Religion orders us around. It defines reality for us before we were even born. We will do as we are told with respect to our religion. Why did the US fade away from that belief, in social and religious rules, into trying to understand the self? Did they have an individual self in social life? Did they feel it inside, a gift of their birth as individuals? Were their inner and outer selves the same? The Living are that complex.
Jefferson was on the right track. Sure, we live in a society into which our outer self fits, but now our society and our inner and/or outer individual selves can be at war with each other.
Complex.
We have been that way for thousands of years. Not anymore. We are trying to figure out what a self is, its inner and outer dimensions, why it (or is that ‘they’) too is holy, how we find both of ours, and how they get along
in the right here and now. As for having enough, almost all of us have been desperately poor for as long as we have historical records. Food and water were issues. We have chased this prosperity level over the ages out of need. We chase prosperity now to have not just what we need, but some of what we want. We are too humble, in general, to want it all. Since resources on Earth are limited, this belief is good and shows our inner selves are working.
Is our prosperity chase so out of human understanding?
No.
We can ask questions. As humans, you know we will.
Are we tempted by prosperity when we should be fed in the US? Are we fed by prosperity but this is consonant between our inner and outer selves? How does society chase now? We can ask those questions and many others. People are doing that across the internet now. Good.
Religion has always existed to explain the world to people, real living creatures who have to make it from conception to death in some form or fashion. When religious explanations become proscriptions hemming people in rather than freeing them to be the best they can be, systems that can hold people in account yet forgive them because we all make mistakes as we go along is needed. There are many working on this right now.
When we evolve, we move past a particular religious explanation to something different and new. Sure, call it woke, but better yet, see it for the next phase in human evolution that it is — we are becoming better as we work to transcend the past,
as has always been prophesized.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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Photo credit: Ben Wicks on Unspalsh