The Foundations of Religion

I've been struggling lately with trying to define exactly what religion is; what are the foundational elements of a belief system that make it a religion? Now, I am using the term religion in a negative manner - I am using the term religion as a result of faith, which I (among others) define as belief without evidence. I also make the claim that many of the world's problems are the result of faith - or in other words the result of religion as I define it. But religion is too broad and too diverse to use it to assign blame - it must be defined first.

I believe there is something larger and more foundational at work. What are the foundational philosophies and aspects of much of what I would define as religion?

Belief in a Deity or Non-Deity

Right off the start, there is the idea of a Deity or deities - a God or gods. If religion stopped there, I don't believe there would be a problem. "There is a God." I personally believe that this is a logical conclusion based on the evidence of a Creator we have discovered in the Creation - the order, the universal principles, the universal language of mathematics, and the logical proof of a First Cause. Something had to start it all, and I just call that something God - maybe its real name is Ted, who knows? The first principle of all religion is the belief in a God, whatever that God is. Atheism has its own God - Nothing, an Absence, Chance, Chaos.

Beyond the foundational belief in a Deity or Non-Deity, religion goes completely off the rails in most instances because of the additional foundational human-philosophies that are introduced.

Narcissism

Religion then immediately turns inward-looking, and is at its basest and most foundational narcissistic. This may even be more foundational that the belief in a Deity.

At its most basic, narcissism is self-worship. It is "It feels good." It is self-glorification. It is self-deification.

It is about "I." I am in God and God is in me. I have attained special knowledge from God. I am doing God's Will. I ask this of God. This is how God made a difference in my life. God has a plan for me. I have made these sacrifices for God. I do these things in the name of God. I am making a difference in the larger scheme of things. I am a witness to the glory of God. I really felt good after church today. I got something out of the sermon this morning.

I don't think you can get around the idea that just below God in most religions, is Self. Most religion attempts to define the relationship between the Deity and the Self, and because the true Deity is unknowable, religion focuses on Self, which is knowable.

This is very dangerous. Once the focus is on the Self, which is foundational to all religion, the Ego is soon to follow. A narcissist justified by his understanding of God is one of the most dangerous combinations found all too often throughout human history.

Tribalism

Humans are tribalistic. In the past, we divided ourselves based on skin color as a result of regional evolution, language, and geography. Differing religions arose out of these tribal differences, and of course, all the different tribes believed that they were superior and worshipped the most powerful god, or the "one true god," and all the other tribes were inferior and led by lesser or even evil gods.

To survive, we needed to be a part of a group or tribe. The tribe provided protection from other tribes or from predators, social interactions, the ability to work together to work the soil and hunt and build, and a sense of belonging. Tribalism was necessary for survival.

Each tribe had their own god, their own customs, their own rituals, history and beliefs. Each tribe tried to make sense out of the world as they knew it, and passed this knowledge down through the generations through "holy texts" or oral tradition.

Religion arose out of this tribalism. It is no different today. It just so happens that most people around the world today have adopted the religions of the tribes found in the Middle East - the nomadic tribes of Judaism, with splinter tribes of Christian Jews and Muhammadian Jews. These three major world religions - the Abrahamaic Religions, arising out of the "tribe of Abraham" - have conquered the rest through force, coercion, or assimilation.

But the tribalistic foundation of religion is not found in going-to-church-on-Sunday religions alone. It is to be found in most "special interest" groups and causes that require a specific list of beliefs, dogma or confessions of faith.

People want to be a part of a group. They want to be a part of the trend. There is safety in numbers, and a comfort in the "us versus them" mentality. There is a self-righteousness to believing that "I have it all figured out, and everyone else is corrupted or just plain wrong." There is also a loyalty that comes with tribalism that is hard to break. When people are a part of a group, they tend to defend each other even when faced with facts that prove otherwise.

It comes down to safety, security, comfort, and a sense of belonging in tribalism, a foundation to all religion.

Need for Control

We all want to feel like we are in control of our own lives. However, it is a fact that we live in a chaotic system where Nature can wipe us out through disease, starvation, natural disasters, accidents, violence, and any number of things at any one moment. Religion provides us with a sense that things are under control in one way or another.

In some religions, people make sacrifices to appease the gods. Some dance to bring rain. Others pray and lay on hands to cure disease. Some tithe, sacrificing money at the altar to appease God and garner His favor and blessings. These are all superstitious attempts to control the uncontrollable - to control chaos.

In the "religions" of today, we exercise to prevent disease, or eat food fertilized with poop rather than chemicals to somehow attain a more natural, healthy existence. We believe that if we sacrifice at the altar of the Earth and drive hybrid cars, we can somehow prevent natural disasters and control the weather. We protect animals and endangered species, to the point of favoring them over our fellow human beings, hoping to appease "The Great Spirit" or "Gaia" or "Mother Nature." Or we Recycle. It is all really about controlling the uncontrollable - in believing that our tiny insignificant little actions can have an impact on this huge, complex system of chaos we call reality.

There is a need to feel like we are in control - and ultimately that a higher power is in control and can be coerced or manipulated through prayer, offerings and sacrifice - and this is a foundational belief of all religions.

Solving the Mystery

There are many mysteries in life. Without science and the powers of observation, people throughout time have attempted to explain what was unexplainable at the time. Even simple "mysteries," like why does childbirth hurt, why do snakes have no legs, and why are there rainbows have supernatural answers found in the Holy Bible.

While science has solved many of the mysteries over the years, some mysteries still remain. Why are we here? What is beyond this life, if anything? Why do people do bad things? If there is a God, what is he/she/it like?

Theoretical Physics is in many ways just as much a religion as most god-worshipping religions. Is it any more unbelievable to believe in a God that controls all things and exists in all times and all places, than the theory of the Big Bang, or Wormholes, or Black Holes, or the malleability of Time, or the theory of other dimensions outside our fabric of Space-Time? Of course, scientists can perform experiments to test their mind-boggling theories, parsing them down into smaller pieces that we can understand. But many people test their own religious theories every day through their own individual experiences, and are just as convinced by experience as by mountains of data.

At its core, there is a fundamental need to understand the Mystery - to figure it all out. Some people do so through religion and are satisfied with the answers they find. Some do so through science, and in the end they are always left with more questions than answers. The quest never ends.

The only thing that is really known is this: Anyone who claims to have everything figured out is wrong. They make this claim for their own peace of mind and security, and that is why they will likely lash out at anything that challenges their own version of the truth.

Good Versus Evil Conspiracy Theory

Chaos and Order. God and the Devil. Yin and Yang. Light and Dark. Negative and Positive Energies. Natural and Unnatural. All religions contain some aspect of two opposing forces combatting each other, in a spiritual realm, in our mind, in our bodies, in the world itself. It is a foundational belief that explains why Paradise has become Corrupt, and has its Heroes and Villians.

Some religions claim that bad things happen not because the world is complex and chaotic and violent - but because the "Devil made it happen." This logic even spills over into our own choices and actions - the "Devil made me do it" defense, "I was tempted," etc. There is a certain comfort in believing that all bad things are caused by some malevolent force, and not ourselves and our own choices, or even just the plain fact of the matter that bad things just happen sometimes. Chaos and disorder are frightening.

All religions contain some aspect of Conspiracy Theory. People just cannot accept the fact that bad things just happen sometimes - there must be some evil force at work behind the scenes, conspiring against us. The idea of Satan is the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory - the idea that some all-powerful malevolent being is responsible for all the evil things that happen every day everywhere on the planet.

Conspiracy theories spill over into all kinds of religious causes and groups, and most often is materialized in the form of the "Evil White CEO of a Giant Corporation." It is this malevolent force that conspires to destroy the planet, or rape and plunder, or get us to eat trans-fats, all to satiate their own greed and to make money.

So people pray for protection, or wear amulets, or fast, or speak in tongues, or use the power of Jesus' name, or cast out demons with holy water, or purify themselves with bottled water and organic foods, or wear pink and protest the evil war machine, or give Unhappy Meals splattered with gore and blood to children, or play chicken with whaling boats, or believe in UFOs and a government cover-up - people believe and do all sorts of things to combat Evil and promote Good, all in an attempt to make sense of the chaotic world we live in, where bad things just happen sometimes.

We don't want bad things to happen to ourselves, and so we do all we can to stave off the Satan Conspiracy for our own protection and in the hopes of someday attaining uncorrupted Paradise.

Guilt and Indulgences

We do not always succeed in denying Satan and accepting the Good, and so we feel guilty. We sin. We get drunk. We eat too many french fries. We like to drive SUVs. We throw perfectly good things away. We enjoy comforts when other people are starving. We have a good job when others do not. We are blessed by chance with intelligence and talents when other people are stupid and unskilled. And we feel guilty about it, as if it is somehow our own fault that evil exists in the world.

So we make sacrifices to make ourselves feel better. The Catholic Church sold indulgences to raise funds in the Dark Ages - that is, living relatives could give the church money to offset time for departed loved ones suffering in Purgatory. Is this any different than the current trend of buying "Carbon Credits?" People feel guilty about driving their cars, or heating their homes, or even creating websites, and so they buy indulgences to offset their sins of emitting CO2 pollution (which is natural and neccessary for life by the way). Or they give money to their cause of choice to alleviate their guilt of not doing enough to combat evil and attain paradise. Or they buy "free trade" coffee, so that some dirt-poor farmer can make a good enough living and not be tempted to use modern farming techniques - like evil pesticides and fertilizers - to increase their production and earnings.

"Original Sin" also creates guilt and the need to alleviate that guilt through purchasing indulgences. The original sin of Adam was eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The original sin of the USA is slavery. I would imagine the original sin of the UK is the British Empire. This original sin is transferred supernaturally through the generations, and remains with us today, and people believe that they need to alleviate this guilt and remove the stain of sin through purchasing indulgences, either by "giving ourselves" over to Christ, or making "slavery reparations" to all African Americans, or make contributions to the IMF and UN to help third world countries struggling with the ravages of war and poverty.

It is all about alleviating guilt, and the comforting idea that somehow everything is within our control. In most religions, we are somehow not good enough and that is why the world is the way it is.

Priests and Witch Doctors

All religions have their Priests. Holy men. Saviors. Messiahs. Prophets. Seers. Medicine Men. Witches and Warlocks. Fortune Tellers. Scientists. Modelers. Experts. PhDs. These people are more than mere mortals - they have attained special standing in some way, either through the blessings of a deity or through study, practice and research. They do all the work so that we do not have to, and they tell us what we need to do, or what the future will bring.

We invest ourselves in these people because they answer the questions that we cannot. They tell us our future. They give us comfort and security in knowing.

Christians have Jesus, and their priests and pastors and ministers. Muslims have their Muhammad and Mullahs. Jews have their Rabbis. Those who believe in natural healing and medicine have their Chiropractors and Accupuncturists, or their Hypnotists. Environmentalists have Al Gore, and Climate Modelers and Consensus of Scientists. Health Nuts have their Personal Trainers and Nutritionists. Communists have their Stalins and Lenins and Hugo Chavezs.

They are all priests and witch doctors, and they are only fallible humans like the rest of us.

Seeking Perfection

In an imperfect world, people seek perfection. They believe it is attainable. They believe if they pray enough, or give enough money, or eat the right foods, or create the right government, or recycle, somehow Heaven on Earth can become reality.

They believe that somehow it is our very existence - the existence of humans - that screwed things up in the first place, and somehow we can return to a pristine state if we just do the right things.

And so we kill each other to try to attain our own individual ideas of Paradise. We convert the heathen at the edge of a sword. We remove the heads of the infidel. We create concentration camps and gulags to house the political dissidents that are preventing the utopian society from coming into being. We grow corn to burn fuel our cars and cause starvation elsewhere. We ban DDT and malaria kills millions of children and elderly. We elect rulers that force their visions of paradise on the ignorant masses.

Religion is dangerous, and it is because of the foundational beliefs of all Religion.

I believe in a God - a Creator - and that he created me, and you, and everyone else. We are Individual Creations, with our own bodies and thoughts, talents and dreams. And I stop there. The rights of the Individual must be respected and maintained and protected, and the rights of the Individual are trampled by Religion in all its forms.