[lit-ideas] Re: Comparative religion
- From: "Mirembe Nantongo" <nantongo@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:38:14 +0100
It seems to me that all religions grow away from their cooky origins and
become greater post-inception in proportion to the passion and number of
their adherents thereafter. So while the original circumstances of the
inception of most religions I can think of seem (frankly) nutty and
outrageous, what makes them great is the subsequent passion of human
believers. And yes, the passion of believers includes the waging of ugly
wars (military and non-military) on unbelievers, but also the creation of a
substantial amount of what is beautiful in our world - art, music, poetry in
a technical sense, but also a great part of the tissue of courage and
simplicity and other good things that connect us to each other and make us
believe in ourselves. Religions are human endeavor par excellence. Without
them we would certainly have been spared untold suffering but also, perhaps,
untold beauty. Perhaps I'm just getting old and becoming overly respectful
of others, but it seems to me that non-existent gods can be made to exist
and that, in the end, this is a good rather than a bad thing for us all.
All best, MN
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