No Religion Here
No one needs religion to be happy IF they have created within themselves a set of values that serves the whole and harms no one.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, an author and astrophysicist, in a recent Facebook post, asked the question: “If you could uninvent something, what would that be?” The initial reaction of many was: Religion. They would uninvent religion. Wow. This opinion about how religion needs to go is not new, but I must say that I was quite taken by the overwhelming responses for casting religion from our lives.
Let’s go with this idea and play it out. If there were no religion what if anything would we miss. In my opinion, we would miss the community, taking time for sabbath, meeting friends, finding support, and the experience of everyone focusing their attention to a possibility that lifts, inspires and carries us when we can’t carry ourselves, but doing it together.
How has religion ruined these things for the masses? Here are a few things to consider. They added sin and punishment perpetrated upon by the few and the saintly. They created the impression and the appearance that only a few are called, only few are anointed to stand in the front of the room, only few have what it takes to dole out wisdom and moral assessments and have the ability to judge righteously.
Can we separate out the superstitious part of religion, the judgment, sin and retribution, and keep the parts that are valuable? I say yes! Yes, we can cast out our attachment to what religion looks like, keep the qualities that we go for and recreate communities who are here to celebrate together. What would I keep? I would keep the part of stimulating ones thinking by encouraging engagement to open the mind and the heart to new ideas, ideas that once practiced become that which elevates us.
There are many reasons individuals come to New Thought communities including: Centers for Spiritual Living, Unity, Divine Science, and other independent New Thought communities. They come because they are in pain, they have just divorced, they are experiencing rejection from their families because they choose to be different, health is poor, finances are in the crapper, and for many, they no longer resonate with the religion they were born into.
What do we New Thought Communities offer that might be missing? Sin without punishment from the outside world. A sense of hope and possibility. We offer optimism that stimulates our faith that life can work on our behalf. A profound relationship to the totality of the universe because we teach that we are one with all of it, and this leads us to believe that there is no private good. Your pain and mine are entwined, while your good and mine are also entwined.
Can we cast out the current form, the edifices, the expectations of service, the sense of obligation to earn our way into a heaven that doesn’t exist? Yes, yes we can as long as we continue to have powerful healthy conversations, to gather, to question, and to provide experiences that capture our attention to draw it away from what’s not working, to what is possible.
* Image by Robert Hund
