Where did religions come from? Lent 2023: Day 42

Imagine no religion. It's not as easy to do as John Lennon suggests. Just imagine that nowhere on this planet, not at any time in its history, did any spiritual belief become codified into a formal religion that would grow and gather millions of followers. Thinking about it, one would think that religion is a natural feature of human society, an innate part of the human condition. 

Religions of one level of sophistication or another seem to spontaneously arise as humans band together. Anthropologically curious - and yet, there we are. From Animism to Zoroastrianism, I cannot envisage any pre-industrial grouping of Homo sapiens without its own belief system.

Religious fault-lines criss-cross the world, dividing Hindu against Muslim, Muslim against Jew, Christian against Christian, often to the point of deadly violence. All because one group of people happened to have been born into one faith, and the other group, into another faith. 

Religious intolerance is not something I associate with learning. Religious intolerance is stoked by malign actors, their target group those who can be convinced of the literal meaning of any particular holy book. 

There are three levels at which one can take holy texts, or indeed the messages they convey. The first is the literal meaning of the Word of God. God literally made the world in six days, and Eve from Adam's rib. The second is the metaphorical meaning - Jesus was a Son of God, as are we all. The third is the deepest metaphysical meaning embedded within holy text, and it is at this level that commonality between religions - a highest common factor - is to be sought for.

If we are intellectually stuck on the literal meaning, unable to rise above it, we are doomed to a cycle of religious wars, with the adherents of one holy book killing adherents of another. If instead, we seek higher level meta-truths, we might finally arrive at a common position, a common understanding of each other's quintessential point of view - and agree to agree.

This approach is extremely difficult as there are so many vested interests wanting to maintain barriers between religions for so many reasons.

If we accept that we follow a given religion because we were born into it by chance, then the fact that someone else follows some other given religion because they also were born into it by chance, and seeking commonality of spiritual outlook is a righteous undertaking.

It is hard for us to talk deeply to one another about how we lead our lives; it is harder still to open up about our metaphysical beliefs without being branded a weirdo or obsessive or God-botherer. And yet this is the most fundamental question of them all - why are we here, why there's something rather than nothing, why we consciously experience the physical universe around us - and what is the ultimate purpose. You may even say - there is no reason, no purpose; it's just an accident. If you hold such a view, I'd still like to talk you about it!

Lent 2022: Day 42
A Future Like This

Lent 2021: Day 42
Actively seeking Understanding

Lent 2020: Day 42
From Zero to One