Time for a New Religion
Few things in human history have caused more harm to individual humans than Religion. Whether it’s the Crusades, the Inquisition, Pogroms or Jihads, nothing inspires blind hatred quite like Religion. In the Americas, Religion can be found behind nearly every atrocity. Whether it’s the destruction of great civilizations, the slaughter of the elderly along with women and children in the name of “Manifest Destiny” or the de facto “Re-Education” camps in which the Western Hemisphere’s aboriginal people were forced to surrender their history and culture or die, Religion was the source of such horrors. While Webster’s offers a number of definitions what I have seen increasingly in the present day (and certainly reported throughout Western history) is this one - “of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances.”
While there are, in theory, Religions that do not have a rigorous set of beliefs or traditions, most do. Those beliefs and traditions are often mindlessly held and without any practical or apparent value in modern life. Despite this reality, adherence to the commands of most religions tends to remain at a very high level in the 21st century. Whether it’s an Orthodox Rabbi or the Bishop of Rome sporting a yarmulke, a male Sikh adherent carrying a dagger or a Muslim woman in public wearing a full hijab the reasons for these things is found only in the particular “beliefs” espoused by each respective Religion. One of the most telling traits about this sort of Religion is the existence of and belief in “sacred texts.” In Judaism the Western World has referred to its sacred text, inter alia, as the “Old Testament.” In Christianity it’s the combination of the Old Testament and the “New Testament.” In Islam it’s the Koran. Both Sikhism and Hinduism also have sacred texts. One thing all of these texts have in common is the belief that the texts were “revealed” to humans by some higher power.
Most of the aforementioned Religions also believe that the “Higher Power” which serves to enlighten them is a person, typically a male, who is the source of the sacred texts. While few have the intellectual integrity to ask why a “male” would be the source not only of this special knowledge but also, in some way, a source for the creation of the Universe it’s not really that difficult a question to ask. In this regard I have an answer - the Higher Power these Religions claim a belief in is, in fact, NOT male. Indeed, any truly higher power would be neither Male or Female even granting, arguendo, it exists. Let me add that, personally, I am neither an atheist or an agnostic. I believe there is indeed a “Higher Power” but the Religions of the World are virtually clueless about what that higher power is or how it is that we finite beings might interact with it.
If our species is to survive in the longer term then it must finally address the wholly erroneous belief perpetuated by these Religions - that somehow only humans (especially male humans) are able to communicate with the Higher Power they all agree exists. Consider instead the current state of quantum physics. While scientists too are people of “faith” their faith is based on the collective observations of their predecessors which is to say in the things their physical senses reveal to them. Unfortunately for them most of what exists in the Universe is NOT capable of being identified via the physical senses. The reason I make note of quantum physics is that unlike other “Sciences” it is currently (and increasingly) running into the limits of human comprehension. Scientific theories and an abiding faith in mathematics are proof not of human success but of human failings. Like all other religions, science has a rigorous set of rules and traditions and, like all other human religions science only takes us to the boundaries of knowledge and understanding but, so far, it cannot take us beyond those boundaries (and perhaps never will).
What then is the future of “Religion” for those of us still physically present on Planet Earth? The future, dear readers, is the intangible that nonetheless is not merely knowable but known. Our ultimate religion is about one another. It requires that we accept there is far more we do not know than we will ever know. We must instead turn to our own higher selves and understand that each of us has value within the Universe. Each of us has a place within this World. Each of us has need of and desires certain fundamental things in addition to those that help ensure our physical survival. Among those fundamental things is genuine Love, Compassion, Empathy and a desire for both internal and external Peace. Our new, and possibly final, Religion must be about the changing nature of the Universe around us and the understanding that it is only together that we can bring about the “Heaven” so many religions hold as a place other than the one we occupy when, in fact, it is ours to create.