There are 3 elements to being human:

1. Spiritual
2. “Mental”
3. Physical
All people realize this, even non and anti religious people

• Non or anti-religious people – if they think of these

matters at all – tend to think of spiritual reality as
accidentally arising, random, unpredictable, without
purpose

• Spiritual or religious people recognize this as “given”

and by implication purposeful and perfectly designed

Each element orients itself to an essential function or

aspect of the nature of reality:
1. The essential qualities of the spiritual are:
a. Oneness
b. Constancy (unchanging)
c. Eternal (no beginning no end)
The spiritual part of the human being seeks to be related
to and seeks to realize these qualities.
2. The essential qualities of the physical are:
a. Multiplicity (infinite variety)
 b. Variance (incessant change)
c. Temporal (incessant beginnings and endings)
The physical and corporeal aspects of the human being
manifests and resonates with these qualities
The “mental” faculties of being human are provided to
mediate between the spiritual and the physical.
Spiritual and physical realities are often understood
(mistakenly) as opposite or incompatibly universes, but in
fact paradoxically they are harmonious and mutually
supportive.
“Mental” is not an ideal term because it is often mistaken
to refer to just one limited dimension of discernment,
namely the intellectual. Discernment and “knowing” in
fact derive from 3 sources:
A. Intellectual
B. Emotional
C. Purposeful

1. This (tri-partite) “mental” part of being human has by

its natural function “judgment” or assessment. Its
job is to navigate, to guide. Its mission and job is to
provide for the individual the true nature of things,
which it does through the collection, collation, and
interpretation or integration of information.
 2. The “mental” (mediating) role in the human structure
can function reliably, only in an impartial manner,
favoring neither one side nor the other (leaning
toward the spiritual nor the physical in its
preference).
3. Because it is the role of the “mental” to “judge,”
problems and conflicts are generated from this
sphere.
4. The reason why the spiritual (or religious) conflicts
with the physical-secular is due to failure in the
“mental” balance
5. The reason religions conflict with one another is due
to failure in the “mental” function (NOT due to the
innate nature of religion)
a. The reason why people are more intolerant of
religious conflict is because religion is meant to
orient toward that dimension of reality that is
without difference
This then is one way to understand or analyze religion is
through this what is called structural or theological
“anthropology.”

Another way to understand religion is “historically.”

Although many believer resist the “historicizing”
(historically contextualizing or “relativizing”) their faith in
this way, most mature believers find ways to integrate
these simple realities into a vigorous and uncompromised
faith.
1. The person who taught what emerged into Buddhism
lived about 2,500 years ago.
2. The person who taught what emerged to become
Confucianism lived about ____ ago
3. The person who taught what emerged into Judaism
lived about 4,000 years ago.
4. The person who taught what emerged to become
Christianity lived about 2,000 years ago.
5. The person who taught what emerged to be Islam
lived 1400 years ago.
6. Slavery in the United States of America ended ____
years ago
7. The light bulb was invented ____ years ago
These simple facts, plus the extreme differences in
geography and cultures in these vastly different parts of
the world make it obvious that initiatives, even in touch
with an identical set of truths would surely find
expression in wildly different forms and externals.
Here again we see the urgent need for the “mental”
faculties and social institutions devoted their
development (“education”) to have balance. Its positive
role for “judgment” and discernment should resonate
equally with the paradoxically harmonized universes of
the (oneness) spiritual, and the (infinitely diverse)
physical.
In this respect, sacred space and sacred structures not
only have “functional” purposes, but the physical
demands represented by buildings and grounds provide
the perfect hub for a global, collective realization of our
spiritual life in a physical world of abundant joy and
plenty.