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I recently travelled to Darwin and was surrounded by the living and remnant artefacts of the indigenous faiths by which the first Australians ordered their lives. It was another example, if ever I needed one, of the power of spirituality and its necessity for many, or indeed most, communities.
The doyens of New Atheism taunt believers. The late Christopher Hitchens asserted that “religion poisons everything” and Richard Dawkins has asked whether “religion is the root of all evil”.
Any fair consideration of Aboriginal spirituality makes these assertions look like another form of white cultural imperialism. We all owe the Aboriginal community a duty to try to immerse ourselves in the spirituality that formed their culture and binds their communities to this day. This immersion will help inform us of how indigenous and non-indigenous communities can more successfully co-exist. Read more
Sources
- Dick Gross in The Sydney Morning Herald
- Image: Sathya Sai Baba
Dick Gross has written and broadcast about living and dying without a god for over a decade.
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