If we don’t do religion consciously we will do it unconsciously.
A bold statement, I know! – But one that I believe more and more to be true. We are religious animals, despite the brief interlude of The Enlightenment, Modernism and Post-modernism. We are wired to look for a grand over-arching explanation of the world we experience, and our place in it (a meta-narrative) and within that to belong to a community of fellow believers motivated by a purpose bigger than ourselves.
In the West we are still playing out the Christian legacy of a dualistic battle between good and evil. (Just imagine Hollywood without it!).
Science gives us the ‘What’ and ‘How’ of the universe, but not the ‘Why’ that we crave. This is what makes phenomenon like Q-Anon so dangerous because they fit that void that we are probably not even aware we have.
On the positive side, there are many great and deep thinkers who are aware of this and working towards some solutions: people like John Vervaeke (See his series on YouTube – Awakening from the Meaning Crisis); Jamie Wheal – author of Recapture the Rapture; Ken Wilber (whose books include The Religion of Tomorrow, Integral Spirituality and Integral Meditation).
On a personal note, I’m moving back to Melbourne for a couple of years and will be exploring these ideas through a weekly group I’ll be hosting starting in Feb. Hit me up if you are interested.
