Sacred Dis-Ease
Every brand-name religion says there is something wrong with you. For Hinduism it’s ignorance, for Judaism it’s exile, for Buddhism it’s craving, for Christianity it’s sin, and for Islam it’s pride. When you are born into or choose a religion, you inherit that religion’s particular dis-ease: the existential trauma that religion is uniquely designed to cure.
The dis-ease is central to the religion’s story. If there were nothing wrong with you, you’d have no need for a religion. Or if what was wrong with you wasn’t what the religion could cure, you’d have no need for that religion.
When your religion diagnoses you with a certain dis-ease, always get a second opinion. Preferably from a different religion.
RR
For example, if you’re baptized into the Catholic faith, congratulations! You now suffer from the dis-ease of Original Sin. If, on the other hand, you choose to be a Jew, mazel tov! No Original Sin; Jews never heard of it. Yet if you are a Jew and you believe you suffer from Catholicism’s Original Sin, Judaism is the wrong medicine, and you need to convert to Catholicism in order to be cured.
The first thing a religion does is convince you there is something wrong. The second thing is to convince you it can set things right.