RELIGION

In past posts, I have stated that human beings are a religious animal, Homo Religiosus.  By that, I mean to say that we humans possess a religious impulse; that we are prone to be religious and create religions. My definition  of what a religion is will be probably broader than most. 

In my understanding of religion, any ideological belief that results in forming a community of like-minded individuals around it is likely to acquire the accoutrements or the patina of religion; such as, the development of  common understanding or language of a core belief, rituals in the form of expected conduct, and symbols - emblems, flags, logos, and seals. 

Religion provides identity by distinguishing between same and different or, to put it in the language of theistic religion, differentiating between what is sacred and secular.  In other words, religions are largely about who's in and who's not based on mutual agreement and disagreement about who does or does not identify with a religious community's set of ideological beliefs.

Any "ism" is prone to become religious, and all ideological beliefs can be defined as an "ism."  For example, monotheism, atheism, polytheism, spiritualism, liberalism, conservatism, patriotism, nationalism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, communism, globalism, nihilism, etc. all possess or have the potential to possess religious attributes. If one were to examine any of these "isms," one would find a multitude of varieties of each in the form of organized denominational  affiliations.

THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE

So - Why are we religious?  There are numerous books written on this subject which alleviates me from providing a definitive answer.  I doubt that one truly exists. 

Philosophers, anthropologists, historians, psychologists have all weighed in on this topic.  If I were to recommend a couple of books, I would start with Karen Armstrong's, "The History of God," and Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God" as a couple of good places to start.  If interested in a more philosophical understanding of the religious impulse check out works by Ludwig Feuerbach, Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, and Reinhold Niebuhr to mention just a few.

If I were to reduce this complicated topic to its bare essentials, I would say that the religious impulse derives from a deep human need we all have, and that is, "We need each other."

Why?

Human beings cannot exist in total isolation. 

We would have disappeared eons ago if weren't for our religious impulse.  The recognition of needing each other is rooted in our need to feel safe, and we feel safest when we are dealing with something familiar, and what's most familiar to us is us.

The religious impulse is driven by our ability to identify what is same and what is different.

In order to have familiarity, however, we must be able to distinguish between what is and isn't familiar.  As the human population became more diverse, more populous, separated and different, the sense of "us" became more diverse. We began to see differences in us, racial, cultural, linguistic, and in such categorizations as poor/rich and strong/weak.

This differentiating paradigm is the foundation on which all religion is built.  From this primal need to differentiate was developed our concepts and sense of family, tribe, community, and nation.  The religious impulse is evident in every aspect of human social development.  Eventually, the religious impulse became paradoxical.  This is particularly noticeable in theistic religions who have been able to export their cores beliefs across the boundaries that divide us by seeing and pointing out connections between all things, same and different.

THEISTIC RELIGION

Theistic or spiritually-based religion has been around since prehistoric times.  I can only use conjecture to how it came into being.  The sense of same and different that I mentioned above seems to have led to an intuition that is likely based on human experience.  If safety is at the root of our need for each other, what happens when the safety net of "each other" no longer provides us the sense of safety we need?  Being the differentiating creatures we are allowed us to formulate abstract concepts which, in turn, led us to the question, "Is there something more than us?  Is there something we can turn to that will provide us with the sense of safety we need?"

That human beings everywhere, in quite different parts of the world, were able to identify the "Out-There- Other" that eventually led to the concept of the gods and goddesses of antiquity is an interesting phenomenon. There appears, to me at least, an intuitive human sense that we're not alone, and that we, that life itself, is connected to something larger than self, the family, the tribe, the community, the nation, the world, and in more recent times the universe; that there is more to life than this life.

This sense of an  "Out-There-Other" was hard to identify and, as has been observed by scholars of various sorts, became imbued with qualities we could identify with.  Thus, many of the early gods and goddesses have very human  or nature-orientated attributes.  What made them purely other was they possessed one quality we do not have, immortality but that's a discussion for another day.

Theistic religion eventually offered us a sense of meaning, purpose, and safety that extended beyond the here and now.  It also offered us lenses by which we could examine ourselves, our similarities, our differences, and our behavior in a semi-detached way.  This remains one of the most important aspects of theistic religion; our ability to see ourselves objectively.

It gave us explanations of how we came to be and why we're here.  It provided us with a collective sense of morality, obligation, and responsibility.  It gave us a source(s) to go to when faced with impossible situations that no known human could address; to give us pause when faced with chaos . In essence, it provided a sense of familiarity in an increasingly diverse world.   In essence, it made us feel safe.

Theistic religion is evolutionary.  As theism became more spiritually abstract, it imbued the transcendent with feelings.  Attributes such as love, anger, fear, longing, trust, compassion became dominant attributes of the god concept. Over time, theism gave us philosophy and an understanding that there are many things larger than any single number of things, such as truths.

SECULAR RELIGION

Secular religion is not theistic or atheistic.  Atheism, as understood here, is not a secular religion.  I consider atheism a theistic religion on the basis that in order to be an atheist a person who doesn't believe in god(s) must have at least have a concept of god he or she is denying.  In essence, atheists have an ideological belief about god, which, in my book, makes them theists.  Atheists are prone to be religious and help explain the impulse of religion.  I would suggest reading works by atheists in general, and would recommend Greg Epstein's, "Good without God," and "Religion for Atheists" by Alain de Botton.

Secular religion possesses many of the attributes of theistic religion, but it is not based on theism.  Again, the paradigm of differentiation applies in secular religion as it does in theistic religion.  A prime example of a secular religion is patriotism.  Every country in the world encourages its citizens to be patriotic.  Patriotism is almost on par with the sacred in many parts of the world.  In some nations there is little differentiation between "God" and "Country."

In patriotism we see all the accoutrements of religion; shared core ideological beliefs in the form of creeds, loyalty pledges, and civil obligations; in rituals in the forms of reverential ceremonies and a competitive spirit, and in symbols in the form of flags and emblems.  In the United States, for example, treatment of the flag is almost an object of worship.  I recently read that the United States is the only country where its flag is prominently displayed in churches, sometime right next to the altar itself.  It is my understanding such practices are not found in churches of other countries, even those who have state supported churches. 

To give you an example of how wedded theistic and secular religion is in the United States, I once attended a funeral of young man who took his own life.  The funeral was held in a evangelical Christian church.  Toward the end of the service, the minister decided to have an altar call in the hope of bringing some of this young man's (supposedly) wayward friends and opportunity to come to Jesus.  What caught my attention in his encouragement to come to Jesus was that as he was inviting them, he distinctly pointed to the US flag he was standing next to instead of  Christianity's traditional symbol, the cross, which was prominently displayed in the front of the church.  It wouldn't surprise me to see somebody genuflect when seeing the US flag and salute the Christian cross.

Of course, this type of chauvinistic patriotism isn't unique to the US.  In so called secular nations that identify themselves as strictly non-theistic; such as, The Peoples Republic of China, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union, ideological beliefs based on communism in combination with nationalism created extreme forms of secular religions; where the leaders of these nations became literally larger than life as illustrated in their statues, huge portraits, and in the development of larger than life emblems and displays of huge public ceremonies that convey their might which appeals to our need for safety and their need for loyalty. 

Of course, nationalism and patriotism are not the only forms of secular religions; they are just the most obvious and readily illustrate the human proclivity for identifying same and difference at the secular level.     

RESPONSIBLE RELIGION

There is a growing number of interfaith dialogues amongst theistic religions.  Theistic or spiritually based religions are increasingly identifying shared beliefs that are crossing age-old  theistic boundaries. While the rituals and symbols may be different, we are finding that basic beliefs are not so different; that there are distinct common threads shared by all.  This has created a pushback by some who fear that relativism will eliminate difference, and in a few situations is creating a violent mentality towards the other in our midst. 

There is a lingering fear in human nature of becoming too much alike or becoming to big for our britches.  As we find common ground ideologically, there is a current that attempts to pull us away from pure unification. The irony is that we do not feel safe in large numbers.  We can actually feel isolated, different, or anonymous when involved with a large number of people.

I doubt that we can ever truly become unified in the sense of all having the same ideas and beliefs.  Our sense of being individuals and needing to belong is important, particularly in theistic religions.  This is less true of secular religion.

Recently, there has been discussion over the contribution religion has to the violence we see and experience today, especially in the form of the terrorism associated with radicalized theism.  Most recognize that theistic religions are not the cause of violence throughout the world, but I would argue that the impulse of religion can lend itself to violence, can get stuck on seeing too much difference, especially by extreme fundamentalist group who attempt to counter this perspective by wanting to make everything the same and familiar by insisting that safety can only be accomplished through conformity with their ideological beliefs.

Why violence a religious problem.

Violence is a religious problem because an increasing number of people in the world no longer feel safe.

To create a sense of balance or equanimity by those who feel extremely vulnerable and unsafe has led some to become extremists, to seize the moment; particularly,  in vulnerable areas in order to engage in activities that will level the playing field by making the rest of the world feel as unsafe as they.  They are trying to combat what might be considered the "Big Brother" mentality they oppose by adopting a "little brother" mentality in order to do what many little brothers do, become holy terrors.

The reality is, as a whole, we have not heeded the prophetic warnings of our age. The prophecies, the ignored obvious, that economists, social scientist, and natural scientists have been telling us for some time have gone unheeded for too long.

What they have been telling us is this: 

* People feel unsafe when they cannot afford the basics of life.
* People feel unsafe when they sense a loss of identity or feel demeaned by others. 
* People everywhere are not safe because we have not taken necessary measures to prevent natural
   disasters that are becoming increasingly prevalent due to human activity; such as, global warming.

We have a tendency to become focused on being different in a fast-growing global world, especially in more stable protected environments where there is increasing fear of encroachment by an unstable other.  Fear of this sort, ironically tends cause us to ignore our primal religious impulse, "We need each other." 

Secular religion, in my opinion, is far more likely to ignore our primal religious impulse and become violent because of its tendency to eliminate what it fears; namely, the different and unfamiliar.

The primary ritual of any secular religion is competition and the elimination of a perceived rival.

Secular religion is more likely to become Machiavellian because has not as evolved as far as theistic religion has in embracing the paradoxical.  We only have to look at the genocides that have taken place in the 20th century and that are taking place today to see the reality of this. We have only to look at the racial divide that is growing once again throughout the world.  We have only to feel the effect of ignoring our imprint on nature to see that secular religion, by in large, is fueled by greed and a sense of exceptionalism.

On the other hand, theistic religion is more likely to respond favorably to our modern day prophets. They have, in general, evolved to the point where they see the same in the different, to see the interconnection and the interplay between of all life on this planet.  They understand that humans, as a whole, cannot exist in total isolation. 

To study this further, I would recommend reading works by Rabbi Jonathan Sack, "The Dignity of Difference" and "The Great Partnership."  Also, I would recommend works  written by Thich Nhat Hanh; such as, "Living Buddha, Living Christ."  There are, of course, brilliant works written by theists of every type. 

That people are leaving organized theistic religions is not because they are non-theists.  In recent poll in the US, for example, it is estimated that the number of "nones" or the non-affiliated has risen to 20 percent of the Unite States population, but that those who state a belief in the spiritual or in God remains closer to 85 percent or better.  I would bring the latter number a bit higher because I would include professed atheists as noted before.

That people are leaving organized theistic religions, I feel, is largely due to the fact that these organizations have too often merged with secular religion, have to often become the pawns of the secular, and have from time to time adopted the means of secular religion, have become competitive and have seen themselves as being exceptional.

Fundamentalism of all sorts is more in tune with secular religion than theistic religion, due to its inability to fully understand the differentiating paradigm of the religious impulse and the role of paradox. Fundamentalism tends to turn the god-concept into an idol; a concretized ideology that has no room for any grayness.   Theism will not go away.  In fact, it is needed to explicate and understand the differentiating paradigm of our religious impulse and to help the world understand paradox.

THE NEXT RELIGIOUS NARRATIVE

The fact is all religion is human, and all humans have a religious impulse. It seems likely that the next religious narrative is being written by economists, mathematicians, and scientists, but in order to understand that narrative fully there is a need for philosophical and the theological perspectives to prevent it from becoming non-human and unfamiliar. 

When human beings entered into space, for the first time, we were given a god's-eye view of our planet.  For the first time, we were seeing what we could only imagine before; the goodness and beauty of creation.  For the first time, we were given a hint of how small, how vulnerable, how isolated we truly are.  For the first time, we were given the opportunity to fully grasp how different and unique we are within the breadth of the universe and how much alike we are because of its expanse - how, more than ever, we need each other.

Until next time, stay faithful.