Are you religious?

Article in Stretton Focus, May 2013

For some there would be a quick answer to that question. They would say Yes or No without hesitation. But many people would want to step back from the question and give it some thought.
By definition, a religious person is someone who is attached to a religion. But we don’t live by definitions, and people can be attached to a religion in different ways.
They can be loosely attached, or even fanatically attached. Those who are loosely attached to one religion would probably allow others to belong to a different religion. They would not feel threatened by them, or have any desire to convert them to their own religion.
Those who are firmly attached to their religion may well believe that other religions are deficient in some way, and that it would be better if they converted and joined the ‘true’ religion.
Those who are fanatically attached to their religion will hold that unbelievers (possibly categorized as heretics or infidels) are destined to spend eternity suffering the punishment of God’s wrath (while they themselves, of course, are enjoying the pleasures of heaven).
Surely the time is ripe for a world-wide reformation of all religion. In an evolving universe everything changes, and religions need to wake up to that fact. Such a reformation would involve looking deeper than any Creeds and Scriptures, to find what lies at the heart of the religious quest.
Ways would be found of looking deeper into our humanity, and we should not be surprised to discover that the true nature of God is a peace-loving concern for the wellbeing of this world, and of everybody living in it.
And then it won’t matter whether you call yourself religious or not.

Donald Horsfield

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