What Is Replacing Religion?

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WHAT is replacing religion?

I wrote a year ago about the topic of religion. It included some of my favorite talks and articles surrounding our current socio-cultural relationship with religion (from all sides) that have inspired me for many years. You can read that post here if you are looking for it.

I know it is perhaps one of our most complicated relationships. Some truly have very negative emotions toward religion. I respect that completely. I harbor some of those myself. Others are defined by their faith. I respect that, too. And as you know, the idea behind these posts is a belief that we can all benefit from thinking about something we don't like. And religion is simply too important to ignore.

In today's rather confusing times, I find myself more and more humble about the north star of life. Is there a higher purpose? Is there a G-d? And if so, what does that mean? What ethical and moral framework are we to align our communities around? Who decides?

Perhaps it is a sign of age and the result of repetitions. I mean, as we get older we have seen and prototyped many beliefs up to this point. And with the benefit of time, we learn to recognize patterns that seem to work. The comfort of both habit and recognition makes us return to trusted and proven paths. Both physically and spiritually.

Politically, there is a saying that goes: "If you are not left when you are young, you don't have a heart, and if you are not right when you are old, you don't have a brain." It makes many laugh. It is, of course, like all sayings –overly simplistic— but also has some kernels of truth to it. At least, to me.

But maybe we need to add a spiritual dimension to the same idea. If you are religious when you are young, you don't have a brain, but if you are not asking bigger questions when you are old, you don't have a soul.

I do believe our current state of political division and confusion stems, at least partially, from the increasing secularization of our world. After all, religion was politics for most of human history. Divine right was tried and true across most cultures. Church and state were one and the same, from ancient Egypt to the Vatican. Separating the two is, and was, nothing short of radical. I suspect we are still feeling the tremors of its aftershock.

The challenge of religious dogma and the allowance of more pluralism, more religious, and non-religious freedoms were of course key ingredients fueling the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason that, broadly speaking, have been the engine of so much progress globally for the past few hundred years.

However, as you may have come to know from these lines over the years, I am prone to sensitivity when it comes to pendulums, binary thinking, and picking one side over the other. It's often a Pyrrhus victory. Obviously, religious practices over thousands of years MUST have been filling important human needs that we are now struggling to replace. And what exactly are we replacing them with? What is taking its place? Government? Social Media? Politics? Consumption? Bitcoin?

At the most fundamental level, any culture is held together by its shared beliefs in a set of common values. And I believe there must be some type of "structure" in deciding to change those beliefs. Otherwise, anarchy sets in. And by structure, I don't mean a king or a dictator, but rather a due process, a set of checks and balances, and most importantly TIME. We cannot replace time-tested principles and values with needs for instant gratification as we almost always will sell out our future for our present.

Euthyphro's dilemma from Plato's dialogue Euthyphro is perhaps the essence of the conversation around religion that has been going on for over 2,000 years. It basically (paraphrased by many) asks the following question:

Do the gods love good action because it is good, or is good action good because it is loved by the gods?

So, this is, to some extent, also the dilemma of our times. Many have ruled out religion completely because so much of what is written is not "good" and doesn't make any sense in our lifetime. Furthermore, so much evil was done in the name of that "good".

But equally true is that so much of what is written is good and has inspired millions of people for thousands of years to live more moral lives. And in the process, rituals, habits, and traditions were designed cleverly to help people live in accordance with those stated values.

Our legal system and the laws themselves also have religious roots, and most of us believe in them, whether we are religious or not. You shall not kill, you shall not steal, treat others as you'd want to be treated yourself, etc.

I was inspired by this sweet story in NYT that got me again thinking about this important topic. Please read it.

I don't have any answers to this. I truly don't. I have many more questions. But upon reflection, I tend to agree with the rabbi who was asked by his congregant how he could still be a believer in any G-d after witnessing so many atrocities. The rabbi said:

"I'd rather be down here with the questions than be up there with the answers".

While we contemplate this, I want to remind myself of both the power and importance of shared beliefs. We can and should make room for better conversations about those beliefs, but we must also respect that most of those beliefs have gotten us very far. And we should be as conscientious in defending and keeping them as we are willing to improve and change them.

By now, I may have confused you as I have myself around this rather heavy topic, but let me leave you with perhaps something more digestible and yet very powerful. The great Kevin Kelly has posted his newest list of unsolicited advice. He has published them on his birthday 3 years in a row. Here are his latest 103 wisdom nuggets. And in case you missed prior ones, they are here and here.

Have a great week!