A Religious Problem

Nothing more thoroughly robs a good story of its truth than the elevation of fact over wisdom. I regularly lament to myself all of the harm that humanity has visited upon itself because people have tried to manufacture truth by twisting metaphor into fact instead of searching for the truth that the metaphor already contained.

That is how I view the history of religion. Dissatisfied with the mystery that could allow for an infinite array of individualized relationships with the spiritual or divine, we have sought to manipulate all collective wisdom and insight into an objective reality that suits our own particular place and time. And we seek comfort in a god made in our image, and soothe our own insecurities by violently bending others to our will.

So a story rich in wisdom and truth has to become scripture to elevate it over someone else’s story. Then it has to become fact so we are released from the life-giving tension of uncertainty and so we may justify our self-righteousness. Then we build new stories on these “facts” which by their nature can, at most, be the vague reflections of truth. And then, over generations, we see those stories born of expedience and ego, now a pale copy of anything resembling wisdom or truth, as the unassailable constitution that justifies living in fear and contempt.

That is how we have turned every culture’s greatest love stories between the human and the divine into the distorted reflection of our own worst instincts and see no irony in championing the notion that god demands hate.

This horrific human cycle that seems nearly as old as humanity itself can be broken if we muster the courage to honor our own story and the stories of others without searching for “the” story to protect our frailty. And we must accept that truth is revealed in love and not the product of our own reason. Perhaps then, religion can provide a positive connection between us and something greater than us rather than a sharp blade that disconnects us from truth, each other, and fullness of what it can mean to be human.