Does It Really Matter

Now and then I pause and wonder to myself if all of the turmoil is worth it. Pat Condell, an atheist, suggests that all religion has been concocted by man to explain why he exists. Pat looks at all of recorded history and concludes that the theologies that support religious thought were devised by man, not God.  Pat does not believe in God.

Personally, I think he is wrong. I believe that man has "a spiritual component".  Do I have proof?  No, and nobody else does either, so a wee bit of faith is required. For me, it is a very, very small "leap of faith" . . . 

It does not declare a belief in God, but it does

acknowledge that WITHOUT a "spiritural essence" . . .

there can be no purpose for life itself. 

I think the earliest man instinctively knew he possessed something that the animals and vegitation that surrounded him did not. He discovered that this special quality was unique to man and unknown to other animals. As time passed, early men found strength in bonding with others (tribes) which grew to become communities that required leadership. The more powerful and stronger among them became the leaders. 

The leadership of the tribes, at some point in history, split into three major parts; 1. the overall leader, 2. a teacher leader, and 3. a spiritual leader. In many instances 2. and 3. were the same person . . . and it was these  people that developed a "theology" or system of teaching. Man did this, not God.

So let's go back to Pat Condell's atheism. It fails to accept that mankind possesses any kind of spiritual essense and believes all religious thought is nonsense. I do not share his belief. I find it relatively easy to accept that mankind has evolved differently than all other living things. Not only does man have a more developed ability to reason, he is also able to understand that logic and reasoning will never explain many of the basic facts of life. He has accepted that they will remain unknown and part of his spiritual component.

The theology teachers became the priests and their teaching was ultimately done in places like temples, churches or mosques. These are the guys that devised all of the pomp and ceremonies and rituals of all religions that exist today. I agree with Pat that God didn't do it. But it was done. Why?  Because it filled a need for understanding life. It was the theological teachers that recognized this need and filled it with religion.

So now we have all sorts of active religions existing in the world. Each has it's own theology and beliefs. There is some overlap with a few, that is to say areas of agreement and  sameness, but there are also many important differences. How can this be if there is only one God?  Wait a moment. The Greeks and Romans had many Gods, and so does the Hindu religion as well as others. Religious logic is starting to be difficult isn't it..

Someone started writing down the history, philosophy and religious thoughts of their day. This has caused no end of controversy and speculation by generations that followed. In the case of the Christian bible many essays and books were interpreted and then bound into one volume. The first part is called the Old Testament and generally covered history, and the second part called the New Testament described more of the philosophy and religious lessons.

Years later, the Koran was assembled in much the same way except that the first part covered the history and religious thoughts of Islam, while the last part covered tended to stress the teaching and more militant directions of the prophet Mohammed. I know there are many other active religions in the world, but I want to limit this discourse to the Holy Bible and the Koran, which are today the most prominent of them all.

Religious thinkers down through the ages have used these two books to confound everyone. The Priests and evangelists discovered that if they advanced rituals and ceremonies into the presentation of their religion as interpreted by the confusing and conflicting passages of their "book", they could maintain a stronger hold on their communities. They found it to their advantage to further unanswered questions by the introduction of "mysteries".

to be continued