Religion and belief<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A religious feeling is, well, a feeling. And It’s religious. So far, so good. It can be a wonderful, poetic feeling. To me, ‘religion’ is about this feeling. [see: “The Religious Feeling<\/a>“]<\/p>\n\n\n\n A ‘belief’ is quite different and, in my terminology, always conceptual. One can believe that a particular book holds the truth, for instance. This can go together with a religious belief, but not necessarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nor vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different people have different books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everybody knows that. Yet most people \u2013 including believers \u2013 act as if this is not so very important. Of course, ‘others’ have another book \u2015 “how silly of them!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s an open door: The ones who say so are the others of the others. So, logically, as much as their belief is conceptual, most believers believe in the wrong conceptuality. One question remains: Is it the others or the others of the others, or all of them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, through the open door, we enter a desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, why respect each belief?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember, as a kid, having had intense religious experiences. At the age of ten, still knowing what I was reading back then, I was beyond it, with certainty. Going to church was OK as a kind of Sunday habit, looking at people with wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet I could savor their belief. I knew and still know what it’s like to have the certainty of faith. It’s easy and gratifying, all right. But it’s more. It’s like living inside a poem day in day out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s about knowing that life has meaning, without needing to give it much further thought. You are there. God is there. Life is there. The universe is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are no boundaries. Life is eternally long. God is infinitely good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I look at believers, and I can only respect their belief<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n if it’s genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still hope they don’t need it anymore one day because it makes them vulnerable. For instance, a populist manipulates it ad libitum. In this worst case, the main difference with others is another populist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the belief is to be respected. Through respect, it can be deepened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through respect, it can be valued as a beautiful poem. What is worth more? What is more to be respected?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you say ‘no,’ you close the door. If you say ‘yes’, the door spontaneously opens. No other charm is needed. ‘Yes’ is enough<\/p>\n\n\n\n if it’s genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then people find out for themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s the only way. It should be OK for anyone. The belief is the door. The desert behind is Emptiness. [see: “Emptiness!<\/a>“]<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can go there, yet we are still far from there. Adherents of different beliefs still aggressively fight each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did we get in this mess?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The world gets smaller. Technology makes everything more complex, thus also more potentially energetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, we don’t get a hold of who we truly are as a species. We don’t realize the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That way, we do not understand ourselves, nor do we understand each other. We don’t understand very well how, in this peculiar brain of ours, religion came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an understanding would certainly help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet we don’t need it to be there.<\/p>\n