Religion: A modern Interpretation by Leo Li ‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind’ - Albert Einstein
In an age of ever-increasing multiculturalism and consequential spiritual diversity, there is no denying that secularisation provides necessary social stability. With growing global religious tensions and catastrophic atrocities sending shockwaves at an alarming frequency, some critics go so far as to condemn religion’s existence in its entirety. However, rather than foolhardily rush into a faithless future, a wiser option would be to stop and reflect on whether this separation of Church and State requires the death of the Church, attempt to recognise its historical role from an unbiased viewpoint, and forge a new 21st Century interpretation of faith distanced from the collectivist ideology it can be (and too often has been) deformed into. I acknowledge that I undoubtedly write from a biased position, having beliefs resultant from a Christian family, school and Australian society with an inherently Judeo-Christian history.
But just as this acknowledgement of context must be made, we require reciprocation from those raised in different backgrounds bearing different views, allowing bipartisan discussion to occur. One common misconception is that the fundamental belief in a deity reduces religion to nothing more than blind extolment and worship. Whilst this was historically true, from a modern-day perspective, such an interpretation is inherently divisive and shuts down dialogue, since different religions must then be fundamentally at odds with each other, whilst atheists feel forced to be devoid of the spiritual altogether. As 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal put it in his Wager, the least important point is whether or not there is an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God. Rather, we should discuss whether acting as if God exists is beneficial to societal function and human flourishing, and use this to determine the validity and role of religion.
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