To understand humans it is necessary to understand religion. We are designed to believe in God and when we don't believe in Him we just replace Him with something else. We can see how central religion is in a number of different ways.
EINSTEIN AND COSMOLOGY
The reason that cosmology hasn't advanced further than it has is, ironically, religion. Humans are designed to believe in something and, when we don't believe in God, we will just replace Him with something or someone else.
What cosmology has done is to make a god out of Albert Einstein. The word of a god is understood to be final and absolute. Humans wouldn't think of going beyond the word of a god. Moving beyond what Einstein has done is almost like trying to go beyond god.
POLITICS
Why do politicians and candidates get so much scrutiny? Of course they should get some scrutiny before we trust them to run our society. But why can you get on a plane knowing nothing about the personal lives of the pilot and crew? Why can you shop in a store knowing nothing about the personal life of the manager? Why can you let medical personnel treat you while knowing nothing about their personal lives.
But let someone run for office, even a minor local office, and they are often subject to extreme scrutiny in a way that just doesn't make sense. The reason is, of course, religion. We are less religious nowadays but still have the centuries-old patterns of organized religion, that are not going to just go away. So what we do is effectively make our political leaders into the new religious leaders, and we have to verify that they come close to qualifying for "sainthood" before being allowed to take office.
NATIONALISM
As always we are designed to believe in something and when we don't believe in God we just replace Him with something else. Nowadays the "something else" is often nationalism or political ideology. How many people have you known whose "religion" is either their country or their political-economic ideology?
Nationalism, as we know it, is a relatively recent development. Around the beginning of the Twentieth Century there were people in remote areas who weren't sure which nation they belonged to and it didn't really matter that much because religion or tribe was more important.
Have you ever noticed that, as secularism spread during the late Nineteenth Century, nationalism became more important, effectively becoming the new "religion" for many people? I see the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 as the point in the west where nationalism, usually based on ethnicity, language or, political ideology, eclipsed religion in importance. Napoleon III didn't seem to think that the Catholic southern Germans would join the Prussians against their fellow Catholics.
DICTATORS
When humans have been religious for a long time, and then lose faith in what they believed in, the pattern of being devout will not change. What will happen is that something else will fill the void. With nationalism and economic ideologies also taking the place of religion, a dictator would be the ideal thing to fill the void.
Many dictators have inspired religious-like devotion and, of course, free people from the burden of thinking for themselves by doing their thinking for them.
Let me tell you something and see if you can even believe this. Around the beginning of the Twentieth Century secularism was spreading. There were actually people who believed that this would bring peace, since so many conflicts are rooted in religion, and that secularism would make the Twentieth Century into a very peaceful century.
COLD WAR
We just can't seem to get away from the Cold War. The Cold War was based on rival economic ideologies between east and west, which were themselves replacements that filled the void brought about by loss of faith. But even now that rivalry over economics has faded away, we still can't seem to move past this historic rivalry between east and west.
The reason is religion. The east-west split goes back to the Great Schism of the year 1054. That was when the eastern territories of the Catholic Church broke away to form the Eastern Orthodox Church, and there has been rivalry between east and west ever since.
The Holy Roman Empire was formed by the pope to reign in the eastern Christians, who didn't understand why he had such authority over them, before they actually split away, and every conflict along the frontier of the split ever since has amounted to a secular manifestation of that split. This includes Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the eastern fronts of both world wars and, of course, the Cold War.
DIVORCE
The reason for so many divorces also goes back to religion. A marriage partner was never intended to provide all of the fulfillment in our lives, but to be a "companion along the way". But when we fall away from God our spouses become the focal point of our lives, and we start putting unrealistic expectations on each other. We expect ordinary human beings to provide the bulk of the fulfillment in our lives, and we naturally end up being disappointed with each other.
ADDICTION
Humans are designed to worship God. It is sometimes said that we have a "God-shaped vacuum" inside us. Our souls are meant to be filled by God.
When we fall away from God the void is still there. As we saw above some people fill the void with the religiofication of nationalism or economic ideologies, or with a religious-like adulation of a dictator or other leader.
Another way that some fill the void that is built into us is with chemicals. The most common of these chemicals is alcohol. There are many other such chemicals that are used by humans, some legal and some not.
CULTS
Religion provides direction in life and had been the primary source of direction for a very long time. When we become secularized it leaves many people rudderless. Sometimes it is a dictator that fills the void, which is why the spreading secularism of the late Nineteenth Century brought the Twentieth Century as the century of dictators.
Other people look for the missing sense of direction, in a modern world that is complex and can be so alienating, in cults. Although, of course, their members don't call them cults. As with dictators, and even more so, cults can take a great burden off people by freeing them from having to think for themselves.
We saw the posting, "How Secularism Leads Us Astray".
https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-secularism-leads-us-astray.html?m=0
The nations of the world are divided into two halves, according to religion, as we saw in the following posting. This is the most important division in the world, the "North And East" And the "South And West".
https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/04/understanding-world-in-terms-of-south.html?m=0
No comments:
Post a Comment