I believe that religion or the concept of religion was created by humans who needed answers for the unknown. Eventually, Science came along and provided logical and consistent answers. Science, after all, is the search for truth, is it not? Yet, many religions claim to be “the truth” as well, as many humans insist on the supernatural, claiming proof from ambigious documents written by humans at a time when Science was still young (or perhaps nonexistent). Why???
Some people who have their faith and are very happy with it see me as someone who’s lost and searching for my way to the truth. “Don’t worry, someday you’ll find it,” they say with compassion. How nice of them. No really, I appreciated that. They do care about me. However, how do they know for sure that they’re not the ones who are lost and I’m not the one who’s enlightened?
But as much as they care about me, I do care about them as well. Whether their religion is the truth or not, they are happy with it. They are not some accident of nature that came from creatures like apes, but beings made by God and given purpose by God. It gives them meaning, it gives them strength, it gives them hope, especially – most especially – at times when things would seem hopeless. Their religion, fake or not, is their savior. So who am I to judge religion? Who am I to insist that they think like me? If I take them away from religion, am I really saving them?
Each and everyone of us are differently built, not only physically, but also psychologically. And I believe that some people just really need religion in their lives. My mom would have fallen apart a long time ago if she hadn’t found Opus Dei. And even though part of me wants to strangle the Opus Dei out of her, I know deep down that she would be lost without it.
* Posted in 2009 in my (private) blog. My opinions now differs a bit from this.
