Religious Literacy
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Religions tell three big stories: how and when the universe began and how and when it will end (cosmology), how to live (morality), and how we the enlightened came to acquire this knowledge.
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All great religions have the same common ethical core – a message of gratitude (piety, obedience, humility, renunciation) and kindness (mercy, love). |
All great religions acknowledge the difficulty of living according to these principles in the face of bad luck, the unkindness of others, and our own negative emotions. |
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All great religions offer a recipe for a discipline which should minimize deviations from the narrow path of gratitude and kindness
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RELIGION:
The Big Picture
A medieval set of answers to ultimate questions, a corrupt set of institutions bent on survival and expansion, a bunch of good people doing good things,
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These disciplines incorporate prayer at many times during the day as well as a regular calendar of collective ritual events. |
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All religions have historically been a barrier to scientific and economic progress as the priestly class has sought to prevent the rise of competing castes.
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There is no power more absolute than that of power over the souls of men. As all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the historical consequences have been dire.
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Separation of church and state and freedom of religion are critical to freedom of speech and human progress. But some sort of secular equivalent of religion must exist to answer all the ultimate questions of morality, cosmology, and history.
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