Reflexions about God and Religion
Only few simple ideas
dedicated to one of the most demanding questions ever....
AUTHOR: Gerd Döben-Henisch DATE OF FIRST GENERATION: March-15,2002 DATE OF LAST CHANGE: Nov-15, 2004 EMAIL: webmaster_at_doeben-henisch.de Copyright (c) Gerd Döben-Henisch - March 2002 |
The quest for god is shurely the oldest und most demanding challenge of mankind during all the times where human beings have been spent their time on the planet earth. And, with regard to the vast differences in the circumstances of living during the course of time (climate, nutrition, instruments, languages, rules, laws, knowledge about life and world, cultures...), it is no surprise that the way how people of different times and places have communicated their feelings and ideas about 'the one who is behind everything' is showing a variety of religions which is rather impressive (see also Understanding God).
Only if one suggests that there is probably some 'single one' which is behind and in 'all' --I think, it is-- then this variety is no contradiction; it is no contradiction if You know how the mind, the body, even the soul of human persons 'works' when 'consciousness' emerges and people say, that thy 'feel', 'perceive', 'think', 'understand' etc. Like the light of the sun which is showing an amazing spectrum' when passing through a medium like glas, so is Life' showing an amazing complexity and richness when passing through the medium of biological bodies and humanlike minds.
As science has shown in the last years is the pure existence of our planet earth --as it is known today together with the complex life-forms on it-- to such a degree mathematically unlikely that the existence of comparable lifeforms somewhere outside of our solar system is mathematically excluded. This reveals a 'rareness' of our blue planet and his life-forms which is hard to grasp and which gives rise to a 'moral' challenge to all of us which is for most of us probably a big --and unwanted?-- surprise.
History tells us that humans have a very strong inclination to simplify things, for several reasons. Thus we should not wonder that people of a certain time and place tend to fix their special knowledge of Life and 'the one behind' as 'the only one and possible view' even though their view is --known by comparison with other people, opinions, cultures...-- only a special variant of the 'bigger theme'. Clearly, it is more comfortable to have a simplified picture of a complex story; it's easier to grasp, easier to communicate; You have diminished uncertainty, You beliefe then to 'know' the unknown, You think to have fixed the 'wholes of uncertainty' within Your new framework of 'understood certainty', excluding possible surprises. Perhaps You are obeying 'rules', but this can be a kind of a contract: You are following the rules and for this You are expecting the 'other' to behave like You expect; the other 'has to behave like You want' because otherwise You would not follow the rules... If religion is --explicitly or unconsciously-- based on such an 'underlying contract' things can go wrong; You will probably not find the 'real truth' of what is happening with You and around You. You will become a servant of Your wrong whishes and your ill-posed models of life.
Another phenomenon in history is the fact that You have always those who 'tell' and those who 'follow': in most cases there are only a few --or even a single-- person(s) which have stronger, deeper feelings than the others; they have more forthful ideas, more impressive words to 'tell' the others, what is it all about and then there are those who hear this message, who believe in those who 'tell' and who are organizing their lifes --more or less-- according these tellings. This must not be a bad thing because 'authentic' leaders can be helpful, can be real friends, can give a 'good' advice, can deepen Your understanding of life, of everything. There seem to be many good examples in history. But for those who follow the 'truth of the telling' can the 'Realness' of the told truth show up only after some time, after some --perhaps very far reaching-- decisions; the future state of Your selected path can lead to 'damage' or to 'success'. You can not really know in advance; taking real decisions is always riscy. If someone is silent about riscs, be cautious!
The other thing which history tells us is the permanently misuse of religious feelings by those which have the power. For those who 'follow' can it be very difficult to recognize what are the real motifs behind someone who 'tells' the 'truth' and the 'rules'. Again and again there have been political leaders which used the feelings and convictions of those who 'follow' to support their special political goals to augment the individual power of the leader by telling stories about the fate of the followers. Real, invented or simulated enemies are always a good method to fuel the fear and to misuse power for example.
Even this short record of possible faults in searching the truth about 'the one behind and in everything' shows how fragile this truth is and how demanding it would be to overcome all these 'misleading factors'. But the 'real truth' about the 'one...' is even more complicated; besides the tricky 'ocean of feelings and emotions', which to master is in no case 'simple', there is the dimension of knowledge as such. If there is one lesson today about knowledge then that, that is is completely impossible for one single person to grasp at least the essential views and bring them together. If we will not set up a quite new culture --and technology!-- of sharing knowledge then we will have less and less chances to bring all the essential parts together. As much as the quantity of knowledge and the complexity of the used theoretical models will increase will the usable knowledge decrease; already we are back in a situation where a politician has to decide and he has multiple experts at hand without knowing, which one he should 'trust'.
Thus we have many factors ('simplicity as such', wrong leaders, not integrated knowledge...) which can objectively lead to 'hell' instead to be the 'staircase to heaven'. But this difficulty doesn't allow the conclusion, that it is impossible; clearly it is not simple, but the richness of the life of earth, the blue planet of our solar system, a tiny part of a huge universe whose borders are still unknown, whose internal 'laws' are not yet completely revealed, this alltogether is not 'nothing', is an invitation which challenges a new kind of unity between all the nations; there is so much to learn, so much to tell between the cultures, it makes no sense to make war on account of motifs so dull as it happens all the past and still today, day by day.
If we want to proceed the 'staircase to heaven' there are many questions unsolved. The past gave us several 'hints', one is the importance of 'humbleness' as a kind of 'habit' to allow to encounter the truth; but 'humbleness' is not 'weakness'; humbleness as described in the following lines from the book Deutero Isaiah, some centuries before Christ, presupposes very strong and capable persons, leader, leader to the 'real truth'. In all times, in all nations there have been such 'humble persons' which have been 'the heart and the soul' of those who lived with them.
Book (Deutero-)Isaiah 53: 1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear 12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
As the prologue tries to express is the quest for god by no means trivial, simple or "over" - in contrary, it seems that it is getting a new momentum which is more forceful than anything we have perceived before.
In fact this is not a surprise. Have a short look to the historical setting of the main religious movements of the past (for a first source of more detailed information see www.wikipedia.org):
The Main Threads of Religion in History with continuing influences |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| About 3.5 Billion years BCE | The origins of biological life on earth | |||||||
| About 4.5 Mio years BCE | The origins of the human race | |||||||
| About 7000 - 3000 BCE | The origins of Hinduism | |||||||
| About 1400 BCE | Origins of Jewish Religion | |||||||
| 6th Century BCE | Origin of Buddhism | Origin of Confucianism | ||||||
| 5th century BCE - 2nd century CE | Origins of Taoism | |||||||
| 1st Century CE | Origin of Christianity | |||||||
| 7th Century CE | Origin of Islam | |||||||
| 18th Century CE | Fundamentals of western democratic societies | |||||||
| 19th Century CE | Fundamentals of modern sciences (Logic, Mathematics, Physiology, Psychology, and others) | |||||||
Clearly, this is a very rough perspective, but it is exactly this roughness which reveals some important aspects.
The "big six" religions are a very recent and new phenomenon in the course of mankind. And these religions developed long before modern science and modern democratic societies evolved.
Although all these religions have some "ethical nucleus" focussing in rules for a "better life" appreciating life and the other human companions, they all are intensively associated in history with the persecution and killing of other humans, especially hinduists, christians and moslems. It is very strange that the same god should be such, that he is calling the followers to kill each other; but those which are claiming to be the followers of the one god seem not to bother too much about this.
All these religions have problems with modern societies and modern science. Rooted in patterns of thinking which are pre-scientific they didn't really "learn" to rethink their original ideas in the light of the new knowledge opened up by science.
Although the "hot kernel" of the "ethical nucleus" of most of these religions is empirical by nature, is moving, is part of real life, is this "hot kernel" nowhere so strong and influential that it changed thinking and behavior of the officials of these religions, the rules, the institutions. Moreover, like in the islamic religion, it is more or less forbidden really to investigate the sources and origins. Why it should be bad to investigate the way god was speaking, especially if there were humans involved in the understanding and translation of his sayings? What, if he didn't talk at all? Not in such a way?
What makes things so interesting despite all the deficiencies of the traditional religious movements?
Finally it is god itself. Whatever humans can make wrong in the name of god - they will not change god as such. Whatever humans can thing in the wrong way - they will not change god as such. The whole project of the planet earth, our solar system, the milky way, the whole known universe - and probably much more - isn't there because any human person did something senseful for this. Our only known contribution to this incredible project until now is that we are dayly destroying valuable structures of this unbelievable story in an irreversible way.
If we are optimistic minded people then perhaps we could consider the possibility that it is part of the "plan" that the human race will need some million years until it will be able to make a more constructive contribution to the project of live in this universe; perhaps we will reach this point shortly before we have destroyed everything. And perhaps this "shortly before" is enough to start again... And especially if You really would believe in god then you also have to believe in the "mystery of freedom" that we can "decide" not to support life; true freedom allows to say "no", death included.
Most people have difficulties to beliefe in "true freedom". This is so because they also have difficulties to beliefe in "true love". "True love" reaches beyond "death" and takes everything. God is true love, at least this, and he has this kind of true freedom which only he can give. This love has never ended and surely he is never the father of killing people, of murderers, clearly not. No human person has the right to claim this, but the freedom to misuse his personal life for such an illfated action. But because god is "true love" you can stop at any time at every place and turn back to life, to real life.