Inventing the One True Religion

THE FACEBOOK POST SAID, in big, bold colorful letters, to attract attention. "All religion is a myth. All of it. Yours too". When people think they are really going out on a limb, and posting something controversial, they use the big, bold, colorful latters. Likewise when they think they are expressing a profound truth they must share with the world. When they are doing both; watch out! My first impulse was to agree wholeheartedly with the expressed opinion, probably by using my usual method, by merely typing in the word "precisely", which I think suffices quite well. Then, I changed my mind, and typed nothing, which was probably best. The thoguht that came to my mind was: yes, all religions are mythology. I completely agree. Excpept for one religion; mine. That thought was closely followed by another; that every human being on the planet probably feels the same way; that only his or her religion is true, not mythology. I almost always agree with anti-religion sentiments expressed on Facebook, or anywhere else. Because of this, many such comments flow down the screen as I scroll. The reason I do not consider my religion myth is that my religion consists only of admiration for the infinitely superior spirit of creation, as manifested in nature. I am a pantheist; I see divinity in every atom. In that sense, science is my religion, because my veneration is directed towards the reality of the universe, its ultimate creation, and its natural laws which are always being discovered and illuminated by science. What's mythological about that? I mean, really? I do not wash away my sins in the blood of the lamb, nor consume symbolic blood and flesh in rituals, nor insist that the "Word of God" is contained in a small collection of books. I try to be more reasonable.I like the Christianity of Jefferson, who called himself a "primitive Christian". He meant that he accepted the teachings of Christ, and agreed with them, but not the seemingly supernatural parts of the Christian faith, such as the death and resurrection of the Savior, of which there are many in the Christian religion. Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein, as well as many intellectual well educated people, saw the beauty in the Christian faith as expressed in the gospels of Jesus, but rejected the supernatural, superstitious, magical aspects of Christian dogma. Einstein expressed the hope that future human religiosity would be more informed by our improving knowledge of nature, the universe. I believe that all the various Gods of the world's dominant religions, including the Judeo-Christian biblical God, are myths, anthropomorphic inventions of the human mind. I certainly hope they are. "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine", said Goethe. I have been dutifully, steadfastly inventing my religion throughout my entire life, and presumably will continue to do so. Whether I will ever finish inventing it, I have no idea. Certainly when I die my days of invention, of anything, at least in my current form, will be over. But I think I'm actually pretty close to finishing up. I have borrowed bits and pieces from any number of other religions, including the Christian one, for which I an truly grateful. Likewise I am grateul for people like Jefferson, Spinoza, and Einstein for helping me along the way in my science rather than faith based spiritual journey. Who knows? There may be many more "religious influencers" yet to come in my life. But one thing is certain. They had better be good, because they have some real superstars as predecessors, tough acts to follow...