Religion is an issue I mull over a lot. For the most part because it played such an integral part of shaping who I was. This seems to be poetry week, so I'll throw in a poem that sums up my take on religion:

Progress
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let there be many windows to your soul,
That all the glory of the universe
May beautify it. Not the narrow pane
Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays
That shine from countless sources. Tear away
The blinds of superstition; let the light
Pour through fair windows broad as Truth itself
And high as God.

Why should the spirit peer
Through some priest-curtained orifice, and grope
Along dim corridors of doubt, when all
The splendor from unfathomed seas of space
Might bathe it with the golden waves of Love?
Sweep up the debris of decaying faiths;
Sweep down the cobwebs of worn-out beliefs,
And throw your soul wide open to the light
Of Reason and of Knowledge. Tune your ear
To all the wordless music of the stars
And to the voice of Nature, and your heart
Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant
Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands
Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,
And all the forces of the firmament
Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid
To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.

I love the sound and the taste of that last, "Be not afraid to thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole." Its all very liberating and very resounding. Yet I still have a respect for people who choose to walk the path of one faith, one religion, and when I'm being very honest with myself...I am envious of them at times. There is a comfort in faith. In surety that someone, or something is watching over and guiding your life. When you step outside of that, there is a loss. What does one do when you hear your brother is in a car accident hundreds of miles away, that he stopped breathing in the ambulance? What do you do when a friend calls and has been told her mammogram showed some unusual tissue and needs to go back in a few days for another? My mother is what I would call a prayer warrior. The person people call when things have gone wrong and they want to get ahold of God. She's the kind of person who says, "I'm so sorry, I will be praying for you." And then, rather than go about her life and do nothing as many do...she actually prays, and prays fervently. Instead of sitting by idly and worrying and wringing her hands, she prays and puts it in God's hands. What do you do when you have no one else's hands to put trouble into but your own? Somehow saying, "I'll be thinking of you." or "I'll be sending good thoughts your way" just doesn't have the same sense of comfort as, "I'll be praying for you."

There is no question that religion has the power to comfort, why else would people cling to it so fervently in all cultures and societies? Is there such a thing as a culture without some sort of religious system? I have never heard of one. Still, despite these days when I want to fall back into that comfort of leaving it in someone else's hands, the truth is, religion takes an act of faith. No matter how one might try to back it up with facts or proofs, the very nature of religion requires that proverbial leap of faith. I can't manage that leap anymore, but now and then I can envy other's ability to do so.