Where does God fit in?
Doctor Bob has put the question of religion in life, and politics so well in his blog
The Doctor Is In » Faith & Religion that everyone interested in a common sense approach should read his comments. It seems everyone has something to say whether it be positive or negative, slanderous, hurtful and even exasperatingly stupid that when I happen onto the thoughts of a rational human being I just have to link to it. For some very insightful thoughts read on:
"But what is religion, really? If you view it as smells and bells, hymns and hypocrisy, rules and restrictions, churches and chastity belts, then yes–there are many who are not religious, who shun and oppose it–rather rationally in fact. But if you view religion rather as a worldview, as a set of beliefs about who we are, why we are here, our relation to the physical and the spiritual (or the immaterial, the soul, the life-force, the unseen, if you prefer–and if you believe such exists)–in other words, the meaning of life–then religion becomes a far broader thing, universal in scope, for we all have beliefs and opinions about such things. And these opinions mold and motivate how we act. So in a sense, we are all religious.
You define your liberalism as the freedom to hold opinions and your dislike of having others force their opinions on you, if I paraphrase you correctly. Do you read the newspapers? TV news? blogs? Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Sports Illustrated, People magazine, Cosmopolitan? They all force their opinions on all of us, although force is perhaps too strong a word–persuasion, overt or occult, is more accurate. They all hope to change the way you think about yourself, others, and the world around you–that’s exactly why we read and listen to them. You personally do the same, when you share the best cookie recipe ever, or how awful that movie was last night–you are attempting to influence someone else, to change the way they think or act. Religion (narrowly defined) is in reality just one more worldview, one more opinion attempting to influence how you think, how you perceive, how
