David Kimball's blog

Often a Humanist will state that they are "not religious, but are spiritual". But I just found out that "religion" actually can have two meanings - one we would rather not assume, but the other we should be proud to assume.

Generally, "religion" is assumed to be from the Latin "religere" which means "to tie", or "to bind" or to "assume a yoke". When this is meant to be yoked to a creed, or to be tied to a dogma of some church, we naturally say that that does not describe ourselves. This is the extroverted meaning that comes from outside ourselves and is forced upon us.

An old villager had a beautiful garden where he would be found working every day to improve its beauty. One day a minister/priest walked by and saw him working again in his garden. He complimented the old man on the garden's beauty, to which the villager replied, "Aye, I've cartainly worked mortal hard at it, and I done it all myself." The minister then added in a reproving manner "With the help of the Almighty, I'm sure." "Well, I dunno about that," the old man replied, "you oughter 'ave seen it when the Almighty 'ad it to Hisself."