Throughout the history of mankind, there have always been certain things that separate men from animals. The opposable thumb, the superior intelligence, and the capacity to make tools are just a few of the things that separate man from beast. Yet one of the longest established and most controversial of these human characteristics is religion. Archeologists have found that religious beliefs are as old as man himself. In the modern world though, it seems as if less and less people are buying into the religious doctrines and dogmas, and creating their own beliefs through a mix of science and philosophy.
Why are people turning from organized religion? Has modern society “killed” God, replacing him with a more logical, scientific explanation, or is God just as prevalent today as he was thousands of years before? Either way, we must challenge religion, for as Nietzsche had said: “To admit a belief merely because it is a custom-but that means to be dishonest, cowardly, lazy! -And so could dishonesty, cowardice and laziness be the preconditions for morality? ” (Daybreak 101)
Many of the flaws that are present in modern religion today are the same flaws that were present in early religions. As Jesus had pointed out, the religious teachings and religious thought has been recycled from one holy man to another holy man for generations upon generations. Carl Jung recognized the human elements lying behind God when he said: “God is always man-made and the definition he gives is therefore finite and imperfect. The definition is an image, but this image does not raise the unknown fact it designates into the realm of intelligibility.
The master we choose is not identical with the image we project of him in time and space. ”(Moreno 134) All religious theologies were created and expanded upon by humans, although humans cannot comprehend God. There is no major religion which believes that any of the religious scriptures were directly created at the hands of a God. In saying this, the ultimate creator of God is man. If any of the religions that have been around for so long had actually experienced God, the experience would be diluted and distorted.
I say that for two reasons, one is because humans easily misinterpret actions and who can expect to understand wholly a god-like creature so far beyond our knowledge, and secondly, even if a person could understand the complete significance of the event it would be highly unlikely their story would resemble anything even close to what had happened after being passed down orally and in writing for generations. Just think of most of the bible stories as a big whisper down the lane, with the end result sounding nothing like the beginning statement.
Many stories of the Old Testament were around for thousands of years before being finally written down. Even after being written down, they were translated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin and then to English. It is only conceivable that after being passed through all those human hands, there would be some misinterpretation. This inheriting of ideas even affects religions outside of the religion from which the ideas originated. Judaism borrowed a lot of its lore from the polytheistic Babylonians and other Sumerians.
Christianity and Islam sprouted from Judaism. Christianity also borrowed heavily from the pagan Greek and Roman theology, some say even more so than it borrowed from Judaism. Modern Jewish practice is being influenced by Christianity. The beliefs of an organized religion are constantly being changed by whomever and whatever surrounds the religion. When the Hebrews were captured in Babylon, the stories of the Babylonians influenced such stories as Noah’s Ark. Christmas is on December 25th because of how close it is to the winter solstice, a pagan holiday.
Hinduism openly borrows from other religions, Gandhi, although he was primarily a Hindu, also believed in over 15 other religions. To not recognize that most religions borrow some beliefs from other religions is to deny yourself of all the inherited dogmas and beliefs which you claim to cling dearly to. The nature of religion is to mold and modify its beliefs to that of the time and place of which it exists. Religion has been used for years to explain natural phenomena. In this time of scientific progression, it seems illogical to believe some of the “facts” that different beliefs provide as answers to nature.
The Egyptians believed that all was created from the god Ra’s semen or spit. We find this illogical because science has shown us that the universe seems to have been created by a giant explosion of matter. It was normally Christian teaching that the earth was the center of the universe, since humans are his greatest creation and he sent his only son to suffer and die for humanity. Of course Galileo and Copernicus disproved that. Ancient creation myths usually talk about the world as always having the same plants and animals existing on earth and don’t give any hint towards evolution.
Darwin had shown through numerous forms of evidence that not only had other creatures existed, but that some of those creatures had evolved into the creatures we have today. Religion has a history of not only ignoring many scientific advances, but actually trying to deny science. As Nietzsche said: “All the methods, all the elementary procedure of our modern scientific knowledge, were held in contempt for centuries: anybody who dabbled in them was excluded from “respectable” company, was looked upon as an “enemy of God,” as a mocker of truth and as “possessed by the devil.
Our motives and our procedure, and our calm, cautious, untrustful way of looking at things were vilified and condemned… They wanted truth to seem picturesque. ”(Antichrist 14-15) Galileo was excommunicated for saying that the earth was not the center of the universe. Horrified Christians refused to have their children taught that man came from monkeys. By doing this, religion hindered the progress which science had made. In these cases, the religious people would rather believe writings which are subject to numerous flaws instead of actual evidence, usually because the evidence gives man a less significant image of himself.
All of a sudden, what was considered divine is now considered a natural act of the world. The way religion has tried to cope with science shows a great deal of insight into religion’s relationship with man. Humans would rather simply inherit truths into themselves than to find truths. Now that many of science’s facts are widely known and accepted, people find it easier to inherit certain scientific facts than some dogmatic truths. Humans used to use religion as a basis for their moral code.
Before large governments were established, there was a need for some type of authority to tell people the difference between right and wrong. Tribal leaders decided to say that rules were made up by the deities. Jewish people have a rule that says that they cannot eat pork. It is hard to believe that any God would be overly concerned with what food you eat. The religious ban on pork was probably put into place after many people died from eating some bad pork. The moral code created by the leader was kosher foods, but he meant only to avoid pork because it made people sick.
In modern times, if there was spoiled or very unhealthy food being used all across a country, the government would tell its citizens not to eat the food or even possibly put a ban of the food. Just in the same way, the Ten Commandments were replaced by laws and the Beatitudes were replaced by the idea that all men were created equal. What began as a simple honest concern that a leader showed his people, eventually became an inherited dogma. All of a sudden the concern of one became misconstrued as the will of God. The will of God could also be called good.
The philosopher Hegel had this to say about good in his book, Philosophy of Right: “The good is in principle the essence of the will in its substantiality and universality, i. e. of the will in its truth, and therefore exists simply and solely in thinking and by means of thinking. Hence such as “man cannot know the truth but has to do only with phenomena,” or “Thinking injures the good will” are dogmas depriving mind not only of intellectual but also of all ethical worth and dignity” (Hegel 48) By stating this, Hegel shows the importance of a man deciding his own morals.
By taking away a man’s right to arrive upon his morals, you are taking away from the true essence of morality and you are not allowing the mind to think in a way which is both natural and necessary. Nietzsche also touches on inherited morality rather well saying: Custom represents the experiences of men of earlier times as to what they supposed useful and harmful – but the sense for custom (morality) applies, not to these experiences as such, but to the age, the sanctity, the indiscussability of the custom.
And so this feeling is a hindrance to the acquisition of new experiences and the correction of customs: that is to say, morality is a hindrance to the development of new and better customs: it makes stupid. (Daybreak 19) Just as Hegel had expressed, Nietzsche notices the problem with inherited morals. Without there being much room for opposition, the inherited morals assume prevalence and win moral trial after trial by default. One is afraid to question what is established due to the fact that the established has gone unchallenged.
So if a custom may not be such a good custom, it is still practiced due to everyone’s assuming that it is truly good. Religion also provides a community and a lifestyle for a person to live in. Just as much as some people are brought together through where they live, how much money they make, or what political party they are affiliated with, people are also brought together through religion. Back before people were not as open to other cultures as people are today, whole nationalities were built around religious practices such as the Holy Roman Empire.
Yet there are problems with this type of segregation, as there are with almost any type of segregation. Due to the fact that segregation exposes people to only a limited amount of other viewpoints, people become narrow minded and unreceptive to other beliefs. This type of unreceptiveness has fueled prejudice, hatred, and even holy wars. In the history of mankind, the number one reason for a war is religion. More people have been slain in the name of God than for any other reason. Even today, Palestinians and Israelis are fighting. Irish Catholics are still fighting with the Irish Protestants.
Many Muslims have declared a jihad on America. All you have to do is look around to see the battle raging on, the hedonists versus the true believers. In every battle, both armies have God on their side, to murder, to plunder their opposition. To base your beliefs on something that has that much of a chance for flaws is risky to say the least. Even Hegel, who considered himself to be a great Christian writer, was against the inherited dogmas and doctrines that plague organized religion. To him, the message of morality was the truth behind the Gospels.
Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection was insignificant, the significance was in the message that Jesus professed. This is striking for a Christian writer since most Christians base their whole beliefs on the life, birth, and death of Jesus. Hegel believed that the Christian morals must be arrived upon by the believer, instead of inherited. After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave – a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. -And we- we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.