Humans have an innate need for the *experience* of awe, wonder and purpose. For this experience to be sustained it needs to be contained in a story.
There have been many stories around to fulfill this function; religions and mythologies abound.
However, many of these stories are definite and closes the minds of the people they envelop. Together with the fact that most people can not distinguish between the actuality of experience and the truthfulness, or lack thereof, of story, a dangerous cocktail is brewed.
I.e. the only available or given story for a certain experience is believed to be true. The out of awareness thinking goes something like “Since I have the experience X and it is explained as Y by authority Z, it must be true – since I have no other available story to contain it”.
On one extreme we get dead religions – all story and no experience. At the other end we get experience that’s dependent on dogmatic adherence to a story, which brings a host of problems in a modern world.
The confusion lies in the erroneous belief that the sense of awe, wonder and purpose – being in the presence of mystery – beholds a question that needs an answer.
Rather, mystery in itself is the answer…and a story that can sustain mystery in a modern world does not begin with giving the answers…rather, it’s all about asking ever better questions.
.2 cents on a rainy day.