Heaven and Hell
Travel destinations worth having a chat about.
As an agnostic, the role God has played in my life has been rather minimal.
My stance is if he exists, he exists. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. While many people who are not religious tend to get discouraged in the face of the religious majority (“you haven’t found the path yet, my friend”), I’m beginning to understand their onslaughts of evangelism.
The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz once wrote, “Religion is never merely metaphysics.” Meaning, it’s never just something that we are born with. To exist, a religion requires symbols, traditions, and sources; in other words, its own language. It is only through this language of a religion that one is socialised into a belief, thus becoming a believer.
To be antisocial is to not believe. To not believe is to be unreligious.
I believe in a great many things.
I believe that if I step off the roof of a building, I will fall. I believe that if I place myself horizontally on a flat surface, I will eventually fall asleep. I believe that if there is water on my fingers and I touch an electrical socket, I will be electrocuted. Do my beliefs make me religious?
Yes, if you count the natural sciences as a type of religion. A religion without God — but isn’t planet Earth the god of the religion of natural science? I know — or at least, I believe — that gravity exists, but I don’t understand how the law — because every religion must have laws — of gravity truly works.
I know that going to bed with the lights on would probably prevent me from having a good night’s rest, but I don’t completely understand the role of melatonin in that whole process. When I turn off the lights before I go to sleep, I am making an assumption based on personal experience. I fall asleep easier, better, faster — normally — when the lights are off.
I believe in this norm. Because it works for me. This is how I try to empathise, to put myself in the shoes of someone religious, to see things differently.
What is wrong and what is right? It all depends, doesn’t it? My version of right could be your version of wrong. For us to reach a consensus and come up with a solution, we have to have a conversation.
Talk. Be social. Be religious. Believe.
