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Meditation 1256
Re-Imagining Religion: modern religion

by: Gordon Barthel

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tI dream of a religion that is in touch with my world, not a religion that developed in millennium long gone, a time when people walked to the next village or they rode an ass if they were rich, but a religion that understands I live in a world where the average person can literally travel around the globe in two or three days; I do not dream of a religion that barely comprehends goods travelling from China to the Mediterranean by camel trains, but a religion that realizes you can probably ship the entire Roman navy on one of today’s cruise ships.

I dream of a religion that understands this modern world, not a religion that originated in a world where the average soldier was armed with a sword and a shield rather than a world where the average soldier can fire off a hundred rounds inside a minute; I dream of a religion that comprehends this contemporary world, not a religion that comprehends a world where the best soldiers could hurdle a spear fifty or sixty yards, but a religion that realizes modern tanks can shell enemies over the horizon; I dream of a religion that appreciates this complex world, not a religion whose literature talks of archers firing arrows at the advancing foe, but a religion that fully comprehends a pilot travelling faster than the speed of sound can fire a laser-guided missile capable of annihilating a small city.

I dream of a religion that appreciates the world I live in, not a religion that developed in an unschooled society where ninety percent of the population could not read or write, but a religion that realizes ninety percent of today’s young adults are better educated than the philosophers of antiquity; I do not dream of a religion that developed when an ordinary person could be heard only by those within hearing range, but a religion that understands an ordinary person can post something online and the whole world hears of it inside twenty-four hours.

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