{"id":145096659,"date":"2024-06-26T12:31:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T12:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=145096659"},"modified":"2024-06-26T12:31:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T12:31:14","slug":"some-things-i-feel-religious-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=145096659","title":{"rendered":"Some Things I Feel Religious About"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c’I reckon…you is just made up your mind to serve Satan all your days.” “I done made up my mind,” she answered, “to live all while I can…” – James Baldwin, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’<\/h2>

Nazis unwelcome: here\u2019s my post about moving this blog off of Substack soon<\/a>. I might put this stinger on every post until then to try to irritate Nazi Sympathizer Hamish McKenzie<\/a>. I might forget\/get bored and stop. Not today though!<\/em><\/p>

New <\/em>The Line Break podcast this week! I talk briefly about reading my Bible in this one. <\/em>Apple<\/a> <\/em>| Spotify<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a><\/p>

The people of the world are getting less religious. However you or I might feel about it one way or the other is a different column. It\u2019s happening, though, and it always brings up the question: what replaces religion? <\/p>

Switch on any streaming service and I bet there\u2019s a new cult documentary. The Daily Zeitgeist <\/a><\/em>has argued persuasively that stan culture is a new kind of religion<\/a>. Behind The Bastards<\/a><\/em> warns about RAM<\/a>, the fascist active clubs<\/a>. Kanye tried to start a church, which is around the time I decided I didn\u2019t need to pay attention to Kayne anymore. <\/p>

But there are more positive examples, too\u2014anything you do weekly that gives your soul a little rinse can be like church. Pickup basketball, Mario Kart<\/em>-over-Zoom with your out-state-friends. The question remains. What<\/em> replaces religion?<\/p>

Right off the bat, I\u2019m going to tell you I\u2019m not one of those \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d people, or any number of thought-killing clich\u00e9s. I\u2019m not a practicing Christian, though I was raised in the church (here\u2019s a 66-chapter novel I co-wrote that proves it<\/a>). I wasn\u2019t<\/em> raised in a Southern Baptist Church, that group of money-worshipping Pharisees with a sex abuse scandal count<\/a> to rival the Catholic Church, those monarchy-loving imperialists. I am also firmly<\/em> not a New Atheist, here described by Erik Baker in <\/a>Defector<\/a><\/em> in all their smug, secretly-just-neocons-and-race-scientists glory (shoutout the Defector <\/em>week guest-edited by on irrational attachments, it was a Good Week of Blogs).<\/p>

So what, then? I get the human need for religion. Explaining the unexplainable, building community and commonality, moral instruction (I am a Socialist <\/a>because <\/a><\/em>I was raised Christian<\/a>). But if people are leaving organized religion in droves, what happens?<\/p>

Without positing myself as an authority on anything<\/em>, here are some things I think we should take with religious seriousness. These are just thoughts, I\u2019m definitely not<\/em> trying to start a new religion, we\u2019re definitely not<\/em> turning Lazy & Entitled into a cult, ignore all this property in the woods we just bought. <\/p>

\"File:Lake<\/figure>

Prayer Is Important, But Not Magical<\/strong><\/p>

It occurred to me recently what a community-builder prayer lists are. Growing up, the white board we had outside the sanctuary where any congregant could add prayer requests sort of seemed like a way of fast-tracking the church gossiping about your problems. I could think of nothing worse than the whole congregation knowing my girlfriend and I had just broken up or I was nervous about a Chemistry test. But there\u2019s more room in your ribcage when you\u2019re not holding your problems in, and doing something to help your neighbor sure keeps your mind\u2019s gaze away from your own navel. <\/p>

\"File:Oranges<\/figure>

Here\u2019s another thing about prayer, or manifesting, or \u201cthe secret,\u201d or whatever\u2014no, you can\u2019t literally A\u2014>B \u201cspeak things into existence.\u201d BUT! I am a firm believer in the idea that talking about something, keeping it at the forefront of your mind\u2014that\u2019s a great way to keep yourself motivated and focused. You still, say, actually have to finish your novel<\/em>, but if \u201cmanifesting\u201d helps you keep your mind right, do it. Hey, speaking of\u2014<\/p>

Empiricism and Magic Can Co-Exist<\/strong><\/p>

Observable things, like evolution and climate change and behavioral psychology and pumpkin pie recipes and 1-5-6-4 chord progressions in pop songs and the failure of trickle-down economics and the body\u2019s need for water and math? These things are not in question, right? No one\u2019s questioning 1-5-6-4!<\/p>

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