I live right down the road from a Catholic church. I often jog by it when I do laps around my block for exercise. The other day I stopped, pulled the headphones out of my ears and just stared at the artwork on the side of the building. Sweating, my heart pounding from running I felt a deep connection to that building. I had no idea why at the moment. I thought at the time it was due to my upbringing. I was brought up in a very religious home and there is often a sense of "home" or nostalgia I feel when I see a churches, attend church when I visit it my father, or hear an old hymn I remember from my childhood. I know, I know, the Christian would say that's God's way at pulling at my heart, but I am too much of a skeptic to accept such things now. The equation to something like that would look something like this: All things good in life = God/ All things bad = God works in mysterious ways or "the fall". My understanding of the world does not allow for such cognitive dissonance anymore with things like that, but what is it with these buildings that give me that connection, that emotion?
I have a hypothesis. That feeling, that emotion is "anthropic deep time". When we hear deep time it's relative to what we are talking about. When we think of deep time we think of the age of the cosmos or the Big Bang. We think of ancient rocks in Australia that formed 4.4 billion years ago as the Earth was forming. Think of the (dare I say?) "spiritual experience" you get when you go hiking in an old canyon (like Red Rock Canyon near me, for example). If you know some basics in geology you know that canyon and those rocks formed millions of years ago and once was an ancient ocean bed. Zero in on that feeling you get when you stare out at geologic deep history or hearing the poetic words of cosmologist Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson about the true deep history of our own body and what we are all made of (atoms that formed in the hearts of other stars).
We humans have our own "deep time". Think of how entrancing it is to stare at old photographs of our great grandparents. There is a magic that goes with looking into anthropic deep time. We listen with absolute attention as our grandparents or senior citizens tell us stories of how the world was when they lived what we read about in our history books. We relish in stories of our past. There's an entire channel on cable TV called the "history channel" (though the "history" part of their name is debatable). Think on how we revere the Native Americans. If you read any accurate historical books on Native American history you will read the horrific, immoral acts implemented by these various tribes. Our new "liberal" way of viewing Native Americans is often skewed the other direction. (Did I just parody Ann Coulter without thinking about it?!) Of course before this all white children were told in school was that the Native Americans were savages. As usual the truth is a mixed bag with nuances from both extremes not just one or the other, but the Native Americans were far from perfect and we almost deify them when we look back on their very foreign culture compared to ours today.
Religion (as a very humanistic expression in art) can fall under the "deep time" wonder we can experience. Hear me out: It's been around since pre-history for our species, and there is spotty evidence that maybe our fellow hominid species might have had a rudimentary religion as well; there really is "magic" in religion. And that sentence sounds odd coming from an atheist, but its true. Not the way the fundamentalist mean "magic" but we need to start taking some of these terms back, in my opinion. It's "magical" only if religion isn't used as "the way the cosmos and this Earth works". Daniel Dennett wrote about religion as a natural phenomenon in his book "Breaking the Spell". I recommend it. Many authors have given a long history of religion, quick to point out the wonderful things religion has given the human race. I know this sounds weird coming from me and trust me - I am on the anti-theist side of most things religious, but that is mostly because now when we weigh everything out there is more harm that comes with religion than good. We need more of the religious to treat their religion as a cultural phenomenon and not "take it so seriously". This is the way we make progress and get somewhere as a species. We reflect and even celebrate the art in religion, but let go of the useless dogma that does nothing to help society flourish.
I don't need to tell you that the most beautiful of religious buildings are mosques. If you want your breath taken away google image search mosques. I have a close Muslim friend that designed a local mosque. He is an architect and a really talented one. A year or so ago he showed me the blueprints to the mosque he was designing and it stunned me. It was gorgeous. The level of craftsman that goes into the buildings of the Muslim religion is unparalleled in my opinion. Mormons are most definitely up and coming in the craftsmanship of their temples, and of course Christianity has had some truly gorgeous buildings. Synagogs? Eh. Just kidding! Google image search: "most beautiful synagogues in the world" and hold on tight! Obviously the Christian artwork during the Renaissance was some of the best paintings ever painted and the sculptures are breath-taking. Go to any art museum and you'll know the true beauty of religion.
The key for the future in my opinion is to get people to treat religion like art or a game (like Dungeons and Dragons) not as something that makes "real" claims about the natural world and cosmos. We have to also be honest about the "holy texts" - it isn't all bad, it isn't all perfect and good, it's a mix bag again and they are books written by men. That is what we know for sure. We need to stop hanging our hat about how things operate with some "cosmic plan" or "universal purpose" when we have no such evidence. We can't just ground our lives in things with no evidence. Instead we must take what we know and be honest about it and go from there. I love the way many people I know are religious - it's OK. I don't want to yell at them for being crazy or whatever, I just want more people to be "culturally" religious. This desperately needs to happen in the Muslim world overall. Look at the polls, we need this for our species to thrive. We need more people understanding religion as art and culture and letting go of these "way the world works" unfounded concepts. When religion "makes theories" about the natural world this is where it hits a wall. This part of religion must have the heart ripped out of it so we can truly appreciate the beauty of religion and that is simply - anthropic deep time.
"Such Beautiful Buildings for a Celestial Dictator" - from a text from my friend Forrest who at some point will join me as "Gog" on this blog!
Just look at this mosque!:
http://blog.oliver-meili.name/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/DSC_7818_stitch_2.jpg
and come on. the Old Christians make the best art:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/The_Sacrifice_of_Isaac_by_Caravaggio.jpg
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