Defining Religion Is Like Playing Quidditch Blindfolded

Once upon a time I studied religion with scholars who lived in ivory towers and ate dinner in magnificent halls. Professors dressed in the fine regalia of their college gowns sat at the high tables while the rest of us sat below them at the long tables. (Just like in Harry Potter! Yes, there are such places in the world.)

Now in that magical of magical places where the oxen cross the ford, we heartily and heatedly debated the definition of religion. Some scholars wanted one definition of religion to rule them all. You should’ve seen the brawls that broke out between the historians, the psychologists, the sociologists, the theologians, and the linguists. And don’t even get me started on the philosophers. It was like Quidditch! And trying to pin religion down to a single definition was harder than trying to capture the golden snitch blindfolded and without a flying broom.

Initially I jumped into the fray and tried my hand at seeking this one ultimate definition. I traveled far and crossed many mountains and valleys, but I still didn’t find what I was looking for. The longer this went on, the less fun it got. I found that all these scholars were less interested in knowledge and far more interested in winning that quite popular “I’m right and you suck” game. Ever play one of those?

So I stopped playing, turned in my uniform, slipped into Diagone Alley for some refreshment, and started making a few…observations. Instead of searching for ultimate definitions, I thought why not just sit almost child-like and just observe how religion presents itself to me.

When I stopped chasing religion, it stopped running away from me, quickly turned around, and came to sit right beside me. My burdensome and competitive search for ultimate definitions turned into a far more enjoyable exercise in observation and conversation.

Observations and Conversations

The first observation is that religion, first and foremost, has to do with a family of core questions that live inside a family of core conversations.

What are the core questions?

• Who am I?
• Where did I come from?
• Why am I here?
• How should I live?
• Where am I going?
• What will happen to me after I die?

You may say, “I’m not particularly religious, but I think about those questions sometimes myself.”

And I say, “Exactly.”

You can walk away from the answers that other people have offered, but you can’t walk away from the questions themselves. That’s why those questions are called core questions. They are part of the human mind & heart. Even when we’re not particularly religious, we’re still having a conversation with those questions. We’re all asking those questions, in one way or another.

It just so happens that religion has been raising and answering those core questions the longest and so it holds the most information about how those questions have been raised and answered. And that is a valuable source of information we would do well not to ignore.

As you look over the core questions above, have your own conversation with them right now and ask yourself:

• Which one makes you just stop and think?
• Which one do you skip over because you don’t want to think about it right now?
• Which one would you introduce first to your children or to a young person who looks up to you?
• Which one are you struggling with right now?
• Which one are you at peace with right now?

Things have been quiet around here recently due to personal commitments but I wanted to let everyone know that Ivory Bakery has been busy cooking up a few new ideas, some book related and some podcast related. The posts and podcasts will resume shortly so you can get your upgrade on.

In the meantime, I am happy to announce that the Religion 2.0 podcast is now on iTunes!

How do you locate us there?

1. If you have iTunes on your PC or Mac, you can click on this link

Take me to iTunes

and it will take you to our page under the “Religion & Spirituality” category.

2. You can also search iTunes for keywords like “Religion 2.0″ or “Rahim Taliesin Snow” or “Ivory Bakery” and find us that way.

Enjoy!

When I first started this blog + podcast, I thought I was going to concentrate primarily on the podcast and the blog would just serve as a simple way to announce new podcasts. The podcast was a learning podcast, but the blog was not really a learning blog.

Recently I’ve started thinking that this way of doing things isn’t serving my readers. Some readers have told me that they don’t have time to listen to the podcast just yet for various reasons but will do so when they have some more time. Well, that time may never come and so they may not get the opportunity to hear the content.

So I started asking myself: instead of having to wait for a chunk of time to open up in their lives to listen to the podcast, why am I not providing them self-contained pastries of information right in a blog post? Why am I saving all the content for the podcast? Why don’t I start sharing the content in bite-sized blog posts as well? Wouldn’t it be valuable to read a few sentences or a few paragraphs during our busy day and enjoy a moment of reflection and learning? Wouldn’t that be worthwhile?

So I’ve decided to post more of the content inside the blog posts themselves so that the podcasts won’t be the only source for that information. Does that mean I’m going to repeat myself? You bet. Repetition is a key to learning. When was the last time you learned something by doing it just once?

Yes, the ideas I share with you in the blog posts will mirror the ideas I talk about on the podcasts and vice versa. But sometimes I may go into more detail in a blog post and sometimes I may do it in the podcast. My goal is to have the blog and the podcast reinforce and cross-fertilize each other. That way you get exposed multiple times to the same content and then you have a better chance of learning it: by reading it *and* listening to it.

Some people like to listen, so for them I have podcasts. Some people like to read blogs, so for them I’ll have the blog posts. Some like a book in their hand, so for them I’m working on a couple of books. Some people like to be taught in person, so for them I’m preparing some talks and workshops. This has all been a reminder to me that no matter how useful the content might be, it must be delivered to people in multiple ways so that they can take full advantage of it based on their moods and styles of learning.

But ultimately your learning will take place when you take these ideas and use them in your own life and adapt them to your own unique needs, far beyond anything I might have imagined about them initially. One of the greatest joys in my life is to help spark that process in you.

Are there other ways I can serve you better?

I’m all ears.

If you want to be important—wonderful.
If you want to be recognized—wonderful.
If you want to be great—wonderful.
But recognize that he who is greatest
among you shall be your servant.

That’s a new definition of greatness.
And this morning, the thing that I like about it:
by giving that definition of greatness,
it means that everybody can be great,
because everybody can serve.

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve.
You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

And you can be that servant.

(excerpt from his last sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered on February 4, 1968. Text copyright © The King Center)

I celebrate with all people today the memory, work, and spirit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).
Read the rest of this entry »

[I originally wrote this benediction on December 16, 2001 after months of feeling hopeless and powerless in the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy here in the United States. Like many people, I felt religion had a great deal to do with what had happened and I felt something must be done about religion itself. I was initially leaning more toward abandoning religion and its institutions altogether. After much prayer and reflection, I realized that religion doesn't need to be rejected; it needs to be injected with more intelligence and compassion than we have ever given it in the past. It doesn't need to be abandoned; it needs to be upgraded. -- RTS]

My dear Family,

Once again time finds us on the brink of a new year. Though I have stumbled and fumbled in finding hope in the past few years, I am once again refreshed and renewed at the prospect of what lies ahead.

Our capacity to build a more humane way of life has never shone more clearly than in these shadowy times when the world is so at odds with itself. I am not speaking of grand gestures that we believe will sweep the soot and soil off the face of civilizations. I am speaking of far more modest moments. I am speaking of people, individuals, you and me. I am speaking of the decisions we make.

The decision to live in courage or to die slowly in fear is one we make everyday. The decision to awaken to creativity or to sleep in complacency is one we make every hour. The decision to grow in faith or to decay in doubt is one we make every minute. The decision to be happy or to be miserable is one we make every second.
Read the rest of this entry »