Every Sunday you recited something like this:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
If you were confirmed, you spent even more time on it in preparation for confirmation.
Religion is a way for people to imbue their lives with meaning, and to deal with the profound themes raised by existence. It has generated, until the modern era, a good deal of the art and literature and music with which we are familiar. It inspired temples to the gods, cathedrals to glorify Christ, epic literature, tales of the gods (as in Greek tragedy), the quest literature of the chivalric period (such as the search for the Grail), the works of numerous painters (either adorning churches or using mythological material), Gregorian chant, the Masses of Palestrina, the Cantatas of Bach, Handel's Messiah, and much else. Marx's comment is dreadfully superficial, given that many revolutionary or reform movements have been inspired by religion, as well. For example, it was the rise of Methodism that lead to the abolition of the trans- Atlantic slave trade, and it was the initiative of various teaching orders in the Roman Catholic church that lead to mass literacy among the working class in many Catholic countries........ |
