Derek Thompson

They welcomed me with open arms.

And I think what was happening is that I had a belief that in order to participate, I had to have faith that was equal to what is written in their holy texts.

I had to have blind faith.

but that's not what I felt at all.

Every single faith I visited, every religious leader was incredibly welcoming.

I had limited myself.

I had this limiting belief that I'm not welcome unless I can declare utter faith in everything.

And I think that is causing this crisis, in America in particular, of people leaving religion despite its myriad benefits.

that I think there are two parties here, that I think for us, for people who have trouble buying a faith with blind faith, that buying everything, every miracle that we have to, you know, it really defies logic, but we have to believe without even questioning, that's too high of a bar.

And so what we need is what I call constructive interpretation.

That when I hear something, when I go into a religious institution, I hear something that, ah, that's really hard for me to square, that that miracle really had to happen exactly as it's written.

It's okay.

I don't have to have that bar of it being a fact.

It just has to be a belief.

And the bar for a belief is that it has to be a tool that serves me, that makes me better, that helps me serve others better.

It doesn't have to be a fact because a belief is a tool, not a truth.

So I've changed that into this constructive interpretation.

I think on the other side is that I think it behooves religious institutions to not have this purity test.

Nobody asks the Pope daily, do you really have faith in everything that you're preaching?

No, we don't ask.