A Human Enterprise

I have struggled for a while now, looking for the best way to express what i feel about religion.

PZ Myers here did a wonderful job.

We turn to religion when sad, when happy, when angry. After all, there is something almost transcendent about emotions. It is inexplicable yet so very strong. Everyone has it. Most people must have, at some point, wondered if all our memories and our emotions, our utter sense of self will be preserved when we die. When that happens, however, we run into a blank wall. Its easy enough to imagine ourselves in someone elses shoes when they are angry, or when they are happy, or sad. Its at the root of empathy to put ourselves in others positions. But how do we empathize with someone who has died? How does it feel like to be dead? Though the body is dead, we have memories of their minds. I think we can't help but think that their personalities have ended up somewhere else. Thus religion is born.

Since we project our very sense of self into the afterlife, religion takes on a very personal meaning. It embodies our most optimistic hopes, and our most gruesome fears. Most people don't see religion as a cultural artifact. Religion is literally a part of them, the lifeline to immortality. A religion that comprises a large amount of people reflects the attitudes of that particular society.

Taken as a whole, religion itself becomes a blank canvas for the human psyche. Our most touching dreams, our greatest hopes, our darkest deeds, all reflected upon this entity known as religion. Wantonly, we splay ourselves unto this medium, laying unto it our subconscious desires (and not so subconcious ones). Instead of transcendence, it is belies a foundation that is so human, so down to earth. It really is just us, hoping for the best.

Parting words:

Religion is the greatest human enterprise. Like anything truly human, it is capable of the greatest deeds but also the most abominable horrors. Let that be a lesson.