A few weeks ago I watched The Invention of Lying. It’s a very silly movie about how no one can lie…right up until the hero of the movie discovers he can and turns the world upside down.
Since no one can talk about something that isn’t, religions were never created.
Because you have no scientific proof to back it up, how can you talk about the existence of any kind of holy deity?
Can you imagine a world where religions were never invented? No Crusades, no Holocaust, no Jihad…all because no one culture has the capacity to invent reasons why they are closer to divinity than others…the word DIVINE never came to be.
You’d think this fictional world would be a utopia of sorts…but then the movie addresses death…and since no one has even thought about Heaven, or even Hell, the hero’s dying mother is frightened because she believes that after she dies there is NOTHING.
Regardless of anyone’s religious beliefs, I have to wonder if religion was partly invented so that we could deal with death. The thought of just living on this planet, dying, and then ceasing to exist completely while our body decomposes is a TERRIFYING thought.
Many years ago, a lovely friend of mine lost her three month old baby to meningitis. Every time I thought about the unfairness of this child’s death, I reminded myself of what the priest said, “The only thing she ever knew was love.”
I repeat those words to myself every once in awhile when I think about death. I think about losing a loved one suddenly, or having to watch a loved one die a slow painful death. And all I can think is that I hope that person knows how much he or she is loved.
I don’t know what happens after we die. I have a few theories all based on hope, faith, and a few borrowed tidbits of religions from around the world. But despite not having any proof that there is indeed life after death, despite thinking that the world might indeed be a better place without religion, I do know it took a religious man to help me realize that during my lifetime, I was, have, and will be loved.
And this gives me faith.
Amen.
