Religion

People often believe and argue that one cannot have morals without religion. What those same folks often overlook is that there are plenty of people with religion and no morals.

This is evident in the recent events in Paris, but it is also evident on a daily basis in this country when people discriminate against and abuse others in the name of religion. Parents throw children into the street, schools ignore brutal bullying, pastors lobby against efforts to promote equality in the workplace and in housing. 

I find it challenging to have empathy for people like that, and that makes me realize that just telling someone to be empathetic is not sufficient. Religion is not sufficient or we wouldn't have this problem after thousands of years of religion.

I do not know the correct answer to the problem, but I can recognize when an answer is not working. And religion as we know it has failed miserably.

G.K. Chesterton famously said something like, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found hard and not tried." Okay, that may be. So try it! For God's sake, try it.

PS -- I do not mean that all religious people or spiritual people have failed. It is the fact that so many of them succeed that gives me hope that there is a way, somewhere, somehow. It often looks like those religious/spiritual people who have found it, however, have done so despite their tradition, not because of it.