What Passes For Religion

03/11/2007 - 11:00am
Tony Hileman

"What Passes For Religion" -- Tony Hileman, Leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture

For centuries, the threshold of religion was our acceptance of forces beyond nature, and our reliance on them for information about things we do not know and perhaps cannot know. The prophesies of those claiming insight to the forces and mysteries of the universe guided our thoughts, our actions, and our lives. We no longer suborn intellect to authority, and we've come to recognize that religion consists of involvement as much as contemplation. As our concept of what passes for religion shifts, are there imposters that we should be protesting? Have the prophets of yore become the pretenders of today?