It seems that the United States slowly are opting to cast off the chains of fundamentalist religion.
It is encouraging to read
The incoming class at Harvard University has a higher number of agnostic and atheist students than students who identify as Protestant or Catholic. This unprecedented event is being seen by some as a sign of progressive social change.Just for the record: I don't personally regard religion by itself as something bad. But I am highly critical of fundamentalism and unconditional faith in Scriptures. It is impossible to properly cover that subject in a blog post, but without being a scriptural scholar myself, I have read enouh scholarly treatment of Scriptures to understand what they are and to see them in the light of an educated and rational mind.
One thing religions are good for, is warfare. We find lots of that in the Bible, and AFAIK, Muhammed was celebrated as a great warrior. Funny enough, the German Nazi Army had "Gott Mit Uns" (God With Us) on their belt buckles.
There is a mystery in our soul. Religion at its best is an attempt at coming to grips with that mystery. Depth Psychology, pioneered by Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and several others, to some extent resolved the mystery, making access to the 'subconscious' (It migh perhaps be more appropriate to call it the "superconscious") possible. The method was understanding the language of the subconscious. That language is a language of symbols. The soul speaks in symbols! That's why Ernst Cassirer nicknamed man "the symbol animal". Something I'd like to read is his Language Myth
Interpreation of dreams reveal our inner thoughts, thinking and thoughts that our conscious mind is unaware of.
That subconscious is what has led to the idea of a God. There he is . In the minds of all of us, that same 'institutution' that watch our every thought, our internal dialogue, and our deeds and activities. He (or better it, (is that the ID Freud speculated about? 65 years since I read Freud) is what to us may resemble something holy, to be revered, divinity.
This article is not finished yet but I hope to get back to it soon. Urgent business to take care of right now,
