But now that we have explanations, why do we do it? Andy -----Original Message----- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx Sent: Nov 4, 2004 9:19 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Bizarre Faith If there aren't religions to choose from, people develope them. A way of explaining the mysterious and frightening. Religion, I think, is our attempt to tell ourselves a story to make sense out of things, like a Mother tells her child a story at night wherein the bad guys lose and the good guys win, to help the child to feel all will be well. A kid's plea for a story at night comes from the same place in us that desires explanations for death and pain and everything else we grapple with that's bigger than us. If there's no .... rhyme or reason, system, set of rules or way we can appease the powers or attempt to sway them.... we are too loosely flung in the universe. We psychologically need a tether. We are powerless over certain things -- natural disaster, disease, death. If there can be some power greater than us that *does* have power over what we are powerless over, we want to know about it and petition aid or attempt to sway the forces that be in our interests. I love the way two books approach this -- Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" and "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science & the Biology of Belief" by Newberg & D'Aquili (I've mentioned it here before, but don't know if anyone else here has read it -- I thought it quite fascinating). Julie Krueger inbetween tethers ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Bizarre Faith Date: 11/4/04 10:12:30 AM Central Standard Time From: _pas@xxxxxxxxx (mailto:pas@xxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: Can anyone tell me WHY they are religious? Other than: "I was taught to be" Really wanting to know why ANYONE would "choose" religion. Paul ########## Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Kingsville, ON, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html