Now, before I go off on a tangent here, I do want to say that religion isn't completely useless ... just outdated. I personally think that religion served a purpose to our primitive societies by creating a threat against bad behaviour that was both greater, and unknowable, than the people who attempted to impose this order on those proto-societies. And, lets face it, it works just as well now as it did thousands of years ago because the tools employed now are exactly the same as they had back then. God, or the gods, reward obedience and punish defiance. This was an easy sell in those early days when the unknown and our reaction to it was a mainstay of our survival instinct. Lets face it, the unknown is dangerous and way back then it was also deadly.
So, what does any of this have to do with anything? Hard to say. You see, I just find it frustrating to know that as a species we have we have managed to develop from rudimentary tool use and animal husbandry to where we have managed to harness the power of the atom and make our first uncertain steps into space ... and still we are saddled with these superstitions.
From an outsider's point of view religion is a perplexing mystery, and christianity even more so. Actually, all of the Abrahamic faiths perplex me because they draw on the same source of tribal stories and yet seem to make radically different conclusions. Oddly, the conclusions they reach are not different, they are the same ... that their god will justify their faith and their efforts and reward them for their obedience. On the face of it, the old joke of "my god is bigger than your god" is being played out every day here on our odd little world with each group claiming with absolute certainty that they are the chosen of their particular mythological entity. I think a real paradox exists when you can claim the certainty of such an entity's objectives in one breath, and then make a statement like "god works in mysterious ways" in the next.
I was thinking the other day that christianity is a cruel faith. Not because of it's history and practices (which do nothing to enhance the reputation of christianity as a whole) but because of the basic notion of their faith. The old testament tells tales of a jealous and cruel god who supported slavery, murder, genocide, incest, and a plethora of other less than desirable practices. This collection of stories is shared both with judiasm and islam so for all three faiths the basis of those faiths have grown out of a system where these practices are condoned. Now, is it just me or is the basic thing that can be taken away from those tales is that god is a jealous egomaniac who will kill you for ignoring him?
If you hadn't noticed by now, this is kinda going on a stream of consciousness tack. I don't have any answers, I don't know that there are any answers. I am going to blather on from time to time about this because I hope to understand why we still need the idea of a divinity in our lives anymore.
More to come ...
