people. But me, I'm more a questioner than a follower; not by whim or fashion, but as a decision painfully arrived at after much, much thought.
Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable.
Whatever your religious tradition is, if it's important to you and you don't feel comfortable talking about it, you end up coming across as insincere.
There is a great interest in comparative religion and a desire to understand faiths other than our own and even to experiment with exotic cults.
I don't disrespect anybody who espouses a particular religion or belief - that is their own right to do that. But I think it's terribly important to look beyond the comfort that religion gives.
The tension between the essence of spiritual teachings and the harmful fundamentalism that often arises in the name of religion is an issue that has engaged my mind practically as far back as I can remember.
I never found much comfort in overly organized religion of any sort.
Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.