Losing my Religion on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This photo depicts a man standing by the side of a lonesome road, laden down with suitcase after suitcase, while by his feet rests a cardboard sign reading "FINDING MY FAITH." The picture is part of a series the creator calls "Losing My Religion, Finding My Faith," and the caption talks about the unnecessary addenda we put upon ourselves that are not really part of religion. He (the photographer) addresses the idea that we use "unnecessary and often harmful 'beliefs' that really keep us from a true faith" to try to interpret religion, but all we accomplish is a distortion of what the religion "should" be. In his view, there is a distinct line between religion and faith, and one is good while the other has good roots but has been buried under what we seem to think it needs. The suitcases, representing these additions, are labeled "dogma," "detriment," "hindrance," "impedimenta," "trappings," and "encumbrance," and they are piled high, obscuring the bearer's face. For the photographer, religion is something that is built up and distorted from a common faith or starting point such as the Bible (which he mentions as such).

The man in the picture is almost completely hidden from view by what he has taken upon himself-- what he thinks he needs for his journey. He is so weighed down with these bags that he cannot even see the cars that drive past him, the cars that he seems to want to hitch a ride with. If he could only set down these self-imposed burdens, he would be free to roam wherever he wanted, free to flag down the passing cars and interact with new and different people. Instead, he stands uncomfortably on the side of the road, trying to master the precariously balanced bags and cases of his belongings, unable to see or be seen by those in a better position to travel on down the road. This works as a very good analogy, I think, to added-on interpretations of texts, stories, and other evidence, whereby the recipients of this super-edited version are at a loss to decipher what the text may originally have meant or how to interpret such things for themselves. The more interpretations are imposed on texts, the less clear they truly become, especially when interpretations are handed down through generation after generation, getting murkier with each hand-off. That is to say, each time someone tries to fit ancient texts to specific modern events, for example, the meaning of the text gets narrower and more difficult to apply in real, day-to-day situations.

What the creator of this photograph and I are getting at is that while some things do need to be interpreted, such as cryptic texts, there is most definitely such a thing as over-interpretation, which tends to sort of defeat the purpose on interpretation in the first place. I don't know that I would go so far as to say that "religion" is the trumped-up baggage that comes from "faith," as the photographer does, but he may be onto something-- "faith" is more spiritual and personal, while "religion" is, as we've discussed, a group phenomenon that may need to have more rigorous and intense interpretation and editing of texts in order to fulfill its function in society of satisfying the ritualistic and worshipful needs of a certain group of people.