Jonathan H. B. Lobl

Huxley invented the word AGNOSTIC. He said that God was unknown and unknowable. The opposite of provable. The meaning of Agnostic has degraded in common usage to being undecided. I think it's still a good word. That God cannot be proved or disproved.

I am not unsocial. I attend a senior center five days a week, schedule permitting. I teach a weekly qi gong class. There are ways to find community that have nothing to do with religion. No. Religion is not humanities only obstacle. If religion vanished today, humanity would still be a mess. It would be a different mess, but it would still be a mess. As for God. I am an Apatheist. I don't care whether or not God exist. I am persuaded that even the question is futile.

Of course religion is not, of itself, a pathology. You asked what will replace religion. Nothing will replace religion. We can come together, and nurtur each other, and do good with out religion. First, we must see that religion is not the only path forward. We can simply let it go. 🤔 A simple experiment. Point to yourself. Did you point to your brain? No. You pointed to your heart. You did that without religion. 😀

I have to ask. What do you mean by spiritual and spirituality?

We would not ask what to replace cancer. Sanity and humanity would replace religion.

What is the latest word?

Next. The story of the elephant and the butterfly. 😆

I agree. Putting great ideas into practice is the hard part. Perhaps you remember the Asehops fable about the cat and mice. The mice agreed that someone had to put a bell around the cat's neck. One old mouse said - "Yes. But who will bell the cat? Theory and practice. 😆 Jonathan

No. Also no children. This works out well because I never took a wife. I never found anyone I wanted to be married to. It's one of the few serious mistakes I managed to avoid. So many of my peers are on their second divorce. 😆🤣

A lot of topics are self limiting. The threads on Agnosticism and Atheism have been beaten to death. I doubt anyone has changed their opinion on vaccination or masking. Well, updates. I still have to mask up at my senior center and medical places. Otherwise, masking has largely passed. I had the new bivalent vaccine booster. Vaccine booster rates are low. Things are not quite normal. Or maybe they are. Jonathan 😀

I have a social nature but I have run out of things to say. Jonathan

Thank you. I have also missed you. 😀

You have chosen an extreme example. I have little to offer in the way of wisdom. A less extreme example: A person who I regarded as a friend, who was also one of my teachers, who I had business dealings with -- bounced a check off me and disappeared into the night. I could have mourned the loss of the money. A $200 check. Instead I decided that it was a small price to be rid of a false friend. Your example is more complicated. If the situation keeps you from sleeping. If it affects your health. You will be less able to protect your children and your enemy has found another way to harm you. Your rage will not harm this person. It will consume you. A Buddhist idea that I find helpful is the middle path of moderation. Get enough sleep. Don't sleep your life away. Don't starve yourself. Don't be a gluten. Don't be lazy. Don't work yourself to death. Etc. Buddha himself was not always a good example. He abandoned his wife and child to seek enlightenment. This is not something his wife agreed to or his son. I think it was a vile, despicable and selfish decision. Then again, Buddha was only a man. For all of his great wisdom, a flawed man like the rest of us.

The basic ideas are solid. The path has had 3,000 years of professional monks to make things complicated. I do have a few concerns. Buddha was clear that everything was subject to confirmation. Including his teachings. This is a path to enlightenment. After 3,000 years, there should be a lot of Buddhas. Where are they? Perhaps I have wrong ideas about what it means to be enlightened. Or what it means to be a Buddha. That said, to my understanding, Buddha was an Agnostic. He seems to have disdained gods and metaphysics.

The whole idea of releasing the transitory and understanding that everything passes. It really helps in dealing with all manner of loss. The idea of letting go of anger and resentment. It makes mental health more understandable. Anger is a fire. It burns. Releasing desire is also useful. IMO.