This morning I was thinking about faith. It popped into my mind because of an article I read in today's edition of "The Morning" newsletter from the New York Times about Americans and faith, and partly because it struck me a few days ago that Easter, Orthodox Easter, and Passover were all happening around the same time. That isn't unheard of but it certainly is unusual given how late Easter is this year. The history and ritual of the various religions has been something I've been interested in for quite a long time. In fact my interest in the history, and my college education, is what killed any bit of faith I had.

I was born and baptized into the Lutheran Church. We attended church every Sunday when I was young but that started to wane as I got older. By the time I got to college it had stopped altogether. In college I took a lot of history classes and that experience killed off any last vestige of faith that was left in me. That isn't to say I lost my spirituality, it just started to shift in other directions as I started to look at other religions like Buddhism, Earth religions like Wicca, and other traditions. Today I would consider myself firmly agnostic.

I honestly don't understand how anyone could believe there is some benevolent being watching out for us given what I see happen in the world every day. We hear stories all the time of people going through horrific ordeals only to say "it's God's plan". Young children are shot dead and their parents say that God has called them home. Again - "it's God's plan". Why would God do that to children? Why would God do that to the family? It's a coping mechanism. There is no rational reason, if God existed, for children to be killed in such a manner and the family to go through hell in the aftermath.

I also know the history enough to know that religion has been a tool used from those seeking power to control people. Dive deeply enough into Western history and this is obvious. That continues to this day in various forms. For instance, why does the Catholic Church still insist that a priesthood is required for Christians to receive the word of God, or to be forgiven of their sins? Why does the Catholic Church, in 2025, still not allow women to be part of the clergy?

That said I respect, and sometimes envy, there who really practice their faith as intended. Even forgetting about faith religion provides a framework to live by and can provide a solid base of morality. That it gets twisted into other things isn't the fault of religion - it's solely our fault.

A person interviewed for that New York Times article notes that "I don't believe anything, but I enjoy tradition and ceremony". That is mostly me. I believe that there is something bigger than us out there, I just don't believe we can know what that is. I do however find myself drawn to the community and fellowship aspect of church. That is something that has definitely been lacking in my life that I think I should seek out somewhere. Seeking out community, especially these days, is something I think all of us could use.