Living comes much easier once we admit we´re dying (or about faith and religiosity)

It´s been long since the last time I listened to DT´s Lines in the sand, but some lines still come to my mind quite often, and that one in the title is one of them. I mean the first part, of course, not the part in brackets...

One good thing about blogging is that it makes you think. When I start writing something I have an idea of what I want to say, the conclusion I want to get, but it sometimes happens that, as I go arguing along, I end up convincing myself of the opposite and changing my mind completely...

But I´m pretty sure that is not gonna happen this time, although I have no idea how this article is gonna turn out... So let´s get started and we´ll see!

This time, though, I will start presenting the conclusion, which is: Yes, one can be religious without being a believer.
Probably, this will make you think one of the following:
A) Of course! That´s so obvious. This is gonna be boring.
B) Absolutely not! Man, seems like I´m about to read a bunch of stupidities...

But I think it´s not as simple. And once more, in this case, before starting a rambling dissertation, I should start defining the terms, so that we all know what we´re talking about and nobody feels the temptation to play with meanings here.

Faith:
- Trust in God and in his actions and promises
- A conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, esp when this is not based on reason

Religion:
- Belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny any formal or institutionalized expression of such belief
- The attitude and feeling of one who believes in a transcendent controlling power or powers

And of course, "religious" would be "one who believes in a transcendent controlling power or powers" and "believer" (spelled with a "v") would be one who has faith.

Now, I´m gonna reaffirm something that I said yesterday to a good friend of mine and two jars of beer, and that you might accept as true or not:
There´s nothing beyond this life. Once you die, you´re dead. It all ends. There´s no god, there´s no afterlife, there´s no heaven. This is all we have, and we shouldn´t waste our time looking for something that we´re not gonna find. Rather, we should start enjoying what we do have, what is true, and trying to reach happiness in this current life rather than the next one.

I know this "because I say so" is not a valid argument at all, but this is my blog and my dissertation. If you don´t like it, you´re free to stop reading and no further actions will be taken against you.

But if you keep reading, just take my word for now. You can leave a comment later ;)

So, that said, I also recognize that the idea of "dying forever" is quite scary, and I think that is the reason why men created religions, to give their lives a purpose, to let "God" make the last decision for us, to put that responsibility on him, to have the hope that all harm happens for a reason even if we can´t see it (the so called "God´s will", the inscrutable ways of god), and even to avoid the distress of having to think of "dying forever", to invent a less unsatisfying alternative.
I, as a non believer, have a strong convincement that it all does end. In fact, to me, that makes much more sense and is much easier to imagine than the magical alternative. That doesn´t mean that I´m happy with the perspective of "stopping being" or that I´m not afraid of dying. Of course I am. But when the idea of "forever" comes into play, "not being" seems more plausible than "being"... forever... To me, at least.

(Aside: just in case I´m wrong, all I´m saying does not mean that I wanna be dead forever if you guys are gonna live forever... Please let the chief know when you get there, thanks)

So, this is my hypothesis: non believers also need to find a way to ease their fear and distress. And a good way to do that is finding something that gives us the sense that there is something beyond us in this life, in this world. Something that we can and can´t reach at the same time. Something that makes us believe that life does have a purpose, for an instant, right before we lose it again. Something that makes us forget for a moment how insignificant we are in the immensity of universe..., or multiverse... Something that was there before we came, and will stay there after we´re gone, and that we can perceive with our senses without the intervention of an irrational act of faith.

And it´s here where things like plastic arts, literature, and in my case, especially music, play their part.
Music, dude. Music has something that other forms of art lack. You can stare at a painting or an architectural piece as long as you like. But music not only is there, music happens. It begins, it changes constantly while it lasts, and then it ends. And, even with the same score, the same conductor and the same musicians, you won´t hear the same piece twice. It can keep you overwhelmed from the beginning to the end, and the end can take you by surprise and leave you even more overwhelmed. That is powerful.
Not to mention the magnificent religious masterpieces by magnificent composers that you can hear coming from a magnificent pipe organ, inside a magnificent architectural piece that echoes the music, surronded by the colorful light from the stained glass window, the absorbing scent of incense and a silent and equally overwhelmed crowd. They are overwhelmed for their reason, you are overwhelmed for your own reason too. Take some magnificency out of the scene, and the feeling is still pretty much the same. It´s the feeling of sharing a unique intense brief moment and a unique intense brief feeling. It´s like not wanting to go to carnegie hall by yourself because the experience will be even more complete (that, though, is not the word I´m looking for) if you share it with someone else, ideally someone that matters.

That, to me, works just like the "religious" religion. It makes me believe that there is something powerful around us, something that I can somehow sense but I don´t get to understand, and it impresses me every time. Call it music, call it God...
And I guess a good poem can do the same.

So yes, I don´t fit in the first definition of "religion", but I think I fit quite well in the second one. Not being a believer.

I´m not sure if I made my point though. This would require much more thinking, more reasoning and discussion, and certainly more beer and inspiration.

And more interaction.

So, like they say.., further studies are warranted. And your comments are welcome.