Analysis Of Life's Too Short To Pretend You Re Not Religious By David Dark

I recently asked my Facebook friends what connotations the term “religious” has for them. The answers ran the gamut, from the generally positive:

“sacred space,” “ritualistic,” “disciplined,” “a shared set of beliefs and moral standards” to the safely neutral:

“vague,” “subscribing to a particular religion. no more, no less,” “parameters of how they view life.” to the negative:

“intolerant,” “wrapped up in the letter of the law,” “makes me cautious,” “ick” “conjure[s] up derision,” “suspicion” and even the outright hostile, in the form of a hastily retracted comment of “deluded” and “mean.”

It’s toward those on the negative end of the spectrum that David Dark’s new book, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious (InterVarsity Press,

Instead, he proposes radically redefining the entire notion of religion, characterizing it as simply the “controlling story” of our lives (14).

Given that definition, we are all, whether we admit it or not, deeply religious. We all have a narrative that we live by, we all have commitments and priorities and values that shape who we are. Since, practically speaking, we are all religious, Dark believes that we should embrace the term, claiming it anew as a source of empowerment and enlightenment: “If what we believe is what we see is what we do is who we are, there’s no getting away from religion. We all want to know who we are, where and how we fit in, and what our lives might yet mean. And in this sense, religion might be the best word we have for seeing, naming, confessing and really waking up to what we’re after in all we do, of becoming aware of what’s going on in our minds.”

Dark sums up this responsibility:

“If my religion is my relationship to the world, good religion would be the work of developing, growing and keeping consciousness, not closed, shut, settled, rigid or done for, but one of ever-unfolding receptivity and, if you like, continual repentance, a continual turning away from all of my not-quite-worthy-of-life commitments, a way of taking responsibility for what I do. In this sense, it seems to me that owning this relationship as religion is a requirement of good faith and therefore a step in the direction of true religion.” (131)

I’m sympathetic to Dark’s reimagining our use of the term “religious,” but I also think that it’s naive, and perhaps dangerous, to downplay the real and significant reasons why so many people hold such a dim view of religion. Religion has been complicit in some of the greatest atrocities in our history and it still frequently acts as a virulent source of hate and