When I was young I used to wonder how religion got started. Who first said, “Well it’s because God told us to,” when it came to laws and ways of life. When I first “lost my faith”, as my overly zealous family likes to call it, I wondered how faith came to be in the first place.
I did a lot of studying in college, and at first came to the conclusion that Religion exists to answer the universe’s one, unanswerable question; “Why?” As human beings, we’re plagued with that question. From the moment a child is born they being trying to figure out the answers to all the whys that exist in our world. Toddlers, even, have a phase which most mothers, with an eye-twitch and a shudder, lovingly refer to as the “Why Phase.”
Imagine then, if you will, a world pre-religion. All of the desperate desires to know the answers to life, the universe and everything, but nothing to guide you. It makes total sense for human beings to think, well there must be something else out there. It doesn’t take a genius, nothing more than a slightly charismatic person, to look up at the stars and say, well They or He or She has all the answers.
Religion was originally married into law to give rulers the ultimate reason as to Why they were the rulers, and Why their laws should be upheld no matter what. Religious laws existed according to the environmental factors, making the laws necessary.
The Hebrew Kosher laws, for example, mainly existed to keep the people from catching food borne illness and to prevent contamination.
Eventually, though, religion evolved, just as everything evolves. Religion, much like people, starts to retain attributes of cultures around it. It morphs according to what the world needs from it. It branches off into different sects. Different Gods are born, different practices come into existence, different bibles are written.
So what does religion, today, exist for? Who does it exist for?
You can’t really encompass all religion into that question, because there are so many different ones. People subscribe to so many walks of faith it’s hard to say we are a Christian world, or we are a Muslim world etc. Though one may dominate the other in the masses, that doesn’t really make the others any less significant.
That’s the beauty and the point of religion. It’s not forcing others to believe what you believe, it’s finding your own path.
Ah, but then again, is it? That’s what seems to be the ultimate question. Religion was created to answer that big question, Why. In that birth, created the second question, one that has brought unending cruelty, violence and death. Who is right?
Who is right?
Just those three little words have spawned wars, torture, holocausts. Human beings were crucified, burned alive, beheaded, eviscerated, all because of the God they chose to believe in. Even today we have teens living on the streets, homeless, sick and alone because they’ve been cast out by their Christian parents over not sharing the same religious based morals or ideals.
What is religion now? Is it still the answer to why?
Sure. It’s still the answer to Why, but it’s also become the Reason Why. The Reason Why people are mistreated, blown up, beaten, belittled, dehumanized. Religion is the Reason Why entire countries are at war. Religion is the Reason Why we accept violent acts “In the Name of God”.
The funny part about all of that, is most people don’t even know the foundation of the religion they’re fighting so hard for. They’ve never bothered to pick up a secular book and read it. They take the Bible as something written by the Hand of God, not knowing they could just as easily pick up a history book and learn how that Holy Book was put together.
Today I spoke to a person who described himself as a Secular Humanist. I asked him, “Do you know why the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated on the 25 December?”
He didn’t. Nor did a very large number of Christians I asked. “Because Jesus was born on that day,” was one answer.
“Oh? And how do you know that?” I asked. “It doesn’t say it in the Bible anywhere the date Jesus was born.”
“Well according to the position of the stars described in the Bible,” the Christian said, “Astronomers were able to pin-point the night of his birth to be at the end of December.”
Unfortunately that’s not true. At all. Not even remotely. There isn’t a particularly accurate description of the night’s sky in the Bible. Based on popular theory, Jesus’ birthday is probably sometime in late spring, or early summer.
There is, however, a documented, detailed reason why the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated on 25 December, though. It’s simple, plain fact. In Rome, Christianity was illegal. The very popular Cult of Mithras was rampant through Rome at the time, and in fear of the law, early Christians decided to celebrate the birth of their Lord by taking up the day that the Romans were celebrating the birth of their Lord, Mithras.
That’s right. By the Julian Calendar, 25 December was the birthday of Mithras. A demigod who, coincidentally was also killed and resurrected on the third day. But that’s not really important, is it?
Any well-studied Theologian, whether they’re secular or religious, knows this. The pastors of the churches should most definitely know this. It’s a very important part of their church history, isn’t it? I can safely say anyone with a pastoral degree knows this. Do they share it with their congregation?
Not usually. Strictly need to know basis, it seems. Besides, knowledge and fact will only serve to confuse the masses who are desperately searching for the answer to Why. People don’t want to think in their religion. They want to be told. They want to have the plan all laid out for them. They don’t want to have to figure out things for themselves. And they don’t, by God, want to try and wrap their minds around the concept that somethings simply might just Be. Sometimes things simply Are. It just Is.
Have you heard people speaking in tongues? God’s language, right? The language of the Holy Spirit. People in church are sometimes so filled with the Holy Spirit that it comes pouring out of their mouths and they fall to the ground with such spiritual revelation they can’t contain themselves.
In the Bible it actually states that Tongues was given to the Disciples of Christ so that they might spread the word of God to other lands where they didn’t speak the language. Tongues was a language meant for all nations to understand. It wasn’t meant to be heard as babbling nonsense, but understood by all men of all tongues.
Another Christian told me, well it’s not, because in the Bible it says that the men of the other lands thought that the Disciples were drunk. This is true, they did. Not, however, because they were babbling incoherently, but because of their words.
That might just be my interpretation, however. Maybe I’ve got it wrong. I don’t pretend I have all of the answers. I have faith, my own faith. I have knowledge of the things I’ve learned from books I’ve picked up and read. I have belief from living my life and seeing the world through my own eyes.
What I think I do know, is why religion exists today. Just an opinion, mind you, but still I think I might be on to something. Religion, is the new excuse.
It’s the excuse to be horrible, to kill and to maim and to say horrible, hateful things to people that don’t agree with you. It’s the reason to be inhuman and you’re doing it all in the name of your God. People judge and criticize and mock those who don’t agree and they say it’s in defense of their religion. They know that they’re right and no one else is.
Trust me, if only one sect of Christianity has got it, we’re all in very real trouble. I’m pretty sure if the Judeo-Christian God is right, he might be wanting to set that straight, or Heaven is going to be a very small, very lonely place.