Peter's Gentle Retrospection.

I've never had much faith in religion.

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, surrounded by the dull, conservative people that make up most of American culture. My parents had me baptized and enrolled in Sunday school, but I never really bought into it.

You can't blame them for trying. Their religious views were traditional throughout my childhood, and they were entirely sincere in their beliefs. They just didn't realize how big the world was outside their little corner of it. The Bible Belt is a funny place like that.

When I left home to attend college, I assumed that my perspective would change and I'd leave behind my sheltered upbringing. In theory, it's not a bad idea; young people go away to school and learn about the wider world, experience all sorts of things they aren't exposed to at home. That's how you're supposed to grow up, right? Well, it didn't quite work out that way for me. I learned about the history of art and literature, but I also learned about the history of science and philosophy. And you know what? Science and philosophy are a lot bigger than Christianity or any other religion. So when people told me to read Nietzsche or Plato or Newton, I found myself wondering why we needed God at all to explain creation or existence itself or morality or anything else. It seemed like there were perfectly good answers provided by science and philosophy without needing to mix God into the equation.

That's when I started thinking about religion as a psychological phenomenon, rather than as a system of belief in some supernatural being with rules that should be followed religiously (no pun intended). Maybe it's more like a kind of motivation that people need to feel good about themselves? Or an outlet for their emotions in an otherwise cold and often harsh world? After all, most religions are thousands of years old: they were established before modern modes of thought were even conceived of! So now we have pastors telling us how to live our lives today based on rules written by ignorant people who didn't understand biology or physics or astronomy or any number of subjects we take for granted today. All those priests who say homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so - seriously? You think God cares about something like that? That's ridiculous! Then you have atheists saying religion is nothing but superstition - which is also ridiculous! Science has its own blind spots, after all; lots of facts don't fit neatly into scientific models because they don't fit neatly into what we think we know about the natural world either. So while the scientific method has proven extremely useful over the centuries, there are many questions where science just doesn't have enough data yet - especially if you're looking at questions relating to quantum physics (which is still very much a theoretical construct) - to tell us much beyond what our limited senses can already perceive.

Maybe God does exist after all? Who knows? If there is one thing religion has taught me though it's this: doubt is healthy! Doubt encourages questioning and skepticism which leads us down paths towards understanding rather than stagnation and ignorance! You can be certain in your beliefs if you want (and I do encourage it!), but don't be afraid to question those beliefs either lest your certainty turn into close-mindedness or arrogance! Besides, what would be the point of life without a little mystery in your worldview? Isn't that what makes life worth living anyway? Seriously; whether you're religious or not: *don't be boring*!