religion

Some philosophy I personally couldn't call religion, and some religion is little or nothing like philosophy.

At the moment, though, I consider my current philosophy as something that simultaneously fulfills a religious purpose.

For others like me who can't abide the notion of the supernatural (and are even skeptical perhaps as to what "natural" is really supposed to mean) my perspective may be of value.

I don't a person has to betray "reason" in the least to have that joy that religion promises.

Blake stressed that men don't get into heaven by curbing their passions but rather by organizing their minds. (Blake was a profound philosopher, but are his annotations even noticed? Does our modern allergy to our Christian heritage make us blind to some of our great writers?)

Blake is something like Nietzsche, except that Blake was wiser and brighter. He reacted against the same godlessness. But instead of forbidding pity, he warned of the dangers of self-righteousness. He saw that much that went by the name of religion was nothing but this self-righteousness. He saw that passion was the foundation of joy, and also that the weak in courage are the strong in cunning.

Now Blake saw men as mental travelers who passed thru states. So to be weak in courage is a state that humans get stuck in. Courage for what? Courage to love, to risk the wound of love --that which the crucifixion symbolizes.

We dodge this love with all the cleverness that humans are capable of. We invent secret handshakes, build our exclusive buildings, be they skyscrapers or cathedrals. We learn to use a complicated and intimidating jargon to convince ourselves that we are somehow wise even as we are unsatisfied, anxious, angry.
Well, the world abounds in scapegoats. Indeed, there is much to accuse. The atheist has a good case against the religious hypocrite. The communist and the capitalist are both right on certain issues. The conspiracy theorist has his secret group behind the scenes. The less materialistic intellectual can blame a more-materialistic less-intellectual majority for letting society rot. But all of us are tangled in the goods and money. Drug money. Bomb money. High interest money. The food at the grocery store...