A world without religion

I can imagine a world without religion. It is not hard to do. And I am not doing a post-john-lennon kind of thingy. This is not a song but a simple play-along.

I can imagine there's no beginning and no end. There's no savior and no god as your eternal friend. I can imagine that no one cares about the afterlife and there's no heaven or hell. What would the world look like? Can we really tell?

Will there still be wars, conflict and confusion? Will there still be pain, hatred and delusion? Will there be 9/11, 7/11, WW1 and WW11? Will we be happy or sad, fulfilled or mad? Seriously, what will the world really look like? How will the human stage be set?

Without theism, monotheism or polytheism, will there still be atheism, agnosticism or deism? Without God, will we still fear living as death draws near? Without the ten commandments, the Quran, the eightfold path to enlightenment, and the Bhagavad Gita, will we still be good, moral and less rude?

I guess all these imaginings point to one thing, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." The truth is, we can change our names but we cannot change our biblical fate. The label doesn't make us. It's the "us" that makes us.

Religion or no religion, we live to fight and we fight to live. The struggle is no doubt brief. Sure, the well off among us will live with some dignity. But stripped of that, denuded of wealth, aren't we all enlightened savages waiting to pounce with no qualms or mercy?

So, let me tally the scores: Religion-ONE and Atheism-ONE. With or without religion, I think it's a draw for all. It's the same difference. We have to stop thinking that religion will save us. We have to stop hoping that religion is the answer. It's not a quick fix. Neither is it a perfect mix.

Here's my view, if it matters at all. I think we cannot live without religion. That much is as plain as an eye sore. It is an inextricable part of us just like joy and pain are intertwined. The church, the services, the rules, the relationship and the leadership, the good intent and the bad desire, are all a package deal when we sign up for a messiah.

But although we cannot live without religion, we can surely live without a deluge of it. I guess the line would just have to be drawn, whether we like it or not. In other words, we ought to step out of the shadow of religion and walk under the light of our savior. The wine and the wineskin need to be distinguished. They need to be set apart before they can be mixed together.

We know we have too much of religion when our faith is juvenilized. When we crave for more signs and wonders, and less of His love and self sacrifice. When church maintenance takes precedent over lives. When pew numbers take priority over communal ties. When issue of succession is more important than all things eternal. And when pastoral activities become a competitive sport ruled by the laws of humanity instead of grace, hope and charity.

This is my conclusion, if there's ever one. I always thought that the best place to contribute after a battle-scarred career is the church. Isn't the church a place where love meets needs? Isn't it a haven for the lost, an inn for the weary, an ashram of peace, so to speak? Isn't it a utopia of some sort? Too naive?

Well, then I realized that a church stocked up with people is no different from an organization ruled by them. It's again the same difference.

Alas, in my search for a utopia, I have overlooked the one place that no one has ever thought of looking. It is neither a club nor a spa. It is not even a vacation home perched somewhere far.

If ever there was one, that is, a place that comes closest to a utopia, the one and only nominee, for me, would be the cross of calvary. Because it is there that the greatest church was built. It is also there that the wineskin was wholly filled.

The irony of it all is that there is no joy without sorrow, no love without sacrifice, and no perfection without submission. I guess the center of the church is the bloodied cross and we lose our way when we de-centralize Calvary by putting a glitzy cross outside the church. Sadly, we attract people with it but remain untouched by it. And that is what makes the religious no different from the irreligious. Cheerz.