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Lesson 9

Religions

There was never a time in history that humans didn’t have
religion. From the savages of a primitive era to the denizens of
the global village, men have believed in one religion or another.
Whether the god of that religion are pagan gods like rocks and
trees, or deities like Yahweh of the Christians, Buddha of the Bud-
dhist, Allah of the Muslims, men have needed a supernatural di-
vinity they can worship. We have this spiritual yearning that can’t
be satisfied with any amount of material possession or intellectual
wealth. Even the man who has it all soon realizes that despite his
material wealth, he can’t stifle this urge to reach beyond the mun-
dane corporeal to the mysterious Beyond. Though religion defies
the cold objectivity of logic or science and delves into the unknown and even to the
absurd, we hold religion valid. It’s because men are finite and impotent against nature:
from the time man realized that despite his efforts to subdue and control the forces
of nature, he can’t have control over the ultimate forces of life and death. Doctors
can cure the living but can’t raise the dead, can fight viruses but can’t kill diseases.
Engineers can construct emergency shelters but can’t hold back earthquakes, can
predict storms but can’t reign in tidal waves, tornadoes and monsoon rains. We
are aware of our finitude and our impotence, and like drowning men in the sea,
we swim for the stable (yet perhaps an illusory island of religion). Whether or not the
God that we believe in exists or not doesn’t seem to matter. Religion ultimately rests
on faith. Our faith is like radar that seeks through the fog, the reality of the distance
that the eyes could not see.

Comprehension

1. According to the article, where does religion ultimately rest?
2. Even if religion defies logic or science and sometimes even be absurd, why
do we still hold religion as valid?

Questions

1. What do you think of religion?
2. Are you religious? Why or why not?
3. What is your opinion on a specific religion?

Vocabulary & Expressions
savage: an uncivilized human being
denizen: an inhabitant; resident
deities: a god or goddess
supernatural: of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural;
unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal
mundane: of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven
delve: to carry on intensive and thorough research for data, information

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