What Might Replace Religion


A physician with a lifetime of treating, studying and dealing with people's minds believes religion as we have known it is on the way out. He scoffs, however, with the notion atheism can replace it. Humans need something which religion has fulfilled. Atheism is not a replacement, he says. 

He has observed cultures and their various religions have given humans a way to deal with questions that otherwise do not have answers. There is a need to "know" where we came from. He makes an interesting observation that humans have had a need to see the world as through "us versus them" eyes. Religions and cultures have instructed humans who "we" are and who those "them" are.

His argument is that the human experience up to this point in time has been that cultures and imaginary gods have filled the need for an over-arching "parent" that instructs and guides. However, this period in the maturity of human experience has come to an end he believes. The transition to something to replace religion gets a little vague, however. This is understandable because all we have known is what we have experienced, belief or atheism. 

The next level of human maturity, he writes, will be recognition about the wide variety of humans. He uses the metaphor of looking at an open box of crayons from a distance. Accepting this variety does not mean the absence of a spiritual dimension. Perhaps there will be as many spiritual dimensions as there are colors of crayons. Yet, each dimension will be defended by the holder but not in the hostile way of current religions. Instead differences will be seen as less distinct.  

I have not seen the book by the link author. Maybe he covers my criticism there but does not go into it in the attached article. From what he discusses in the article, his idea sounds much like the history of religion in all humanity. What he suggests will replace "religion" sounds a lot like paganism. And the many gods of paganism sound like the many saints of Catholicism or gods of Hinduism.

The box of crayons metaphor fits not only the link author's post religion world but, to me at least, also the entire religious experience of humans. If he is suggesting a post religious world will have fewer wars over gods, however, that will be a good thing.  

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