Read Online Create Your Own Religion by Daniele Bolelli - Free Book Online Page B

sounded like the weirdest bullshit I had ever heard . . . until a few weeks later when my urine did turn black. While camping, a friend of mine and I stared at each other when, on a day with no wind, we saw my tent shaking as if someone was moving inside of it. No big deal, we figured. One of our friends must have decided to use it. Except that when we opened the flap no one was inside. While helping cut a tree for a Sun Dance, one of the most important ceremonies of the Lakota people, one of my fingers was broken in three parts and nearly severed when a tree fell on it. I was less than reassured when the old Lakota man running the ceremony told me not to worry because he prayed about it, and the spirits told him they would take care of it. Prayer was not exactly my number one choice as medical treatment for multiple fractures. But I was hours away from the closest hospital and didn't have many other options. Sure enough the old guy could not stop laughing when I undid the bandage to see an extremely swollen finger with much of its skin gone, but otherwise back in one piece. A few weeks later, the skinwas fully regrown and you couldn't even see a scar. X-rays showed no signs that any trauma had ever occurred.
    I could go on, but I'm sure by now you get the point. Plenty of experiences in my own life seem to violate the normal laws of physics, and yet they happened anyway, right in front of my eyes. I could explain these experiences away with wild theories about spirits, the afterlife, the power of prayer and God, but I would be lying. At the end of the day, I don't know why or how these things happened. I just know they did, and I have no explanation for them. This is why I don't rule out the existence of an afterlife despite the protests of my logic and reason.
    The long loop of my personal experiences brings us back to our starting point: we have no certain answers about the afterlife one way or the other. Anyone claiming to know otherwise is trying to sell us something. And yet, death is too big of a topic to ignore. While the nature of death is a mystery, the fear of death is as real and concrete as it gets, so it needs to be addressed. The rest of this section will do precisely that by focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the various religious approaches toward death in order to fish for something we can use to face the most terrifying force confronting everyone who lives.
Fear, Fear, and More Fear
    There is no greater source of anxiety for human beings than the inevitability of death. Death is a demon that sinks its fangs in our soft flesh and tears it apart. It feeds on our very muscles and blood. It consumes our bodies, our identities, our emotions, our memories. It is a vampire that can't be stopped, a hunter who never fails to bring down its prey. Nothing is as scary as knowing that, at this verymoment, Death is tracking us down. Sooner or later, it will tire of the chase: it will overtake us and devour everything we have ever been.
    Normally, we get mad if anything makes us waste a few hours. We flash with anger if something ruins our day. But our daily problems suddenly seem petty if we weigh them against the immensity of death. We are no longer talking about a few lost hours or days or years. We are talking about eternity here. Clearly, all our other concerns pale in comparison.
    This very legitimate fear of death is the engine driving most religions. One of their primary reasons for existing is to help human beings deal with the prospect of physical annihilation. This is the hottest merchandise sold in churches and temples: the promise that they'll help us escape death's sharp teeth.
    Religious opposition to secular viewpoints often stems from the fear that if we abandon organized religion, we will abandon the only force standing between us and death. Tom Stewart, a co-prosecutor at the infamous 1925 Scopes trial, opposed Darwin's theory of evolution not because of any evidence, but because accepting