Galileo

Got your coffee?

Previously I referenced the story of Galileo whose theory on the sun being the center of our solar system contradicted the Biblical interpretation of Earth being the center. The Church forced Galileo to recant, cease his writing, and though he was not executed for his heresy he would spend the rest of his life as a prisoner.

This same struggle is coming home to the Christian faith and the church in a world that has moved beyond modern to post-modern while the faith of many remains in a distant world of the past. The fastest growing segment in our population are those who indicated they are "non-religious". Being non-religious does not mean they are without a God consciousness or have no desire to develop an awareness of the part of their existence that is spiritual. Rather they are saying that the state of current religious practices and explanations of life don't work for them.

The challenge of modern religious life is to do what societies have always done: find new ways to interpret the wisdom of ancient seers into understandable concepts for our time.

That doesn't mean those who have found comfort in established ways of viewing that which is sacred have to give up what they cherish or accept what doesn't have meaning for them. Or at least in a perfect world that would be the case. Unfortunately those who feel the challenge to set off in search of new universes of faith are misconstrued as being a threat, "What? How can you not see value in what is so important to me?" The fact that we have many religions, and within any given religion many flavors of expression, should in itself be validation for the likelihood if not necessity to explore new ways of understanding.

It does mean, however, for established institutions to survive we must be in the process of nurturing both that which is in existence and that which is coming into existence. We can already see on the horizon some of our cherished institutions ceasing to be relevant and passing from significant, if not literal, existence. Unfortunately our human nature tends to move us in the direction of being like the institutional leaders of Galileo's time--who found themselves on the wrong side of truth by refusing to face the decline of what they held sacred--thus risking the loss of the most brilliant and talented of our children who are simply seeking answers to questions most of us are not interested in asking?

More coffee?

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