What-where-when-why-who?

I had a beautiful religious experience walking home from class this morning.

This is a sign in Copenhagen that someone was kind enough to share with me. This morning I googled the phrase just to see what would come up, and found an article that spoke of the importance of curiosity to a satisfied life. Interesting. Went to class, got a Jewish perspective on the Song of Songs (I love my life), bought the last of my textbooks, then headed back to my apartment. I was walking along 4th St between Broadway and Lafayette, and I happened to glance up at a building and see "SILK BUILDING" etched in the stone. Suddenly I became curious as to why it was called the Silk Building. And as I looked around, I started asking, "Why? How?" to so many things I saw. Like a small child playing the "Why?" game. I might be able to find the answer to some of these, like the question of the name of that building, why cords get gnarly when you use them so much, or why that architectural style came to be. Some of them I will probably never have the answer to, like who graffitti'd that mailbox and why, what drew that old woman to wear a red coat with a pointy hood, or what was going through the head of the person who designed that streetlight?

And I stopped there on Lafayette, laughing, as I realized that curiosity is all about asking these questions.

Because that's what religion is, too. Asking questions of why and how, on a cosmic level. It may look like religion is in the business of handing out simple answers. ("How did the world come to be?" "Easy, God created it in seven days in this order.") But the further I've delved into religion, the more I've seen that religion does not give answers to these questions, but rather, religion gives language to be able to delve into the question. How can we begin to talk about something that transcends language? By creating a language for that purpose. And that's what religion does.

And you know what? Those questions are also being asked by science. And they're also being asked by art. Religion, science and art don't talk that much. Don't talk as much as we should for those exploring the same questions. Perhaps we'd all do well to put the fear we have of each other aside, and be curious together.