Greg Jemsek, on religion, belief and imagination …

I mentioned Greg Jemsek in my last post and that is because, in all of my obsessive cult-related research, I have found his voice to be the kindest. I feel healed when reading his words. Today, I visited his website: http://www.quiethorizon.com/.

There I found a lovely essay on Religion, the best and worst therein and our search, and yearning to know and understand the unknowable. In it he touches on the recent, heartbreaking massacre in Charleston … I recommend reading the entire essay: Can We Reinvent Religion?

I wanted to post this quote here, though:

” … And when things go terribly awry, we turn to that sense of the unknowable and, at our best, explore it in our imaginations.  We find a way, for instance, to simultaneously feel grief and forgiveness.  It’s amazing when this happens.”

” We’re equally remarkable, however, in the other direction.  We’re superb at channeling our venom and our hatred into religious belief systems and using them to justify pathological violence.  The fact that the same institution can lead to these apparently diametrically opposed results is a stunning reality about religion.”

I guess we humans are a strange study in contradiction. It all depends on whether or not we choose to follow the best, or the worst impulses. But … I am running short on time, and have too many words (always). If you have a chance to read his essay, I highly recommend it!

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