i had a very nice conversation with the other day, and i wanted to write down some things related to that, so as to help me solidify them in my brain:

religion is like an infinitely multifaceted jewel. you hold the jewel in front of you, and light reflects off of certain facets and dazzles your eye. at the same time, there are facets on the opposite side of the jewel that you can’t even see. but that doesn’t mean that the facets that dazzle your eye are any more important, or that the facets that you can’t see are any less important.

in fact, if one facet or the other ceased to exist, the whole jewel would vanish.