Reason And Art

Through our senses we experience the world. Through the mind (and how it is shaped) we interpret the world. Language is a uniquely useful tool for sharing experiences and interpretations – but not the only one. Art, in its many forms, works as well. We communicate through art. We share through art. It reaches a mystical place within us – but not a place that is disconnected from our mind. Religion and science rely on the communicative capacities of both language and art.

Reason is the tool we use to make sense of our perceptions and interpretations. Reason is the tool we use to develop assumptions and to evaluate results. Through reason we organize, evaluate, synthesize, and implement. It is not antagonistic to language or art – it is a servant to both. By itself, it carries no moral weight, has no moral value. Without reason we would cease to be human – and before long, cease to be.

In lieu of anything better, religion evolved as the primary mechanism for explaining the cosmos and the human relationship to it. Shamans, brujos, mystics, medicine men, healers, spirit people, witch doctors, priests, preachers, imams, and rabbis were imbued with power because of their claims of connectedness to a separate reality – claims that were supported by acts of magic and a clientle that was eager for safe harbor from the whims and ravages of Mother Earth. But even in the good old days, primordial days, religious forms were built on a foundation of reason and were extended through language and art.

In terms of creation religion paints with the brush of metaphor; science pursues the substance. In terms of morality, religion opens pathways, science shows where those paths lead.