I have been inspired by Robert Wright's book The Evolution of God (You’ll notice that I usually write "G-d", in the Jewish fashion, but because this is a book title, I am required to republish it accurately). Robert Wright gives a fresh perspective because this book portrays religion as it had to be for human evolution, not the dogma that insists G-d has been unchanging since the beginning of time. As we have changed over the centuries, so have our needs for a deity. Either we have a G-d who respects those needs for change, or we have no G-d at all- that’s for you to decide for yourself.
I highly recommend the book for all religion scholars and most archaeological scholars as well (especially the highly religious and the emphatically atheist). Please note that the following musings are not the thoughts and ideas of Robert Wright, and he shouldn't be blamed for inspiring such thoughts in my insane brain.
Religion is an inclination that develops over time. From birth, we adopt the thoughts and ideas of our parents, our community, or our tribe, depending on the context. We live, breathe, experience, and believe the things that are given to us- no questions asked. As a 9 year old, I broke into tears at the thought of Jesus dying on the cross, alone. It still makes me sad, but no more so than the children who are abused and alone on a daily basis.
As we personally develop, our thoughts and ideas begin to formulate on their own, apart from the thoughts and ideas we were indoctrinated to as children and chaos breaks loose. Most religions have some kind of catechism, classes or training, initiation procedures or even, in some cases, ritual mutilation to secure these ideas in the individual as the rebellious teenager takes shape. This is intended to make the teenager buy into the ideals and beliefs of the tribe- rein them back in, if you will.
These rituals and explanations worked well in ancient, pagan, and even classical eras and up to the renaissance era, which can be considered the teenage years of humanity. Since that point, we as a group started questioning things more on a grand scale, and religion (and therefore spirituality) has seen most of the backlash. People began to be excommunicated from churches of all faiths, and, as more and more people were alienated for their belief (or lack thereof), they began to band together into the greaser gangs of human development- the atheists.
As a group, we are now well into the disillusioned 20’s as a species. More and more of us are rejecting the dogmas, karmas, and over-arching truths of our generational parents like Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Martin Luther, or John . Not many of us consider ourselves to be atheists simply for being removed from the herd, but most of us cannot experience church or belief in the same way we could as trusting children. Science is the power we have been taught to understand, and logic pervades society. Science and Logic on their own are not the enemy. However, because most of our faith is in black and white proofs, we can’t even begin to contemplate the mysteries of the soul, where test tubes are useless.
Where does that leave us? It leaves us with people like ourselves: swimming in convenience and scientifically leaps and bounds ahead of our ancestors, we take medications to make us feel as if reality makes sense. Once upon a time, the world was the only thing that made sense, and our tribes worshipped gods who explained the actions of the heavens. We have machines to predict the actions of the heavens, now, and there are black and white reasons for eclipses, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and floods. If gods were creations of our own minds in order to make sense of these things, we no longer need them. We have grown into our own religious independence! We can celebrate! What we need is a way to identify ourselves with our fellow human beings, without offending that precious independence. Facebook, anyone?
