Let’s start with the Oxford Dictionary definition: There are actually three:
- The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods:
- A particular system of faith and worship: as in: the world’s great religions
- A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance
It’s disappointing that a dictionary as revered as the Oxford would place a belief in a superhuman controlling power first.
The word religion was first used in the 13th century. Our friends at the Oxford Dictionary explain that “in Middle English, it originally meant ’life under monastic vows’. The etymology is from Old French, or from Latin religio(n-), meaning ’obligation, bond, reverence’, perhaps based on Latin religare ’to bind’.” (from the online Oxford Dictionary Site).
Now we are getting somewhere.
Religion does not start with a belief in God. Religion doesn’t begin with a creed, be it the one labelled Apostles, or any other Religion doesn’t commence with a book or a building or traditions or rituals. Religion begins with inhaling and exhaling It begins with being alive and looking up at the stars or across the plains or up at the mountains and having a sense of belonging to that vastness, that beauty and grandeur, and acknowledging our tiny, tiny, me-ness at the same time. Religion starts with sitting around the fire, singing or storytelling. The people around the fire are your people, there to protect you and teach you and love you and hold you accountable. You are bound and obligated to them by virtue of sharing the fire, source of heat and light and safety.
Religion begins with a sense that we belong to something or someone, and that we are bound and obligated to this something or someone. Religion helps us to transcend ourselves, to better ourselves, to understand ourselves and others. Religion is that which helps us make meaning of our lives. And our sense of reverence, our sense of morality and our sense of ethics came long before any organized religion was created.
One needn’t subscribe to Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any of the other 100’s of religions in the world to be religious. In writing his essay on the New Secularism, David Brooks makes certain assumptions about religion and secularism that are just wrong.
Let’s take this line: “Religious people are motivated by their love of God and their fervent desire to please Him.” Not necessarily. Many of us here do not believe in a supernatural power and yet, we are motivated to do what is right, to love our brothers and sisters as best as we are able, to give service when we can. Brooks may be right that it is harder to do this when we don’t have centuries of tradition and ritual behind us, but UU’s actually do have centuries of tradition behind us And even those of us who would call themselves secularists live in a country founded on principles examined and refined by the Hebrew prophets, by Jesus, and by the Ancient Greeks Our founding leaders even knew a bit about Native American justice practices. To live in this country is to be the recipient of wisdom traditions of the last 2 millennium. We may not put them as front and center as we should, but that’s on us, not the traditions themselves.
Brooks may have a point when he says that “People who don’t know how to take up these moral burdens don’t turn bad, but they drift. They suffer from a loss of meaning and an unconscious boredom with their own lives.” But this can apply to so called religious people as well.
It is difficult to be a moral person, to do what is right In our consumer culture, where shopping is more important than service, everyone suffers. But the burden of morality is not just for secularists. We all have this burden and there is a wide range of ideas about what morality looks like.
There are conservative Christians who want to murder doctors who wish to provide women education and choice around reproduction. There are all kinds of so called religious people who want any excuse to discriminate against gays and lesbians. I wouldn’t know where to start with ISIS, the fanatical, radical Islamist group. Being a member of an organized religion does not mean one is necessarily more moral than someone who has never attended a religious service. One can be a sociopath and a church deacon at the same time. Organized religion itself doesn’t prevent evil. On the contrary, it has been the cause of so much evil throughout history; it is breathtaking, and heartbreaking.
One of the great things about reading the Brooks piece online is the 100s of comments that are posted. Here are a few remarkable responses to the column:
Charles Packer from Washington DC writes:
“You can turn the whole thing on its head and view religious belief as story humans have been telling themselves to explain why they are moral beings After all, scientific research has shown in recent years that our species sense of the moral has ancient evolutionary roots In other words, morality came way before hominids had the symbolic capacity even to conceive of a god And now that science has uncovered this fact, we don’t need the old story anymore.”Fred from Minnesota writes:
“I am admittedly no religious scholar but, from the reading I’ve done, I understand that religions, in the eyes of many scholars, evolved once humans began to gather into communities and living in communities demanded certain moralities, e.g., prohibition against murder and violence against each other, the rise of something akin to the Golden Rule – looking after other members of the community so that the community as a whole prospered, and so forth In other words, the morality of religions was born from secular impulses Brooks seems to paint the world as black and white – you have coherent, behavior influencing morality that shapes the conduct of the faithful; and incoherent, individualistic assortment of moralities among the non-faithful That seems an ironic conclusion given that religious morality was born out of secular beginnings.”Finally, TGL from Chicago-ish writes:
“Cheers to Mr. Brooks for pointing out the possibility of moral goodness without Godliness while defining the challenges of this path I propose one solution to these challenges – Unitarian Universalism Unitarians have all of the benefits of a more traditional religion without all the dogma We have a moral philosophy which emphasizes the value in all people – of all faiths – and the need to promote practical goodness in the world We have rituals and traditions to give comfort We have community (probably more than most churches because it’s so reliant on congregants to keep it running) We do all of this without the promise of eternal life or the threat of eternal damnation We do it because it’s what should be done, and we can’t do it alone Thank God for Unitarian-Universalism.”
Well said TGL!
As a minister, I am deeply interested in people wanting to join our merry band of seekers, but morality, Sabbath, community and tradition, are not unavailable to secular people. Many unchurched folks are doing social justice work, are finding communities in their work life or through political or recreational affiliations. There are family traditions that have been going on for generations that are just as meaningful, if not more so, than the annual Christmas pageant at your local Methodist church.
As a member of the clergy, I feel a bit guilty saying this but I would rather that someone be unchurched and compassionate all week, than be a mean and self-seeking member of a religious institution. Unitarian Universalists have always put a lot of emphasis on action rather than thought, on behavior rather than belief. I think we have a lot to offer individuals. But reading the news these days, it is clear that a lot of organized religion doesn’t seem terribly helpful in solving the really tremendous problems that face us. How shall all of us live on this small planet without destroying it and each other? Religion should help us to answer this question. Religion should deepen our connections to each other and to our mother earth. Otherwise, you may as well stay home.
It is my fervent hope that more secularists find out about our Faith as our lack of dogma, our emphasis on reason and science, and our positive attitude towards the human race are unique and appealing. But the world may actually improve if fewer people believe in a supernatural power and rather, believe in themselves and their neighbors What is religion? One of my favorite answers comes from the Dalai Lama, exiled leader of Tibet. When asked, “What is your religion?”, he answers with just one word: “Kindness.”
Would that be true for all religions, at all times Amen and Blessed Be.