On the need for religion

Religions are poor things: they are at their roots, flawed; propounded by flawed institutions, held together by irredeemably damaged people. But, we are all irredeemably damaged; and we are lost. Religions, bad as they are, are all we have to help us remember. Remember what? I do not know: I have forgotten, too. But it seems to me that it is something like this:

• that we are all small pieces of flotsam, motes, brief sparks floated out upon currents of The Universe for a little time and space;
• that, obscurely, in ways and manners we cannot fathom, we matter and are loved; (to ask "To what?" and "By whom?" is to miss the point;)
• that we are constituents of this amazing enterprise we call "The Universe": our essence is of it;
• that every bit - every last, little, damned bit - of it is sacred;
• that though we think we die, the First Law of Thermodynamics applies.

St Beuno's