Heres Something to Worship

Possibly it's because I just ordered a large and expensive book on the history of iconoclasm in the Byzantine empire but I've been thinking a bit about religion lately.  It's also possible that my religious cogitations are a reaction to the fact that apparently the pope is going to feature on the next episode of Doctor Who.

I've got to admit I've never really understood what gods get out of religion.  If you were an omnipotent, universe creating entity would you really be so needy and insecure that you required constant validation in the form of worship from one of your own creations?  If the answer is "yes" then it is probably unwise to be worshiping that particular deity (or attracting their attention in any way whatsoever).

No, gods don't need religion.  So who does?  Answer; we do.  Religion is, in my view, possibly the most important thing we have ever created.  Why?  Because it was our first step and if you don't take the first step then it is rather difficult to take any more.  At some point tens of thousands of years ago our flea riddled ancestors paused from tearing a semi decayed strip of flesh from an unfortunate antelope with their fingernails to look up at the sky and think, "there's got to be an reason for all of that."

Religion was pretty much our first attempt to figure out what that reason might be.  It was our first effort to force our rather parochial little brains to encompass something infinitely greater than itself and attempt to explain it.  We're still doing that now in universities and research centres using mental and technological tools that our ancestors would have worshipped in their own right but religion came first.  It was our first step that led to all the others.  Religion taught us it was ok to contemplate the infinite and try to figure out what it all meant.  It came up with some pretty creative and sophisticated ways of doing it too.  And when, finally, these proved inadequate the lessons we had learned guided us forward to new ways of thinking. 

Many of these challenged established religion, some of them were outright hostile to it but none of them were indifferent.  Religion might have been tutor, guide, critic or outright enemy and persecutor but it was always present and in some way or other drove us on.  It was quite possibly our first invention and it easily rates as one of our best.

It could be pointed out with, thorough justification, that religion has been the source of hatred, intolerance and ferocious wars throughout our history.  Very true, but take a look at our history.  Does anybody truly believe that we wouldn't have found some reason to go to war with our neighbours even if neither of us had anything remotely resembling a religious reason to do so?  And as for the hatred and intolerance, well yes.  There was plenty of that but these things don't exist in a vacuum. 

In order to be intolerant of something there must be something else that you do tolerate to draw a comparison.  In order to hate the "other" there must be a "same" that you love.  Religion pulls us together and forces us to put up with each other just as much as it drives us apart.

As we circled the drain towards the post modern age we currently live in religion has become less and less an integral part of our lives.  We have replaced it with other things and possibly better things as we develop our understanding of the universe and carry on with building (or at least piling up into a heap) our civilisation but religion is still at the back of it all even if only as an example of the wrong thinking we've left behind.

Nowadays its fashionable to deride religion.  It's like that old fashioned uncle (or Prince Philip) that everybody hopes won't get too deep into the esky at the barbecue for fear of what he might say.  If fact the only time we do seem to be prepared to respect a religion is if its proponents are actively trying to kill us.  Don't misunderstand me, that's a really great reason to respect anything.  Just watch how swiftly I kiss somebody's arse either literally or on this blog if I honestly think they might put a bullet into my head if I don't, but really you should either deride all religions or none.  They're all equally ridiculous and all equally important.

Religion is the foundation we stand on even if we're now so high that we can't see the ground floor.  I don't believe in God, I never have except for a panic stricken period around the age of eight, but I do believe in religion.  It may be leading us forward or we may be pushing away from it but either way it is guiding us towards greater knowledge, greater understanding and the possibility that one day we won't need religion after all.  Think of all the gods that are going to be out of a job when that happens.