Igniting Ideas: A Spiritual Journey
I’ve always considered myself an atheist and up to this day I still do. I didn’t find the need to invest my time pretending to have faith in supernatural forces that functioned without a conscience. However, growing up in Shanti Bhavan I learnt to respect the faith and religious beliefs of others. Though I thought nothing of it at the time, I now realize that my secular up bringing has molded my perception of life and my assimilation of ideas.
I was recently exposed to the works of Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist known for his extensive exploration of religious history, amongst an array of other fields of knowledge. His work led him to explore the value of religion from a psychological point of view. The resulting conclusions he has laid out for the world to see are eye opening, to say the least. They propose that religion has had a fundamental and necessary role in molding society and has had a positive impact on the progression of our species.
This new vantage point has shaken my belief system and forced me to take a closer look at my own exposure to religion and experiences with belief. As a result, I now view differently, the lives of people that I previously considered simple minded due to their faith in deities that I “knew” didn’t exist.
Though I don’t yet see the rationale behind their rituals and prayers, I see how it is of immeasurable importance to them and to all of us as social beings. It is one thing to be oblivious and another to be willfully ignorant and I’m glad I’ve had my mind exposed to such an idea. Rarely does an idea take root in my mind as this one has.
