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I’m referring to that special something that dwells within each person, that sets us apart from the lower forms of life. As I commented earlier, God has taken a beating in this country over the last few generations. The more we learn about our world and the Universe around us the less magical and mysterious the small miracles of life become.
Has technology and science elevated our thinking to a point where we, as a species, have outgrown the concept of a Supreme Deity or even an appreciation that there may be something greater than man out in the Cosmos? Has religion become archaic in our hustle and bustle society and are we as a species no longer “Spiritual” in nature? I often wonder about these issues as I watch my wife go off to Church on Sunday morning and I stay at home. I see our children wandering further and further from a “Religious” path and seeking out their own truths outside of religion. It’s literally a battle for my wife to get them to Church on Sunday, and I refuse to set foot inside a Catholic Church for several reasons that don’t need to be hashed out in a column.
My son has decided NOT to get confirmed. His colorful metaphors used to describe the Catholic Church and the “Faith” was R rated to say the least. But I wondered; what turned him so vehemently against religion and faith. Was it me; as my spouse implied or was it something else? Tom and I had an illuminating discussion on this topic and I found his insights remarkable in their complexity and reasoning.
1. How can some Priest claim that there is no other life in the Universe? <>, we can’t even get to Mars, but some pompous dude is going to claim that he knows it all and nothing exists anywhere in the entire Universe except here. (I confess, he got this one from me a few years ago. . minus the metaphor. I was surprised that it stuck)
2. How come they can’t explain Darwin’s theory of evolution, why can’t they explain Primitive Man, why can’t they explain the Jurassic period? < >
3. Why is every answer simply “You have to have faith? ” What kind of a crock is that?
There were some other valid issues, but I think the validity of his argument was well made with points one through three. I found it surprising that the years of Sunday school and CCD never addressed these issues, or failed to address them with any real foundation of explanation. My wife was right about one thing though; what had turned me away from organized religion. . The Catholic Church had done the same think to my son. I guess the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree with this lad. Now my wife and my Mother-In-Law are Rosary praying, Novena saying diehard religious people. I was at one time too until I had my “Epiphany”. My kids have seen more statues and prayer books and religious items between their Grandmother’s house and our house than exist in most churches. My daughter commented that “Grammy’s house is creepy, there’s all this religious stuff everywhere. ”
Bottom line, they both have had a religion force fed down their throats and never received any real explanation of their supposed faith, just a beating of a belief without any real explanation of why they should believe, short of the eternal damnation. Is this the fault of the Church? Or is it the fault of the parent? Probably both, in my humble opinion. But this all gets back to my original train of thought; my children are the products of a technological age; computers, cell phones, the internet and video games etc. Technology has a huge part in their lives, more so than in any other generation in human history. Has this technology and desire for more technology dampened the spiritual part of their being. Can nothing be accepted on faith anymore? Must there be a need for explanations and concrete proof of claims? I think for this generation, yes, the old school religious teachings fall upon deaf ears. Technology is a hard science; there are facts and reasons for everything in the technological world. There are marvels such as the internet where nearly anything can be researched and discovered at the simple click of a mouse button. In the generations before, never has such a wealth of technology and information been available. The science of technology is fast supplanting the superstitious faith based theology. The biblical stories that have no real grounds in scientific fact are falling away to a more savvy sophisticated audience. I say this with no malicious degrading of the biblical stories that make up parts of theology nor do I cast any dispersion on faith or spirituality. I simply examine the role they take, or don’t take, in a technologically based society
Kids today are a lot wordlier than their predecessors. More relevant information, both good and bad, is available in more places than ever before. I fear as we become more technological and computer oriented, we become more skeptical and cynical at concepts and ideas that we, as a people cannot see and/or grasp. Does this make up better as a whole or less? That’s up to each individual to assess. Spirituality, or the lack of it, is not just a religious issue, it’s the ability to conceive and appreciate the simple beauty that exists in the simpler things of life, such as a sunset, a raindrop or the geometrical marvel of a snowflake without breaking it down into cold hard facts and equations as the technological part of our mind demands.
Technology has matured us as a society and dispelled many myths held as facts for centuries; the world is not flat, the Earth is not the center of the solar system, life evolves and changes and there are things beyond our galaxy etc. Technology has opened the door to more questions than it has been able to solve in mankind’s short reign on this planet. Will our advancing technology outpace our morality and sense of right and wrong as we progress forward as a people? Will our spirituality survive in the increasingly technological world of cold hard facts and equations, or will spirituality, in the form of religion and faith become extinct and fall before the technological icons of a new generation?
I sincerely hope not. Belief in a greater power in the Universe is something I hope never becomes extinct. I hope Man, as a species, never becomes so arrogant in his technological marvels that he sees himself in the role of God; making and destroying life by a humanistic moral code. I still like to look up at the heavens and believe that there is life out there, somewhere, races of beings struggling with the same ideas and concepts that we as a species are experiencing. I hope that one day we do make contact with other life, and that in doing so we find the seeds of Brotherhood out there in the stars, as I believe that this great experiment has been tried elsewhere. The Universe is too vast a place with too many galaxies and stars for Man to be the “Be all and end all”. Don’t ask me to explain my reasoning for I can’t. I just take it on faith.
Nuff said.
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