tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2387364747787467184.post3719863368893936314..comments2022-05-09T23:09:48.915-07:00Comments on Esto Es Perú: Spain Entry #3 ToledoAmy Royse Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13622924358759529559noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2387364747787467184.post-59566521661941034962013-05-07T11:17:52.763-07:002013-05-07T11:17:52.763-07:00As you look at all the wonders of religious histor...As you look at all the wonders of religious history, think of the religions as ways of life that beckon to you, as they do to everyone. The magnificence, the mysterious, the awesome. It all tends to make one feel somewhat small and insignificant. Religions offer answers, comfort, belonging, identity, power but there is something to keep in mind in the face of all the allure. Human beings are a product of unimaginable lengths of time...time beyond our ability to comprehend...not just tens of thousands of years (far longer than any religion has existed) but hundreds of millions and billions of years in the face of which any religion is a speck.<br /><br />You as a human being are the result of these billions of years of evolution - you are the magnificent product of a process that literally goes back to the dawn of time. You are the result of countless acts of trial and error that have resulted in the body and senses you possess. You are the best answer to the earthly environment that eons of time have come up with but you only have 100 years or so to enjoy yourself, to experience and live with this incredible gift of your body.<br /><br />Time gives you yourself, but it doesn't give you answers. It has given you great capability - your brain - but no instruction manual. It leaves you standing alone to make what you can of the world around you. It won't comfort you, it won't tell you how to live, it certainly does not offer you eternal life.<br /><br />But keep in mind that no rabbi, no saint, no Jesus, no Mohammed has had any advantage over you in this - you are the equal of any of them in facing existence. Their opinions are no more valuable than your own in regard to existential questions, questions that cannot be and never will be definitively answered.<br /><br />There is no comparison between you, a human being, and all the collected grand works of religion. You and I and every individual living person put all such works deeply into the shade.<br /><br />Realize your position - master of your life but at the same time anxious, uncertain, tremulous in the face of the immensity of the universe. This goes with the territory and can't be avoided.<br /><br />Take on the challenge gladly, put all religions aside and take up what is necessary for a full and wonderful life without any of them - courage in the acceptance of mortality; facing the facts of life - that you will die and be no more but that in the meantime all experience is open to you. Your mind is the jewel of your existence so open it wide, but be skeptical, using it for the reasoning it allows you. You can't know everything and nobody ever will, but you can protect yourself against mythology, which is the basis of religion. Enjoy the wonders that the Spanish religious sites provide but keep them in their proper place as insignificant in relation to you yourself, suitable for the ancients who lived in fear and without the knowledge of reality that reason has gained for us. Enjoy the hush of the cathedral but be eager to step outside to the world that you are fully equipped to live in with the courage you must make up your mind to use.Clif Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17561437041148734569noreply@blogger.com