I read a piece recently on future trends, one of which was the reported demise of organized religion and the rise of spirituality. At first blush I felt kind of sorry for all those churches and temples and mosques and cathedrals and their associated personnel. I mean, what's going to happen with all that real estate? Can a minister or rabbi draw unemployment? Every once in a while you'll see a church building abandoned and for sale. Or an old church converted to another use-- like a bar or a daycare. It never quite seems right to me. And every once in a while you'll meet someone who used to be a holyman but is now a teacher, businessman or convict.
On second thought, however, this may be just what we need. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will stop looking to their religion to decide how to vote. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will stop looking to their religion to find inspiration to blowup themselves along with other people. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will stop looking to their religion to decide what is a proper union of two people. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will stop looking to their religion to decide what rights a person should have on the basis of gender. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will stop minding everyone else's business.
Instead, maybe this means the day is coming when people will start looking honestly within themselves rather than critically at others. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will start looking to build-up rather than tear down. Maybe this means the day is coming when people will start to see themselves as part of a global whole rather than a sectarian part.
If the prediction holds true, that spirituality will trump religion, imagine the day- probably a hundred years from now- when spirituality has evolved to the place where it was all those hundreds of years in the past. A time when savage tribes roamed the plains of North America. A time when humans realized that the Great Spirit encompassed all and required harmony: The recognition that humans are only one small piece in a complex system that is life on this planet. That plants and animals, humans, water, and all resources have a place and relationship that must be respected and preserved. That God was a spirit with a presence woven into every fiber of the fabric of life-- liberated, not held hostage to the shortsighted expectations of an organized body claiming exclusive rights.
On further consideration, that does seem improbable now, doesn't it?
It's good to dream.
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