In our new age of enlightenment, as more and more people realize the futility of organized religion (faith in a generic "supreme being"), many are turning toward their own more individualized or personalized forms of spirituality. It seems that the more complex a society becomes, the more complex its religious theology and dictated spiritual philosophy. Stripped of all the baggage, jingoism, gizmos and semi-sacred mystery, religion and spirituality are ordinary and natural earthly ideas conceptualized, implemented and perpetuated by ordinary human beings for the emotional (spiritual) and physical (religious) well-being of the superstitious among us.

Simply put, I interpret monotheism, as we know it, to be the product of a complex tribe, the Jews (with the inspiration of an Egyptian Pharaoh) who were trying to create an identity for themselves among the polytheism of the era. As monotheism became a means throughout what is now known as the Middle East to upgrade the polytheism of the time so must this modern paganism (christianity, judaism, islam, buddhism, etc.) give way to other forms of demonstrable "faith". Also, as this monotheism has become more complex over the ages, like polytheism it has become more divisive. Perhaps the difference between religion and spirituality has blurred to the point that emotion and logic ended up too entangled to be useful in their natural and separate states leading, therefore, to the religiously inspired conflicts which have plagued societies throughout human history.

The ideas of: good and bad, morality and immorality, compassion and intolerance, force and diplomacy, etc. were around long before any of the historical organized religions. Theology, both ancient and modern took these species-perpetuating ideas and adapted them for their own purposes. For example, the Egyptian culture and religious history as well as the Greek culture and history are both much older than christianity and islam. Yet they were eventually conquered because the islamist and the christian hoards had the arrogance, the power, the domineering force and the wealth (ill gotten, in the main) to eliminate these ancient faiths and beliefs, these ancient cultures and their religions, thus adding to the diverse power bases, wealth and influence of the allegedly more modern and enlightened theocracies of the time. In forcing those and other (perhaps more refined and civilized) peoples into their dogmatic web, the modern religions of today have revealed the inconsistency of preaching spiritual oneness on the one hand while demonstrating basic intolerance and hatred on the other.

When we talk about "faith", are we talking about faith in (among other things) the notion of a non-provable, illogical "afterlife"? Or faith in living an ethical, moral and spiritually fulfilling natural life? Apparently, spiritual faith (a rational faith) is the way toward emotional health while religious faith (an irrational faith) is the popular path to a hoped-for "life" after death. While this irrational faith may allow us to feel good about ourselves naturally, I wonder how many of us would, through allowing ourselves a bit more logic, see how singular this temporal life of ours really is and be content with striving for happiness, fulfillment, contentment and compassion in the here-and-now.

Logic can control our emotions, as I'm sure everyone is aware, and is my personal choice, as a realist, for "spirituality" and "religion". Unfortunately, emotions often control logic to the detriment of conscience, yet relentless submission to emotion would seem to be the basis for the exercise of spiritual and religious choice for most of the world's humanity.

Although I was never really a big fan of the television series Star Trek, I found the notion of the Vulcan species, personified by "Mr. Spock", capable of easily existing with barely any emotional baggage and forming their existence around logic and reason (at least fictionally) a hopeful indicator for future generations of humans.

Though temporal life may be fleeting and futile, it's reasonably the only life we've got so why not make the most of it? Use natural logic to control (without, of course, eliminating) natural emotion and live life with the awareness that oblivion...the end of our awareness, the finality of death...is waiting. This is the natural order of the world. It is reward for the process of birth and the basis for our survival instinct. The mysticism, superstition, illogical and unreasoning ritual, the overwhelming uselessness of organized religion seems a slap in the face of modern human intellect and learning.

Who decides the clergy is right and all the reasonable among us are wrong? The clergy.

What's another name for "witch doctor"? For shaman? For "high priest"? The clergy.

Who had the power to promulgate, to legitimize human sacrifice (among other evils) in ancient culture? The clergy.

Who declared this to be not murder, but "worship"? The clergy.

If one of these glorified witch doctors today told you to give up your first born as a human sacrifice, would you willingly do it? It's happened before, could it happen again? Figuratively, forcing our infant children into organized religion through baptism condemns them to the vagaries of the clergy and whatever sacrifices (circumcision??) and "sacraments" they may deem necessary to their self-perpetuation.

Remember, those of you who fret about our ever increasing denial of the anachronistic religions of the world: all our problems, our potential for "evil" and "sin" have been existent well before the organized religions of today were conceived and they'll be here well after the disintegration of these religions. Jesus had it wrong in allegedly preaching that the great battle between "Light"(?) and "Darkness"(?) would be determined shortly after his execution. Two thousand years later, humankind is still as mortal as it was two thousand years before his appearance, the way it will be two thousand years hence. Human nature will remain imperfect, will remain human and natural until our eventual extinction.

Organized religion shudders to contemplate the inexorable advance of truth and knowledge. The one iconoclastic work that has opened the way for the eventual downfall of the judeo-christian religious system is, of course, Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Even though the myth of creationism is still upheld in some of the more rural and conservative areas of this country (like Kansas) .... and elsewhere, one would be hard-pressed to find any even marginally worldly individual (religious or not) unconvinced that evolution is responsible for humankind, that Adam and Eve were ever anything more than an absurdity. Organized religion, especially some of the more fundamentalist sects, would, even though they know better, have us reject any and all scientific proof of the natural evolution of life in serving their power-hungry and insensible aims.

As you may have figured out by now, I have little use for the teachings of religion, all of which seem aimed at obligating the human species (an evolved animal in spite of its alleged "sacredness") to reject its intellect and reason (even its instinct) in favor of simple rote devotion to ancient myth. None of us CHOSE to be here, so now that we are here and able to reason, the various major organized religions have, in their perpetual quest for what amounts to world domination, essentially tried to teach us not to reason. Religions, past and present, force our species to use its unique intellect in the glorification of superstition, sacrament and rite as opposed to accepting and using truth and logic. We have been taught to regard our species as "sacred" and thereby we may well destroy ourselves through evolutionary mismanagement.

Consider the fact that evolution, by scientific analysis, had to precede any of mankind's notions of a "supreme being". Humanity is a product (and a relatively recent one at that) of the evolution of life into a species with intellect and imagination, hence it's ideas of deities. Therefore, as frightening as the idea may be to the average individual, evolution and Natural Selection begat the historic ideas of "God", etc., not the other way around.

When the "faithful" among you throw your hands up in disgust, when you question the sanity or the morality of individuals who reason and believe as I (and many others) do, remember, it was just that kind of ignorant and impatient reaction which got mankind into the sectarian conflicts which continue to this day. Thousands of years ago mortal individuals dreamed up the notions of "god", "christ" and christianity (as well as all other religions that have ever existed) basing much of their idealism on the common sense of tribal law long before codified and inculcated into the members of the tribe. These shamans then found they had neither the intelligence, the patience, the time nor the initiative to listen to nor to appreciate others (and there had to have been more than a few) who disagreed with these emerging "faiths" and deities, pointing out the futility of trying to "renew" and "repackage" truths in order to make them fit the greed and lust for power, influence and wealth which the ancient shamans began to covet and which continues to the modern "shamans" of today. These dissenters to the dictated, dogmatic, repackaged and very mortal "truths" of ancient times were looked upon by these shamans (as well as their mesmerized and brainwashed followers) as malcontents and madmen who were to be ignored, banished from the clan, village, tribe, etc. or murdered. Tribes, nations and continents which had ideas different from those of other continents, tribes and villages eventually became the perpetrators as well as the innocent victims of murder and destruction due to these differences in theological philosophy; because they belived in a somewhat different manifestation of divinity. As a result, we now have genocide, war and misery on a world-wide scale. If there is but one "supreme being" as a large segment of the earth's population has been brainwashed into believing, and this "being" is supposedly so concerned about its incomprehensibly diverse "creation", why are there so many religions which are so essentially, philosophically and ideologically different from each other? Could this be a reflection of the uniqueness of individual mankind overwhelmed with over-rated societal "gods"? Or a failure to recognize, individually and collectively, the nature of human conscience.

There are, of course, those who will argue that christianity is the religion with the most followers in the world; that it is the largest religious denomination known to mankind; that everything attributed to and disseminated about the myth of "christ" must be the absolute truth since so very many people so implicitly believe these "teachings". I would submit, however, that in spite of the published number of alleged christians, the fact is that merely one third of the world's population actually claim this superstition as its faith. That many of those counted as christians have, like myself, long since rejected, either officially or subtly, the nonsensical and futile ceremony, rite and idolatry this method of "worship" demands. I would submit that most christians are counted as such simply because these more rational individuals haven't the interest nor the desire to have declared themselves followers of no religion; they are, therefore, merely assumed to be christians when in actuality, they profess their more rational faith in their own individual manner in spite of christian doctrine. Moreover, as an effective counterpoint to christian arrogance, there are the billions not sufficiently bamboozled to give up other brands of religious nonsense (judaism, islam, etc.) to be brainwashed into the christian version of "true faith".

If you're going to disrespect, dislike, or hate somebody, do so because they're greedy, or liars, or back-stabbers, or ignorant fools, or corrupt, or unreasonably violent, or arrogant, not because they may intelligently disagree with or find the obvious faults with the myths of organized religion. Otherwise we'll be going in this ridiculous circle of hatred, intolerance and ignorance forever.

Page written by: Eric D. Tallberg

October, 1998