Religion is an idea in our heads. It is an idea that can neither be proven nor falsified. What kind of an idea is it? It is sometimes good, for many have done good by religion. It is sometimes bad, marred by those with a foul and rotten heart. Without us, the idea of religion cannot exist, so the health
of the religious idea depends entirely on our own psychological well-being. Religion can make a good person better, or a bad person worse.
The idea of religion is myth. Not myth in the primitive, childish sense. Myth in the sense of being a story of our existence. Myth is the story that says our lives matter, even after we die. That is a hopeful idea, and if this hope injures none nor deludes any, I see nothing wrong with this hope, if that is all that religion is. But religion may be much more than a hope in our minds, it may be the eternal fire in our hearts, the human dream of affirming ourselves. The myth, the story of religion, can be a good one to abide by.
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