Years ago, I used to be a regular lecturer in a comparative religions class. While it was impressive to see these students analyse that study the various tenants of the world’s major religions, I frequently reminded them that religion cannot be understood through the mind, but through the mind and the heart. For any religion to make sense in one’s life, it must be experienced. If it is a narrative of faith, religion is more poetry than prose. It is like saying you have experienced a country our culture by reading about it. Until you visit and immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and smells; until you speak with the people that call it home; it makes very little sense.
People often turn to religion to help them understand the world, but that is not the role of religion – not how, but why. Science cannot answer questions of purpose – it is not designed to. This is how science and religion compliment each other. One offers an explanation of how and the other why.
At the same time, many people still believe that it would be better if religion was a private practice, but the problem with people wanting religious practice to be private is that religious ignorance is always very public. Practice is how we overcome ignorance. At the very least, what is needed is knowledge and experience of religion; if not belief.
My own image of religion is a mountain range, after all mountains frequently symbolize the place where the human and the divine meet. In the beginning, we aspired for the highest plateau on which we could all coexist. So that we could all share our experience, we removed the peaks of the mountain range. It was a good beginning, but it robbed religion of its beauty. Today, it is no longer necessary to coexist in the same place; rather we know each other as we each ascend to our own summits so that when you look across the horizon, the various religious of the world bring about greater beauty because of the diversity they bring within the unity of the landscape.
With this renewed understanding, we see the point of religion is to draw us God, as well as together – to a common origin – to an original goodness. In fact the word, religiere literally means “to tie back to”. Religion is first about belonging, and then about believing. That regardless of its particulars, religion is actually more concerned with the community than the individual. Its tenants and rubrics are designed to hold us accountable to what we say we believe.
But perhaps religion can be more complex than we have allowed it to be? Perhaps religion is capable of holding mercy with judgement; individuality with diversity; adherence with forgiveness; and so on. Our religious traditions are not perfect, but I deeply appreciate that they remind me that I am not my own savior, nor the savior of anyone else. I need that discipline and that structure.
In the end, my own relationship with religion is complicated and anything but linear; but I can see a common thread that allows me to look backwards with understanding; and forward, with trust. My life is part of a much larger narrative; and in a world with so many feeling so deeply isolated, I am grateful for this.