Religious Pragmatics (RP): Making Ideals Practical

     30,000 Years ago, mankind appealed to the gods in dance and chants to try to live a better life on earth.  Disease and hunger still took its toll upon them.

     But then another way was found to deal with Creation and the world in which we live.  Act as a god, yourself!  Take command of the world, to the extent possible.

     The Existentialists of the previous century cautioned that in the end, the forces of nature will destroy mankind.  Everyone must die.  You can prolong life by diet and medicine, but in the end, all must be placed in the ground.

     Nevertheless, religion holds hope for mankind.  What I call Religious Pragmatics is the attempt to make religious ideals in morality and education practical to improve our living.  It starts with centering prayer: emptying your mind of all its contents to concentrate on the presence of self in this world, in one's particular physical and mental surroundings.  Its an attempt to become a child once again, eager to know what he can do and what he can learn--since he can't enter the womb again!  Religion teaches us the basics in the world of ideals.  For instance, love your neighbor as yourself.  In practice, we aim to realize this ideal, but we know we just cannot.  It's not practical.  We must make compromises and acting as a god, know what we can do to realize some particular ideal in our particular circumstance.  That is, we come to know and recognize sin as part of our human condition.  We confess our sins, knowing that as humans, we aim at performing the ideal to the extent possible for us.

     Similarly, we may aim at monogamy, but we recognize our shortcomings.  We may have sex in and out of wedlock, for example. 

     In our quiet time of prayer, we come to know ourselves and our capabilities; and we recognize our shortcomings as mere elements of our sinful nature.