My Own History

Part I 

Throughout these discourses, I've deliberately over-simplified the various philosophies, writings, belief systems, etc. essential to all religious dogma. This is for the elementary reason that some scholars have spent their entire lives trying (and apparently failing) to comprehend, interpret, disentangle and categorize all the myths, permutations, parables, ceremonies, rites, rituals and superstitions which seem to be what religion is all about. All this is an effort to get some idea of the ultimate destiny and meaning of humanity through an understanding of its various self generated deities. Why this important information is left largely to the vagaries of "faith" and not just given to us by the "gods" we're instructed (by mere mortals) to worship and revere is a question nobody seems to have an answer for. This failure on the part of scholars and whatever deities are alleged to be "out there" has left me with no alternative but to interpret this meaning and destiny in my own way and for my own purposes. So sue me!!

My Own History of Religion and Humanity

It seems that mankind has a need for spiritual or conscientious relief to satisfy a natural and instinctual desire to codify morality and to deal with the expectation and finality of death. Since human beings are the only species on the planet which have a foreknowledge of the inevitability of death, efforts have been made since the beginning of human history to justify and modify the logical and natural idea that ones death brings closure to an individual forever. Since humans are as sociable a species as any other, they have had to structure their behavior and morality for the good of the various and diverse clans, villages and tribes of what are essentially a species of mutated apes which began forming as far back as some two million years ago. This process had to take into account the vagaries of an advanced mentality which have resulted in the huge polarity of character known as "good" and "evil", "righteousness" and "sin".

From the beginnings of human existence, spiritual concepts unique to the species' "super brain" capacities were adapted and discarded, defined and refined into the ancient cultures of the Greeks, Romans, Incas, Chinese, Indians, Egyptians and so on. These concepts included, naturally, religious ideas and philosophies which most of those ancient societies were mortally instructed to believe to be the result of "divine inspiration". However, because these ancient collections of tribal mores and spiritual concepts are thought by today's "enlightened" civilization to be "pagan", these ideas are considered unworthy of the inspiration or attention of a "supreme being".

As humankind procreated and flourished throughout the planet, their "pagan" religions, cultures and accepted morality became an integral part of the identity of modern humanity. Each of these "pagan" ideals and concepts was imagined, reworked, updated and propagated according to the various migrations, explorations and, most importantly, conquests of the originating tribes, clans, villages and races in their progression through the millennia, finally resulting in the polytheism which we study, usually with smugly amused contempt, today.

Thousands of years after these "contemptible" and "pagan" religions had begun serving what was then considered the civilized world with such seeming acceptance, a movement is alleged to have begun in what is now the African nation of Egypt among a tribe of Hebraic slaves (with indications, as I've mentioned earlier, that the idea originated with a somewhat obscure Pharaoh). This invention, whose origins, muddled as they are, has (again) been considered the result of "divine inspiration", is the concept of monotheism. After a couple of stops along the developmental process, we find ourselves with the modern "paganism" with which we're all familiar today. Now, we have a single "supreme being" or "higher power", omniscient, omnipotent and allegedly, benevolent known variously and for centuries now, as "God", "Yahweh", "Allah", and so on."Brahman", the hindu equivalent of the "supreme god", is actually one of several "gods" representative of this particular philosophy, leaving hinduism the only major modern religion which might actually be considered polytheistic. (Thinking "father, son and holy ghost" though, perhaps christianity is another...whether they'll admit it or not! Well, we'll keep this traditional for now)

Through the ages, this concept of a lone "supreme being" has been defined, refined, updated, examined, codified and modified into most of the major religions of today. As the discoveries of fire, art, music, gunpowder, the automobile, the telephone and the computer have all, in their time, caught the attention and the approval of the vast majority of humanity, so did the idea of "God", to the point that virtually the entire population of the globe is at least aware of the idea of a higher power whether he/she/it is known as Allah (islam), Jesus and "god" (christianity??!!), Yaweh (judaism).

This monotheistic concept of "God" has been accepted as of "divine inspiration" by the christian religion mainly due to the birth, life, and those rather dramatized notions of the death of the prophet known as Jesus, whose teaching seemed more a denial of the prevalent polytheism and a commercial for the emerging monotheism of the age than an actual explanation of the facts or proof of existence of a "supreme being". Though he was acclaimed as the "son of god", a human invention in the first place, whether divinely inspired or not, this was admittedly due more to his highly romanticized death and improbable resurrection than through any provable events of his life.

Monotheism (and, by alleged extension, christianity) is, therefore, the product of a concept and philosophy imagined and conceived, theorized, implemented and propagated by mortal men with the same chance of having been divinely inspired as the "pagan" polytheism generally scorned by jews, christians, et al, today.

Mankind conceived of deities and religion to allay the effects of its intellectual evolution, to relieve its feelings of general inadequacy, insignificance and futility such an intellect will, by definition, recognize. The ideal of a "higher power" with its attendant and illogical psychological baggage, therefore, had to be dreamed up. For those of us enmeshed in middle-class, Anglo-Saxon, judeo-christian propaganda, no matter how much one claims this ideal to be one's own, this ideal "h.p.", your idea of an "h.p.", my former idea of an "h.p.", each individual idea of an "h.p." is: an elderly, stern-visaged, blue-eyed Aryan male with the long, flowing hair and beard, knows everything, loves everyone, yadda, yadda, yadda. Your notions, unique or (most likely) otherwise, are, in any case, a delusion created by mere mortals to convey an illusion of order to the chaos of the universe! Even some theologians have recently conceded that their "creator" has no real control over its alleged creation; that all it can provide is an ethereal "love" and support (by demanding continued fealty?) to those victimized by the tragedies and misfortunes inherent in the randomness of existence.

Part II

The christian religion (among others) has been too slow to adapt and redefine itself to the moral complexities and scientific advances of modern life. Perhaps the time is right for another philosophical and spiritual movement which may, even now, be gaining adherents and preparing "miracles", prophets, traditions and rituals to break through the chains of the tired, staid, overcomplicated, guilt-ridden and generally outdated religions of today to take its place in the minds and hearts of humankind. Something more able to satisfy the cynicism and spirituality of the growing number of us unwilling to worship or hold "sacred", nor to believe in religions born, bred and propagated by mere mortals despite the propaganda and brainwashing spouted by the increasingly desperate leaders of the modern religions, anxious to disseminate outdated and disparate philosophies, the motivation for which seems more in the interest of keeping their jobs than in the spiritual well-being of this overpopulated and increasingly cynical world. Thus, the question "Is christianity living in sin?" (for disobeying the "ten commandments" as a prerequisite to being a religion) is answered. Of course it can't be since "sin" and "christian" are each human concepts liable to the same imperfections, illusions, frailties, guilt and doubts as any other human endeavor, and subject also to the same machinations of truth and believability. I just hope that the next adventure in the recognition of what we rationalize as human spirituality will take into account the pitfalls, imperfections and confusing convolutions of the last bunch and that its human inventors will make the necessary corrections and adjustments so that by acknowledging its mortal inspiration, it, too can exist and flourish for untold generations.

One thing has been changed and modernized in the conversion of mankind from the ancient to the modern versions of paganism...rather than feed dissenters to the lions, we merely ostracize them, ridicule them or put them in an asylum. Apparently, the truth still hurts.

Go to the next article: Faith

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