Scattered thoughts
The errands pile up and get dealt with: buying clothes, taking my violin to the shop to get a new bridge (the old one being completely warped by a year of Alabamian humidity), ordering a new credit card (they didn't automatically replace my old one because I spent too little money on it, can you believe!), going through a stack of mail, finally getting my super-long jeans taken up. Punctuated by some very nice eating and friend-seeing - St John Bread and Wine, Kulu Kulu sushi - and a long and interesting conversation about the nature of religion with a visiting fellow-blogger in Bar Italia to the background of the Inter-Rangers game. The conversation originated from, of all things, talking about the Internet: the parallel being the interconnectedness of everything made apparent by the linking world of the web, and that this is, of course, what religion is all about as well, at least if you are into mystical Kabbalah. So apparently I can forget about all the God stuff and still be 'religious', or something, because God is just a metaphor for the world/order/chaos/fate. Hooray! I'm back to church on Sunday, then.
But to be less flippant, I absolutely agree that for me, the essence of religious teachings from almost every religion is metaphorical not literal, and about the understanding, ordering and connecting together of the world around us - the linking of cause and effect in a way that is analogous to chaos theory, the understanding of the relativity yet importance of moral actions, teaching humanity, kindness, humility as opposed to the fallacy of 'absolute' knowledge or 'truth' and so forth. And, as I wrote the other day, I enjoy the ritual of church (or synagogue, or mosque) and glimpse of the ephemeral and 'other' that such a moment of silence and concentration allows me.
But still I struggle with the 'God stuff' in its historical and contemporary manifestations. While for me personally that's fine, but in terms of my understanding of 'religions' in the world at large - conflicts over dogma, let alone wars and crusades - I can't understand why, if this metaphorical conception of 'God' and the religious texts is so damn obvious to the two of us sitting in a cafe in Soho, the mainstream religious leaders, who must be infinitely better read, knowledgable and wise than us, can't also broadcast this message to their warring flocks.
But to be less flippant, I absolutely agree that for me, the essence of religious teachings from almost every religion is metaphorical not literal, and about the understanding, ordering and connecting together of the world around us - the linking of cause and effect in a way that is analogous to chaos theory, the understanding of the relativity yet importance of moral actions, teaching humanity, kindness, humility as opposed to the fallacy of 'absolute' knowledge or 'truth' and so forth. And, as I wrote the other day, I enjoy the ritual of church (or synagogue, or mosque) and glimpse of the ephemeral and 'other' that such a moment of silence and concentration allows me.
But still I struggle with the 'God stuff' in its historical and contemporary manifestations. While for me personally that's fine, but in terms of my understanding of 'religions' in the world at large - conflicts over dogma, let alone wars and crusades - I can't understand why, if this metaphorical conception of 'God' and the religious texts is so damn obvious to the two of us sitting in a cafe in Soho, the mainstream religious leaders, who must be infinitely better read, knowledgable and wise than us, can't also broadcast this message to their warring flocks.
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