The Trouble with "Religion"

The Trouble with "Religion"

What could possible be wrong with a word that for millennia has tried to represent peace, faith, piety, concern for fellow man, and in most cases, unselfish acts of kindness?  There is something about the word, “religion”, that mildly offends my spirit and bids me avoid its use in referring to my own personal value and life system.

Part of my hesitation is because the word refers to so many diverse traditions with such wide-ranging beliefs and practices.  When a word is used to define too many different things, it loses its power to clearly describe anything at all.

The word “religion” is often used in a subtly derogatory sense, perhaps as a tyrannical master restricting personal freedom in unreasonable ways, as in “such-and-such is against my religion,’ or “my religion won’t allow me to do that.”  This usage gives religion a negative connotation as something with which we might regret our association.  It might make others question why we would continue with such a personally controlling program.

Throughout history horrid atrocities have been committed in the name of religion.  Adherents and especially leaders of religions too easily change doctrines or interpret dogmas in ways that, in their eyes, justify persecution, oppression, and even violence towards those who are perceived as having a “different”, or ‘unacceptable” behavior or belief.  The treatment of the Hebrew people by their neighbors since the days of Moses is a sufficient case study.

In modern times the term “religion” carries a connotation of responding to or accepting something based primarily on emotion.   We can observe that the most effective advocate of religion is a speaker highly skilled in creating an emotional response in his or her audience.  (Here could be inserted another discussion on the difference between emotion and the effect of the Holy Ghost.  The externally observable results of the two influences can be easily confused.)  Emotion is often placed over against reason, and the use of emotion may be considered to give the proponent of religion an unfair advantage over his hearers, so that in their supposed intellectual weakness they are led unknowingly into accepting concepts that are at least demeaning if not ultimately damaging to them. 

So is there a good alternative to the word “religion” in referring to a personal system of values?  Here is one suggestion.  I like to think of myself as participating not in a religion, but in a “Plan”. 

It is a reasonable, rational plan that answers all of life’s “terrible questions” regarding who I really am, where I came from, and what is my purpose here.  It is a happy plan that bids me be cheerful and positive in my thoughts and words.  It is a plan that accepts all persons, regardless of their beliefs and behaviors, as worthy of my honest and hopeful consideration.   It is a plan laid down in distant ages past, before this world was, at a time and place that cannot be appreciated by any mortal calculation or imaginative theory.  It contemplates all of mankind, from first to last; from least to greatest, all cultures, all languages, all traditions, all worlds.  It is a totally inclusive plan.  There is no alternative to it.  We are all participants whether we know it or not.  The plan is concrete, it is “bricks and mortar”, it informs everything I do.   It has many names, but for me, “religion” is not one of them.  Knowledge is what I seek, not an emotional, philosophical “religion”.

Some will answer that this “plan” is nothing more than “religion” by another name.  But I disagree.  It has nothing to do with emotion, or hopes, or traditions.  It is evidenced in everything I see.  It is beyond belief. It comprehends all questions, all theories, all arguments.  It invites me to ask questions, to seek knowledge, to humbly realize that I am in the middle of something great and wonderful.  It is a joyful plan.