Meditations on Religion and the Question of Which One?

This image and the two short videos popped up in my feeds over the weekend and reminded me of the importance of perspective when it comes to issues of Faith and Human Culture. Raised Roman Catholic, taught by the Jesuits at Loyola Marymount University, experienced in the Jesus and Charismatic Movements of the 1970s and 1980s, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies from Biola University and spent time studying for a Masters in Theology at Fuller Seminary, I have a deep affection for the role that religion played in my teenage and early adult years. I appreciate the struggle and effort I hear when someone tells me that they were saved from their addiction to X, Y and Z and that their faith has made them a better person. I certainly appreciate that more than when someone, convinced of their own superiority and no apparent experience grappling with the ancient questions that have troubled humans for generations, calls those who practice religion “idiots” or worse. I have no issues with people of sincere personal beliefs. It’s when they decide that it’s their duty to make decisions for others, regardless of whether the others share in their experiences or beliefs, that I say, Nope.

This first short video points out the horrendous loss that our species has experienced because someone (and their organization) took it upon themselves to eradicate a whole branch of human learning. The pompous ignorance of assuming that ones own position is the only viable position, especially when grossly uninformed, sadly didn’t end with the priests in Mesoamerica.

The second video points out the difficulty of assuming to know exactly what Biblical verses mean when we are several thousand years and many cultures removed from when the verses were written down. How much different does the story seem when it portrays the notion that humanity is a split being and not one taken from the other. The cultural layers between the actual text, assuming that one even cares about the words on the page, and the assumed interpretations should give one great pause before pretending to know the mind of God. Also, which God?