Houston Smith – Earthly Religion

Stand Up

September 15, 2025
Byron Carrier

“Stand up, Bradley,” my mother used to say to me. I slouched, my head hung forward. I was a “lazy breather,” inhaling through my mouth. At age 8, I felt timid, afraid. Finally, at age 80, I’m standing up. When I think of it, I tighten my lower belly, pull back my shoulders, and try to walk symmetrically. Such a posture change helped rescue my hips from being replaced, and I feel more confident. Thanks, Mom! Not that I am easily confident. External forces –…

January 25, 2012
Byron Carrier

“Egotists,” I joke, “are those more interested in their selves than me.” We all have egos. We all see and work the world from the unique locus we know as “I.” We each have our particular body, genetic disposition, situation, and story. While I admire the quest to be egoless, I doubt it happens. Even saints can get caught in their very spiritual ego. And you know what’s harder than being a saint – living with one. We all know people with egos so big…

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

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