[Originally quoted by detbuch: "Perhaps there are different types of "magic." There is the magic of the unseen that moves the human spirit, and there is the flim-flam slight of hand magic that tricks us into seeing what is not there."]
Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
And that, sirs, is as good an explanation of how religion works as you are going to see.
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Well . . . no. Different religions and different types of religions "work" in different ways. I am not "religious" in the sense of adhering to a dogmatic faith that celebrates the Creator with formal rituals or remembrances or artifacts or representations. I do have a growing sense, if not a belief, that there is something other than the material world that is "too much with us." My reference to the human spirit is a portion of that "something" or "Creator" which encompasses the mystery of existence and inspires so much beyond the flesh we are bound and heir to. I believe it is that human spirit that motivates us unwittingly to mimic that Creator by crafting our own minor creations, whether art, or technology, or civilizations, or the quest for "truth." I have a fuller understanding of Keats's "beauty is truth, truth beauty--That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know" which so mystified me as a young college freshman.
Though there are flim-flam clerics, there are also true believers. I see true believers in their religion as an expression of spirit and its connection to a Creator. The trappings of religion may seem silly to non-believers, but may be seen as a beautiful human creation to those who do not know how other to connect their spirit to their "unseen" Creator.
But there are other types of "religion." Secular "religions" which replace a supernatural Creator entirely with human creation. Various philosophies and systems of government, for instance. Progressivism is one such philosophical system of government, and one that has specialized in the slight of hand transformation of American government by tricking us into seeing things in our Constitution that are not there. That was the real point of my comments, certainly not about how religion works.