Religion, Truth, Mystery and Morality

In spite of protestations to the contrary, mere ideology is a large part of what is usually presented as a religion. Members of the faith group are told that they are obliged to acknowledge these ideas, hypotheses, conjectures and definitions, and perhaps even recite them in public. Such a state of affairs can lead, at best, to cosy feelings that spring from a supposed unity of belief, and, at worst, to appalling intolerance of anyone or any idea that threatens this unity. Other grave moral problems also arise when hypotheses are presented as 'the faith.' What follows is an attempt to confront some of the problems and to note how they arise, while, at the same time, arguing that real religion is about trust in Mystery.