coexist

Religion: What’s in it for the Non-Religious?

As an agnostic atheist, I often get asked why in the world I am a religion minor, or why I even like religion at all. Just as often, when reading religious news stories I see comments suggesting we would all be better off without any religions at all.

To begin, let’s approach the first (and far more simple) question: why do I like religion, enough so that I’m minoring in it?

If you’ve read my post “Actually Coming Out as Agnostic” (and if you haven’t, check it out), you already know that I’ve been steeped in Christianity my entire life. When that aspect of my life began changing drastically, I wanted to know why. In the process of finding out, I learned about many other religions in depth, and was forced (literally by homework assignments) to find similarities and discuss differences between them all. Through all of this comparing and contrasting, I was exposed to new ideas and practices; essentially an endless supply of “why” and “what if” questions. As someone who had a lot of questions, the whole institution became more intriguing every day. Because there is no limit to the questions that can be asked about religion (and virtually no answers due to my own beliefs), it seemed a perfect fit for me. Plus, I just found other traditions so beautiful.

Now, why we as a society (and a global population, really) need religion, even if we’re non-religious? The simple, but not all-inclusive answer would be hope. As a non-religious individual the concept of interfaith is very hopeful to me. Just because someone’s beliefs are different from yours, they contribute to whatever makes us human. Like a quote of Maya Angelou’s, “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color”. It’s probable that Maya Angelou was talking about race, but in reality, this applies to pretty much everything, especially religion, I think. While you can live your life apart from the religious (or from the non-religious if you’re a theist) because they’re “just a little too different”, they’ve generally got a lot to offer you, if you only take a minute to listen.

So God and the God Particle walk into a bar…

Apparently, scientists have officially proven the existence of the God Particle, or in laymen terms for people like myself, “the thing that makes atoms that make everything in the universe”.

There’s a lot of debate over this, some of which can be seen in the article I read linked below, concerning those who are adamant that this discovery makes no difference in their faith, some who claim that the scientists must believe that God created the particle just because they named it the God Particle, people who think this proves atheists wrong, those who aren’t sure what to think anymore, and those who believe they have proved all theists wrong for good.

Clearly, it’s not that simple.

Can religion and scientist really coexist? Which do you believe is the truth? Are any of you on the fence? What do you think this discovery really means for science, for religion? Let me hear it.

http://news.yahoo.com/confirmed-newfound-particle-higgs-130317830.html