The uses and abuses of religion

Throughout history humans have had an urge to explore the unknown. One such is how come we are here? The answer has usually been given by religion. Religion is, basically philosophy – we explore probabilities, then possibilities and accept the results which, by their very nature cannot be proven either way.

Three of the four major religions have been defined in writing – the Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah and the Muslim Koran – the Buddhist faith being one exception. So far, so good. Problems begin to arise in the interpretation of these books. Followers tend to accept them as the word of God, forgetting that they were written by (usually) men with the biases inherent in their upbringing and their own thoughts.

Changes to the original have been made for often very worthy reasons – one that springs to mind is Joshua and the walls of Jericho which most Westerners will be familiar with. Joshua came to Jericho during the Exodus from Egypt and overcame it by marching round, blowing trumpets until the walls fell.

This is, of course ludicrous. In fact, the walls were destroyed by an earthquake hundreds of years before. The story was made up to give the Israelites a sense of unity and purpose after they had been enslaved by the Babylonians.

The story of Adam and Eve is another example. Changes were made partly for political reasons and partly to strengthen the faith of the population, thereby increasing the authority of the priesthood and the elite who were literate.

Although the basic premise of religions is the same, throughout history politicians and military leaders have blatantly used it to gain control. It is interesting to note that people who claim to have spoken with intergalactic aliens also use the same hypotheses. Logic would tell us that we all worship the same God but in differing ways.

Christians, Muslims and Jews have, throughout history attempted to subvert and enslave others in the belief that their understanding was the only correct one although simple reasoning shows that if an Almighty wanted to be worshipped for some reason, he is hardly likely to insist on a predetermined format.

If he requires worship in order to attain more strength or authority then he cannot be almighty in the first place, so the concept is self-defeating as is the idea that people should be imprisoned or worse for blasphemy.

It is highly unlikely that any supreme being would bother to speak directly to a human except maybe as an act of general guidance, but religion appears to be a necessity where people gather in large numbers in order to preserve peace and stability.

Everyone should be allowed to believe or not and worship in any way they wish provided they do not try and force those beliefs onto others. Much of today’s ills are in one way or another a result of this.