Regionally Specific Religiousity

Ciana made me think this morning about something odd. Most religion comes to us from far away. In space and in time. The real old world religions like Judaism were developed in a very regionally, environmentally and culturally specific place. And tho' I'm down with heritage. What does that stuff really say to me? While Christianity and Islam work to universalize some of these ideas they are still rooted--or offshoots--from that very specific socio-historical, geographical place.

What if your religion came from next door? I can remember when I was really young using the world around me to understand. Big mountains in the distance had a specific place in that world. So did creeks and big open flat fields. Of course I have in mind here the native cultures of the world I was brought up in...I mean, long gone natives. But natives none the less. They looked around and told stories about the world based on what they saw. We aren't talking science here. We're talking spirituality.

Maybe people would be more in tune with their environments and themselves if they look the stuff that helped form that self as a sort of religious or spiritual basis. I can think of a lot of ways in which being around and thinking about Mount Diablo centers me and brings be back into a place where I remember and know some things about who I've been, where I've been, who has been there with me.

I'd be willing to bet more people have some innate connection to the soils they were born on. And near atheist that I am, that is nigh on spiritual stuff you're dealing with. So why import religion from elsewhere? You were probably making a good start at it when you were young. Why not find a least a bit of that again?