This website is a “living book,” in defense of RELIGION…
My suggestion is that REALITY is, in fact, “magical” and “ultimately meaningful”
If reality IS ultimately meaningful, it is ALSO necessarily magical — cause and effect cannot rule…
The social-cultural systems that we call “Religion” are attempts to describe the magic and promote the meaning
I’m suggesting that religions are NOT just wishful thinking, and that the MAGIC and MEANING to which they refer are REAL…
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.… Wikipedia
It is easy to conclude that religious belief is simply WISHFUL THINKING
To be truly happy, we humans need to believe in immortality and ultimate meaning
Religions support such beliefs — sciences do not (though currently, they may be “waking up”)
The suggestion HERE, is that human intelligence is only in it’s evolutionary CHILDHOOD — and, religions don’t make sense to us well-educated children because WE’RE NOT AS SMART AS WE THINK WE ARE
We’re just getting started…
I don’t KNOW that magic is real — but I BELIEVE that it is because I seem to have stumbled upon some magic staring us in the faces
That’s where I’m going — come along…
(Note that, on this site, I’ll be discussing WESTERN religions – I suspect that EASTERN Religions are easier to defend, but I don’t know enough about them to try)
Our public schools are somewhat reasonably — but unfortunately and also unwittingly(?) — teaching our children that CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RULES — and indirectly, that religious beliefs are foolish…
IF cause-and-effect DOES rule, religious belief MUST BE foolish!
Consequently, I’m suggesting that CAUSE AND EFFECT DOES NOT RULE…
And lack of religious belief is the natural, logical, result…
Our schools and kids are more LOGICAL than ever
And consequently, our kids are leaving Religion “in droves”
According to A.I.
In 1960, the percentage of American religious disbelievers—those with no religious identity, atheists, or agnostics—was extremely low, estimated to be around 2% to 5% of the population.
As of 2025, approximately 28% to 29% of U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated (often called “nones”), which includes those who are atheist, agnostic, or have no specific religious tradition, according to PRRI and Pew Research Center data.
In other words, for the sake of reason and honesty, our public schools are undermining our kids’ happiness
I’m all for reason and honesty — and respect the schools’ motivation — but my BELIEF is that OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS just haven’t recognized the significant evidence FOR Religion, and are consequently doing our kids an enormous disservice…
OUR CHURCHES AND SYNAGOGUES aren’t doing much better— they tell us a lot about WHAT to believe, but offer very little as to WHY to believe
So, my objective here is to show that there actually IS serious reason to believe in something we would call “MAGIC” — and RELIGION…
It’s just that the serious reason to believe isn’t nearly as OBVIOUS as is the serious reason to disbelieve
And consequently, religious parents and teachers of religion are not able to argue their cases very effectively
And, if we parents want our kids to be happy, we need to learn about the serious evidence FOR religion, and pass it on to our kids
S0, the OBVIOUS PROBLEM we have with Religion is that what makes a “social-cultural system” a RELIGION is an underlying belief in “MAGIC” — and most of us well-educated, western parents do not believe in magic.
Or at least, most of us do not THINK that we believe in magic
But then, most of us ACTUALLY DO BELIEVE in magic— we just haven’t made the necessary connections…
For instance, reality is either a deterministic machine – or, it is (at least) somewhat “magical”
There is no other possibility
And, if there is such a thing as FREE WILL, reality is NOT a deterministic machine.
In other words, if YOU BELIEVE IN FREE WILL, YOU ALREADY BELIEVE IN MAGIC
Keep that in mind as you judge western Religion…
In still other words, if there is such a thing as free will, modern science and thought must be missing (or misunderstanding) a WHOLE DIMENSION (or something — or more)
Again, Religion requires the existence of MAGIC – and if you believe in free will, you already believe in magic
And again, again — keep that in mind…
If you DON’T believe in free will (yet), keep thinking
