Religion for the Nonreligious by waitbutwhy
<a href="https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/10/religion-for-the-nonreligious.html" rel="nofollow">https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/10/religion-for-the-nonreligious...</a><p>I was raised in a Christian family, as most Brazilians are, but was never really into it. I don't remember praying after I grew up a bit (10+ years), and even before I was more saying the words than really meaning it.<p>Then my father passed away when I was 12 (he was in his 40s, died of cancer).<p>This led me on a few rabbit roles reading and talking about religion and the great questions of life. As I think many with a more analytical mindset, nothing really felt right, so I ended up being mostly atheist, with a few sparkles of buddhism and cristianity here and there.<p>Later in my 20s, I dated and later married an amazing woman who is a True Believer. She's the daughter of a shaman with a buddhist monk, and has been meditating since she was born.<p>Many more conversations ensued. I explored some of the "alternative" religions, and enjoyed especially the animist ones (Earth, Sun and Moon are pretty close to gods in my mind). I also tried mushrooms, which were amazing on breaking my usual brain paths and allowing me to see from a different perspective.<p>But it still didn't feel right. Again, I was trying to understand religions with an analytical mind, which can only get me so far. I felt I was missing on something big (I still do).<p>The world is too complex to be explained only with rationality and the scientific method, but at the same time explaining things based on dreams and our collective memory didn't seem much better.<p>It was around this time I read the "Religion for the Nonreligious" article.<p>There were no giant breakthroughs, and the text is somewhat reductionist. Still, it was one of the first times I read about religion in a way that really clicked (other times were reading about some parts of buddhism and meditation).<p>One of the things that religion provides to people is structure. The world is too complex, and the nonsensical things happening every day can weigh someone down. Religious people can go on with their days knowing that there's a bigger plan. I think this makes them more resilient to the life challenges that will appear, sooner or later (although this resiliency can disappear quickly, just see at the number of people that blame God after some disaster happen on their lives).<p>This text gave me some structure to think about where I am, where humanity is, and where I want to be. It made the world a little less chaotic, allowing me to see not only the little daily things, but also keep the bigger picture in mind.<p>It gave me some peace of mind and, after all these years since I first read it, I still think about it every week.