
To state the obvious, it isn’t easy being human. We have a lot of plates to spin. Or torches to juggle. Irons to put into the fire. Some metaphor of that sort. It feels like that, anyway. Too much, too fast. 24/7.
My speculation is that what came to be called “religion” originated as a way of coping with too much information. As in “overload.” By that I mean that — unlike other animals, who apparently juggle only one plate — we human animals juggle the real past, several imagined pasts, the real future, and several imagined futures, in addition to a here-and-now drenched in all those other thoughts. Obsessions. Lots of plates, torches, and irons. TMI!
Where is the exit?
But wait, there’s more!
In a thoughtful article concerning theology and vaccines, Dr. Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Religion and Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, writes,
“. . . we live in a society where intuition and feelings have replaced reason as the justification for moral action, where earnestness and sincerity are the stand-in for authenticity, and authenticity has replaced what we mean by “true.” *
A society of intuition, feelings, and authenticity. I can see the theoretical appeal of such a world. But in the real world, well. January 6. Ukraine.
A bunch of people dazed by information and running on their guts. Sounds . . . hmm.
Here come the jugglers!