Statue of the God of Chocolate: Mayans prayed to the God of Chocolate for a good harvest. Cocoa provided the nectar of the gods, plus the cocoa beans were used as currency. Theirs was a culture in which money literally did grow on trees. Photo by Sherry Hardage.

Solo Traveler: Religion Again

Several years ago, when I was traveling through the American South, I stopped at a reservoir and took a dip in the relatively cool waters. Afterwards, sitting in the shade of the only tree with grass under it, a woman walked past and asked if she could share the shade with me. Within a few minutes, talk turned to religion. She asked about mine. She had never heard of Unitarianism.

I told her that Unitarians have principles, not beliefs. We accept anyone who adheres to those principles, including agnostics, Wiccans, atheists and Buddhists. She withdrew in horror. “You let atheists into your church? Aren’t you afraid they’ll steal from you?”

Her question shocked me. I assured her that atheists were among the most honest people around. They won’t tell you they believe something just to make you feel comfortable. I’m pretty sure she didn’t believe me when I said you don’t need God to be good.

A few weeks ago I wrote a column about religion. Predictably, it got more feedback than any previous column. A few people noted that they’d learned something. Occasionally religion acts as a true savior of civilization, like when Hindu priests made the cow sacred and thus prevented them from being slaughtered for food during droughts. Cows that survived horrible droughts could then still work pulling plows and providing dung for fuel.

I also made the statement that people need religion, and for that my inbox was inundated.

The most common objection to the statement was based on the fact that science and scientific thinking have shown religious creation stories to be myths. The universe wasn’t created in one day or seven, nor was the creator a Spider Woman, or a God living on Mount Olympus.

Certainly we don’t need religion to give us those kinds of answers, but there are plenty of questions that science doesn’t address.

What is our purpose in life? If we look at ourselves only as biological entities, our purpose is to survive to adulthood, have as many children as possible, and raise them successfully so that they can create the next generation. That’s literally all that biology requires of us.

If we accepted that as our purpose, we should also realize that nature gave us a plethora of diseases and death due to infections, starvation, accidents, child birthing complications, genetic weaknesses, etc. For millennia, it was normal for us to die off at a good clip, thus ensuring room on the planet for successive generations.

However, thanks to science and the technology it has spawned, we can now prevent all manner of death, mitigate accidents, feed more people than ever before, and save the weakest members of society. 

Just because we can do those things, does it mean that we should? That is a question for the ethicists, the philosophers, and religions to answer. Of course since people have different values, the answers vary enormously.

So I wanted to write a bit more on the purpose of religion and what I have observed while traveling the world, and why I think people do still need religion.

Every human being needs to feel needed and wanted by family, friends, and a community. We need to be useful to ourselves and to others. We want to have hope, and a sense of continuity with our ancestors, and with future generations. We want to know what happens to us when we die. Since that question can’t be answered by the living, and hasn’t yet been answered by the dead, many of us turn to religion for hope and guidance.

Parents in cultures all over the world want their children to grow up with good values and morals, to be competent, and to feel part of something larger. Being part of a like-minded community gives children a broader sense of perspective. They are given the same messages by everyone around them, not just their parents.  

Throughout history religion has played a major role in meeting those needs, in being that “something larger.”

Most people want to feel a connection to the divine and to have a reason and purpose for being alive. Religion and philosophy can provide a path for finding that. It is up to each of us to follow the path that best suits our way of thinking and feeling.

When I said people need religion, I didn’t mean every single individual. Yet, I’ve never met anyone who did not understand the very human need to appreciate God, the Creator, or the forces of the Universe that came together in such a miraculous way, creating life on this tiny planet, starting a process that culminated in us.

Editor’s note: Sherry Hardage lives in Los Alamos and has been traveling solo in the Americas, Europe, and Asia since she retired from Honeywell in 2009. She is a photographer, writer, and guide who organizes tours of Mexico through her website: www.mexadventures.com

Follow the continuing adventures at her blog: https:////sherryhardagetravel.blogspot.com/

Hardage welcomes comments via email: hardagesa@aol.com