Religion has always been an important part in people’s life. That is true even for those that are not religious themselves.
But can you really be without religion?
Prehistoric Religion
As far as we know, religion in the prehistoric time was quite straightforward. People prayed to the earth, the wind or the giraffe that the hunt might end good and that the lightning should not strike them.
The rituals were certainly shamanistic, with magical elements. Sacrifices were made and offerings given to the gods. The success in life (or if you lost your life) depended on the Gods will, so you made sure they were smiling down upon you.
Ancient Times
But then the Gods changed, at least in some parts of the earth. The Gods got more human, some of them embarrassingly so.
It seems that the people, who started to want to explain the world, placed their own selves where they had seen the forces of nature before.
That was in Europe.
In Asia it was more that the people themselves became Gods (Though Emperors became Gods after their death was normal in both regions).
In e.g. China the reverence for the old people can be seen as a motion permeating even from the dead forefathers to living people.
And of course there was Buddha, a living prince, who unintentionally placed the seed for what is today the forth biggest religion in the world.
Religions of the Book
And then there are the three monotheistic religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Here only one God rules them all and makes this very clear to his believers. Several powers have used this to wage war against “the unbelievers” and everyone is free to interpret how much piety was in the motive of kings to wage war, and how much lust for more power or money.
Esoteric
A relatively new form of religion are the esoteric ones. They can be seen as a modern form of Shamanism, with “energy lines”, angels and magical stones creating a potpourri that has something for nearly everyone spiritually inclined.
By the way, religious inclination is something that is also heavily influenced by genes, which might explain why the esoteric has bloomed so much in my area (Eastern Germany) after the anti-religious autocratic regime disappeared. The genes were there but no longer the experience in “historical” religions.
Rules
All of the religions have rules, and observing their commandments is part of what constitutes being a member of the respective religion.
Historically the rules can be seen as advice or laws on how to relate to other people. Do not steal, respect the wisdom of the older people and so on.
All the religions have fairly similar rules, even if their “flavor” is different; the difference being born out of the different circumstances the people creating the rules had to live in.
Those rules often include communal religious service at certain times and the adherance to certain clothing rules. Those are often object of fight between members of the religious group and non-members.
For example sometimes a religious group says it is okay for our woman to wear a veil, but not for a woman of another religion. Or believers in the FSM are getting problems just for wearing their religious hat.
YOUR religion
But this is an article about your religion. Sorry it took so long to come to the point.
So here we are.
My question for you is: How would your religion look like if you could create one?
Would it include lots of DON’Ts or many DOs?
Which ones would you choose?
Or would you abstain from giving directives, knowing that times are changing, and instead rely on a very small set of select rules, like the Golden Rule?
Or would your only rule be “Have fun!”?
