The aim of religion

I criticize Joel Monka a lot (in my head even more than makes it into print), so it's only fair to highlight a good post he wrote that ends with an excellent articulation of some of my own feelings about religion:

To me, undue concern over an unknowable future in an unknown reality is an abuse of religion. I believe that the proper role of religion is to address the needs of the soul in the here and now... helping one make sense of life's daily absurdities, sharing pain and joy, understanding how to live and how to die.

And it's convenient that I came upon this the day after I "officially" became a UU, having just signed the book at Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church in Pittsburgh.