so--I confess my ignorance.....

[wnylib]

21. On a personal level, I stay with

Christianity because it is what I grew up with. Whether I had a natural inclination toward spirituality or whether it was introduced to me in religion, I don't know. But as an adult, when I could no longer accept a literal approach to religious tenets, I leaned toward an agnostic perspective.

The more I learned about the religions of other cultures, the better I understood that religious stories and beliefs are more meaningful when not taken literally. A literal approach misses the forest for the trees. The stories are meant to convey lessons, values, paths for introspection, and ways of living with others. There is a richness of meaning in many religious stories that can't exist in science because science strives for objectivity but religion deals with the subjectivity of personal and interpersonal views.

The traditions and rituals preserve a sense of continuity even though they modify gradually as societies grow and change. They invoke a spirit of awe, shared perspectives and values, reverence and respect for values.

But, they can go off the rails, too, in what they teach as values or how they practice their traditions. Common sense judgment and reality checks on what are the consequences of beliefs and practices are essential. All faiths tend to have narrow, fundamentalist, literal followers as well as moderate and liberal ones. Christianity, like some other faiths, has many branches to choose from and many approaches to faith. There are many paths to spirituality, some religious and some not.

For me, religion provides a community of shared perspectives on living and growing, with traditions and celebrations as guides. It is, for me, much more metaphorical than literal.