What Makes People Tick?

Sometimes it feels like the world is, to use a phrase I like the sound of, going to hell in a handbasket. Which is, as strange an explanation as this is, why it's been such a long time since I wrote anything for this blog. Not sure I still wanted to, in all honesty. Did I lose my faith, my conviction, my drive? Certainly not. However with the world being as it is, the question "Why do I even bother trying to make a difference?" crosses my mind more and more. I pray, I read scripture, I meditate, I try to do good, be kind, give charity, love others. I write about equality and love for our fellow human beings, I write that as far as I am concerned we are all equal and the same - human beings: people of flesh and blood. I want to write about religion and faith, want to encourage people to seek a closer bond / relationship with God / The Divine, want to explore the many similarities between different religions and speak about the beauty of compassion, kindness, love, hope, ...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books focusing on religion and spirituality. Books written by believers and practitioners, but also books written by outsiders and scholars - religious tourists, sociologists, anthropologists... One thing that strikes me over and over is that so many accounts from different religions have common elements or are even a re-telling of the same story but updated or changed to reflect the history, religion, language or culture of the ones telling the story. Reading accounts from different religions in regions that, as far as we know, never interacted before white Europeans started sailing around the world, laying claim to lands that were never theirs to lay claim to, and seeing how similar these accounts are, how many common factors there are, it makes me realise that when it comes to how we view religion and the divine, when it comes to the stories we tell regarding not just our own creation but the creation of the world and all living beings, we are ...