Oh God, a crazy religious guy
It might come as a surprise but I'm not religious at all, I'm a filthy atheist but it's become increasingly annoying to read religion bashing comments on the mainstream medias where you can see condenscending tones and overly prideful folks lashing out on religion, they're pretty much the same to me as religious nuts!
So what's bringing me here to write about religion ? Well, let's start our journey!
In the beginning we were all naked
This also might come as a surprise but we weren't always living under roofs, clothed and enjoying a beer and a pizza in front of a football match while playing on a smartphone. You gotta be efficient when you procrastinate! What I'm getting at I guess is that humanity is old and a lot has been going on between the first guy or gal standing up to run a bit faster and now, us, typing frenetically on our keyboards.
A long time ago, in a galax.. (wait no!). A long time ago, a bunch of guys must've felt alone and cold, trying to understand what they were seeing in the endless skies and one of them came up with an idea. Maybe there was some things you couldn't see, some things you didn't have any control over but they were here and there. Maybe they knew what was going on when it was raining, when the skies opened to roar or why fire was so hot and powerful but intangible?
You got it, you know where it is going my friend, the first spirits, gods, supernatural creatures... were born (or discovered?) and their ties with human nature and history started.
Where are we going with this?
Well once a religion was born, people started believing in it, otherwise it died out and a new, more in phase with the people, took its place.
You have to understand something, religion is a tool, it's a tool for civilizations. It wasn't born a tool and the first sorcerers probably believed in a higher power but it doesn't actually matter if they believed in it or not, as long as everyone else did and respected the authority it represented, it was fine.
Because those first folks respected or feared the higher powers and listened to the religious figures, the dynamic in the groups slightly shifted, survival of the fittest was always there of course and you had to respect to stronger guy or you'd get beaten, but a change occured and now you also had to respect the religious figure. The sorcerer/shaman/priest/(random religious title) was the first one to be part of the group that acquired his knowledge from an older guy or simply created it. Even though he most likely spew bullshit and had no idea what was going on, he was important not because he was strong or fast but because he had the knowledge.
That knowledge was completely different from any previous one because it wasn't related to anything tangible or earth bound like hunting and picking up fruits.
So it changed the power dynamics and ways of teaching, whatever man.
A religion to unite them all
We're getting to the interesting bit, if you're not interested by now, why the hell do you keep reading?! So now ladies an gentlemen, beside a set of beliefs shared by a group of individual large enough not to be called nuts, what is a religion? It's also a very efficient tool to spread your culture, your language, your values. You have the whole pack in one thing : religion. The fact that religions caused many wars completely forgets how many people, tribes, cities were swifly turned into allies thanks to religion. Also, when you have to deal with the aftermath of a war (that would've happened anyway for any other reason) how easier is the process when you include religion? It helps uniting and integrate the freshly conquered and through proper education of the following generations, you get to have them on your side aswell! Isn't that genius? It prevented many wars and allowed to have a consistant propaganda and easily explained reasons to the common folk which should be left ignorant of all economic and geo-political considerations.
Religion is a wonderful tool to rule, to explain complicate matters and unite a group under the same banner even when they come from different ethnic background or don't speak the same language. The most beautiful realization is that you don't even have to know it's a tool to use it. As for anything, it's better to understand what's going on but here you don't even to, it has some sort of life of its own.
What about us? I don't care about the ancient guys
Religion has to evolve with the human race and it does a pretty good job at it, it's a living being, the sum of all the believers if you will. Religion is everywhere if you look closely, even when you think you're not a believer or that you're an atheist, its form changed a bit. But what do you think it is when appear dogmatic beliefs you can't argue against, the feel to be part of something greater and defend it against all reason? You'll see it in a Marvel or DC fan's (short for fanatic) eyes, in a Manchester United supporter's look ; you'll hear it in the voice of an economist from the Austrian school against a Keynesian thinker. Even in the scientific community, a lot of people have a religious like approach to science. Attention here, I'm not saying that science is a religion, far from it, but a lot of people have a religious behaviour towards it. People believing that science will make us immortal, save us all, create a better world as if it were inherently good. Science is a tool, not a bad or good thing per se, simply a tool that needs a hand to guide it for better or worse.
This isn't like the old religions anymore but it's a behaviour we still have every day but we don't call it religious anymore, it would be false to thing that we are so much better and smarter than the guys before us, we are more informed and we know a lot more but the amount of data is incredibly larger than it used to be and it surely doesn't prevent us to fall into the same traps.
Finally the end, Jesus, he wouldn't shut up!
My point is that religion was a powerful tool used for good and bad deeds but it's a magnificent social tool and calling it stupid will make you more likely to be controlled by it or have a similar behavior. Make no mistake, religions haven't been around for so long out of luck, they're efficent, unite a group of people in an efficent manner too. A lot of the good stuff that happened thanks to religion was overlooked and we like to have definite answers to complex and difficult questions. Many call religions stupid, dangerous and many follow them blindly or adopt the exact behavior they're supposed to despise.
Keep an eye open and doubt things once in awhile, especially when I'm writing them!
Stay Curious!
#religion #god #science #social #information #steemit #life #jesus #thought
