I have this theory about religion. I call it The Box Theory.
Here goes.
I am being raised as a Roman Catholic. I’ve had all the appropriate Sacraments, gone to church, tried not to sin, etc. etc. but I have always had an overactive imagination and voracious appetite for books, so from a young age the whole thing struck me as very fictional.
I think that I have always been a tad suspicious of organised religion.
Anyway, here is my theory:
Once upon a time, there was a sealed box. It looked like whatever you think it looked like, but you couldn’t open it.
One day, a bunch of Christians came along and told everyone that there was a cake in the box.
“There is a cake in that box,” they said. “Shake the box. See? There must be a cake in the box. You cannot open the box and see the cake inside, but as long as you believe there is a cake inside, you get to eat the cake.”
So millions of people around the world decided to agree with them.
But some other people disagreed. Some Muslims said,
“No no no no no. There is not a cake in that box. There is a teddy bear. We cannot show you the teddy bear, but it is there in the box. And as long as you believe it is inside, you can play with the teddy bear.”
And so, millions of people decided to agree with them.
But still others disagreed. A bunch of Buddhists came along and said,
“You are both wrong. There is a hat. A hat is in the box. No, we can’t show it to you. You have to believe it is there. So long as you do, you may wear the hat.”
And millions agreed with them.
But instead of eating cake and playing with teddy bears and wearing hats, they all decided it would be much more fun to declare war and beat each other to a bloody pulp.
And the last few millennia have been fun, have they not?
Buddhism, I think, would say; “Here’s the box. We can’t show you what’s in it. You’ll have to look for yourself. You can use the box as a hat, if you need a hat.”
yeah, that’s a good revision.
though the whole point is that you can’t actually see inside the box. but you can believe whatever you want to be in there.
i was just kinda picking religions out of thin air. i am thoughtful like that
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Well, isn’t that funny. My immediate mental image of a box includes some way of opening and closing it.
hilarious
there have been a great many boxes i haven’t been able to open in my lifetime. this is one such box.
padlock it, tie it up, sit an elephant on top of it, deposit it into a swiss bank account… i don’t care. but you can’t look inside.
it’s a (rather cunning, no?) metaphor for blind faith.
ha ha ha. ha.
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