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[Meh, haven't been keeping up with writing stuff and posting it like I wanted to. Oh well, here's my view on religion.]

In recent times, the most marked events in the world of religion are those that involve modern science. It was discovered that the Earth is not the center of the universe, that the Earth was not formed in only a few days, and Darwin revealed the theory of evolution and natural selection. (The latter is, even today, largely disputed.) All of the modern evidence that seemed to go against the Bible [and other Holy Books] has encouraged the rise of atheism and generally a decrease in society's faith in religion.

Personally, I'm simply agnostic. I don't believe in anything in particular, not any particular god or group of gods, nor that there is no divine entity. I believe in what exists in the realm of logic and reason, yet I also believe that absolutely nothing is impossible (though, a countless number of things are highly improbable.) As a person of reason, I do believe in our science; a practice with it's very foundation in reason. With my knowledge of science, I have come to understand that science can only explain "What?" and "How?", never "Why?". Science has shown us "what" all matter is composed of, it has shown us "how" living organisms actually live, it has shown us "what" is out there in the universe, and much of "how" nature works. But science can never answer "why" matter exists, "why" intelligent life has developed, "why" the whole universe exists, or "why" nature follows the rules of mathematics. Science may have given us the Big Bang Theory, or String Theory, but even if they prove to be true, we would still not know "why" either is. That is what religion and faith are for: to explain those "Why?"s that science never can. Fundamentally, there shouldn't be any reason faith and reason cannot coexist, so long as they do not interfere with each other.

But, science still does conflict with religious text...or does it? Something I find peculiar is that most religious texts seem to treat mankind and the Earth as "special". Yet, science has declared that considering the sheer size of the universe, it's highly probable that other life, intelligent life, is out there somewhere. Some rail against the notion, clinging to the belief that we are God's only children and that we are created in His image. But who's to say that God has 1 head, 2 arms, and 2 legs? Who's to say He doesn't look like something else? Who's to say that He even has a physical appearance to look at?

I'm not saying that we *aren't* special, but what I'm getting at is that *all* life is special. I believe that we *are* created in God's image, but not "we" as in mankind, but "we" as in all living things throughout the universe. I believe that the Bible is not to be taken so literally, but instead as a metaphor for *universal* events rather than global ones. In all honesty, if God were as all-knowing as assumed, I'm sure He knew that ancient man was not intelligent enough to grasp universal concepts, so He would use terms that our ancestors could understand. Sure, our ancestors were told that the Earth was formed in only a few days, but who's to say those are Earth days? They may be a God days, and it's not like the men of the past would have grasped the concept of 100 billion years. Those of the past would not have understood that Life was scattered throughout the universe, and that they are all created in the image of God. The Bible is God's version of the "Birds & the Bees", and the reality of the universe is the reality of our adulthood.