Pray

I abandoned my Christian faith on the age of 19. Reading Thomas Aquinas ('Faith cannot contradict reason'), and to a lesser extent René Descartes, played an integral part in that process, which is all the more ironic since they both remained Christians until their respective deaths (although Descartes may have done that more to please those around him).

Nevertheless, I still understand the power of prayer, or meditation if you like. And I was reminded of that when I saw an episode from the series Babylon 5, in which station commander Jeffrey Sinclair has to introduce the concept of 'Earth religion' to a host of alien races.

So he guides the representatives of said races to a room where there's a line of people. And Sinclair starts to introduce them all:

'This is Mr. Harris. He's an atheist. Father Frisanti, a Roman Catholic. Mr. Hayakawa, a Zen Buddhist. Mr. Rashid, a Muslim. Mr. Rosenthal, an Orthodox Jew. Running Elk, of the Oglala Sioux faith. Father Papapolous, a Greek Orthodox. Ojijiko, of the Ebo tribe. Ochukiak, a Utic Eskimo. Sawa, of the Jivaro tribe. Ms. N'fuma, a Bantu. Ms. Chang, a Taoist. Mr. Blacksmith, an Aborigine. Ms. Yamamoto, a Shinto. Ms. Nigel, a Maori. Mr. Go, a Hindu...'

And his voice fades out as Sinclair continues to introduce more and more people, and more and more perspectives on God, to the baffled representatives.

Whenever I see that scene, I feel closer to whatever God is than I ever did when I still went to church.

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