What the Morning Brings...

A downy woodpecker is at the feeder this morning, along with a cardinal and house finches.  I only get a glimpse of their color from this vantage point.  They seem quite unperturbed by the rain which is falling copiously. The  pond is melting rather quickly.  T. the woman who owns the cabin where I come and stay, made a caustic remark about breaking out her bathing suit today, as the temperature is supposed to get up to 50 degrees!  So, as the way my mind often works, I had a funny dream about coming over a rise to a pond, where the ice was melting and people were in their bathing suits and flip flops.  Let's not forget the flip flops! 

This past weekend we did some brainstorming about the definition of science.  We came up with any number of ideas...including things we disagreed with.  Someone put up on the board "the opposite of religion."  THAT made me bristle.  I tried to get a word in edgewise, but everyone was talking, and my voice was one among many.  That's the thing isn't it.  Often we religilous liberals are one voice among many, and it is difficult to be heard.   I wanted to cry out..."NO!  It is not opposite at all."  Whether I am a follower of Christ, or a semi Buddhist, or one who listens for Goddess around and within, I do not check my mind at the door when I enter the place of worship.  I am a student of this life and this world, and science gives me amazing perspectives which only deepen my awe for mystery.  Perhaps science is not overly fond of mystery, and that is a piece of things which I warmly embrace, but science is not the enemy of religion, and religion does not have to be the enemy of science.  A respectful dialogue is possible. 

However, I will say that religion gets to me sometimes.  People come along and are completely accepted or believed because of their charisma, rather than looking at the facts.  And then of course, if someone lives in a way that is different or actually disagrees with some of the teachings of a particular religion, that someone is shunned.  Oh yes, shunning is alive and well in this new millenium.  There is no doubt about it!  Example being...say someone is promiscuous.  Or gay and attending a church where that is considered "sinful."  Well, that person might as well get out of Dodge.  All the "science" which tells us such things have a basis in reason, have no voice amongst the zealous.

But then people who espouse science, often treat life as a survival of the fittest.  And that is where science can make me bristle, and where the teachings of Jesus take even deeper root in me.  Justice is central to my way of being.  And the sermon on the Mount will always be one of the most inspiring pieces of religious literature to me.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Science doesn't give us much hope of that.  But this mysterious thing called "faith" turns the facts upside down and inside out. 

Well, the birds seem to have had their fill of breakfast.  I should get to mine.  I feel better after having blogged and gotten some of my frustration out of my system!