Beliefs

Am I religious?

NO! I am certainly not!

I worked hard to not be. There however is this question that keeps cropping up:

What will I leave behind?

It may be vanity that I want to leave a legacy, and not just a material one. There are however so many things which people do, indicating that they feel the same. And that keeps me wondering if firstly, that might be a rather natural thing to wish for and secondly, if that is not basically the main thing about religion? And what is religion, faith, belief, anyway? And why are there so many words for basically the same thing? Do people want to destinct themselves, like spiritual belief is religious, political belief is not, a leap of faith can be anything...?

Those are concepts much too big for my little brain. Philosophers have been fighting about those since man came into existance and started thinking. And yes: I said 'fighting'! Haven't so many wars started with: If we don't defend what we have - estate, culture, beliefs - how can we then leave something behind, where is our legacy? We all want to be referred to as 'our ancesters' by future generations.

So by thinking about my legacy, I may have committed to some sort of belief system. And be it my own... which might, would it be joined by enough other like minded souls, well be a religion... Maybe it's as easy as that!

And what do I belive in? Similarities, understanding, common sense, that sharing can provide 'the whole' for everybody rather than dividing into parts. And in regard to the legacy thing? I believe in the atoms and molecules I am built of. The thought that I will be rotting away one day and that a tree might find me utterly nutritious is rather reassuring. It means that the world will go round without me in it. And if before that happens my corpse should be found worthy enough to take bits and pieces from it  to benefit somebody else, it would make me proud. Well, it would if I were there, but you know what I mean...

The 'me' I am looking at in the mirror every morning is nothing but borrowed molecules from nature:

Let's use it as efficiently as possible,

Let's keep it in good working order, and

Let's join the Organ Donor Register

I did!