So I'm at an impasse with this religion thing. On the one hand, I feel like a lot of the beliefs and practices stemming thereof are wrong, philosophically. On the other hand, I think that religion has a component of emotional and psychological value that the so-called "secular" world cannot replace. Nor is the sense of spiritual release that a good session of prayer provides to be found in the study or the academic armchair. I have had such intense feelings of unity and awe before something divine...I am sure G-d exists as an emotional if not a physical reality. I am tapping into something which I could not otherwise reach. Schul provides a means of stimulation that is, I think, very valuable. What I dislike, however, is having to parse out the negative aspects -- the dogmatic urgings, the egocentrism, the ethnocentrism. All of these elements deaden worship. I wonder, because today I was perusing and I came across a book on Martin Buber and his "I / You" relationship between G-d and mankind. I think there's something to his philosophy. Mankind's relationship to G-d can only be as powerful and inspiring as is his relationship to his fellow man, and his relationship with his fellow man can only be as good as his union with G-d. Now this may seem like a logical contradiction, because, after all, where do you start? But I think perhaps what Buber is alluding to, here, (or at least what casual observation suggests to me) is the unity of religious process and secular process. In becoming a better human-being, I not only become closer to my brothers and sisters, all 6,000,000 in destitution and luxury, but I come to a real understanding, I see the face of G-d.