Digging Up the Roots of Religion

RESEARCHERS, SCHOLARS, ACADEMICIANS have for a long time, and continue today, to search out the origins of the phenomenon among humans which humans call "religion". "Religion" can be defined as: "belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, and a God or gods, which are presumed on faith rather than evidence to be the creators of the universe, and of humankind". Humanity's natural curiosity, and survival imperatives, or "instincts" are considered to be the fountainhead of all religiosity. In our necessity to live with each other as social animals, as Aristotle first identified us, we engage in cooperation among our group, and competition with other groups, for resourcess. We pay attention to each other. Those who are best at paying attention to their fellow humans, become best at reading body language, facial expressions, vocal tone, and behavioral subtleties, and use these acquired insights to take advantage of oportunities to increase their personal status within their group, enchancing their chances of survival, and transmiting these traits to their own offspring. The smarter, more quick witted the animal, the more liklely it is to survive long enough to reporduce. Thus homo sapien sapiens becomes, through evolution, an observant, proactive creature, in tune with its environment, responding effectively to it, surviving within it. Human beings see nature and all its varied phenomena in human terms. We "anthropomorphize the universe. Self ware, we seek to imbue our lives and ourselves with meaning, to become "meaningful". This consists of creating a coherent understanding of ourselves and our place in a coherent world, of giving ourselves significance,and of finding a purpose for our existence. These are the primary compenents of meaning for ourselves and our lives. Thus we seek explanations, for everything. Sudden, unpredictable volcanic eruptions or earthquakes are completely beyond our ability to comprehend. We msut therefore find a way to give them coherence, significance, purpose, meaning. Our explanations take the form and shape of oursevlves, human beings living in a world best explained in human terms. Volcanos, earthquakes, and storms, among all other natural phenomena, we give meaning to by anthropomorphizing them, turning them into human beings. Since we cannot actually see them in physical form as human, we separate the mental from the physical, and create the concept of "spirits", intelligence without body. We organize our explanations, and give names to them. Thus arise doctrine, dogma, and sacred law and scripture, books being the best available tools to preserve knowledge and to transmit it to future generations. This arise fomral, organized religions. Thus does the unvierse become a "Christian" universe, or an "Islamic" universe, or thousands of other kinds of universess, all based on whatever particular religion is established among the various groups of people which inhabit different geographical regions, as religion is passed from generaton to generation, as children are indoctrinated into the accepted religion. Science saves the day, by wiping the slate clean, and starting over. As society collects knowledge, the inadequacy of religion as a means of understanding the universe becomes increasingly obvious. Humans, newly aware of their anthropomorphic bias, and the false conclusions derived from it, dehumanize the universe, and objectify it, on its own terms, using observation and measurement rather than anthrophmorphic leaps of faith. This transition, from leaps of faith to observed, measured reality, is occurring now. This transition is not without resistance and pain associated with any fundamental change. First, religion violently resists the encroachment of science upon its formerly exclusive territory. Then, unable to defeat science, it attempts to incorporate and subordinate science into its established cosmic paradigm. But this too is insufficient, and religion continues to lose its grasp, as it continues to appear, for obvious reasons, more and more inadequate to compliment and coexist with science. The final stage is the abandonment, the extinction of dogmatic religion, and the triumph of science, and a more enlightened form of spirituality, devotion to and reverence for nature and its creation. We are now in the process of doing precisely that, but the struggle will continue, for longer than it should, for all dying animals and institutions resist their own death, until finally they breathe their last, and dissolve back into the substance of the universe, whence they came.