About religion

Oorspronkelijk geschreven op 20/12/2013 - 15:43

Organized religion is to a society what allergy is to a person: a defense/survival mechanism gone haywire.

Imagine a society as an organism that wants to live and survive. That society needs some way to keep its members - individual people - in line to work together for the same purpose: the well-being and prolongation of that very society. Throughout the ages a very efficient means to that end has evolved: (organized) religion. In ancient times rulers legitimized themselves by stating they ruled by the grace of the gods - a self confirming claim if ever there was one: if you believe in gods, and someone gets to be king, the gods must surely approve shouldn't they? Now imagine the environment the society lives in changing, as in reality it does. But the rules everybody in this society lives by are ordained by the gods, so they can not be changed. How else is this society to survive except by being as pedantic as we the human race are in destroying everything in our environment that doesn't fit to our "needs"?

In a slightly other vein - imagine religion itself as an organism that wants to live and survive. In the history of the Judeo-Christian-Islam religion with all its schisms it's actually rather obvious the religion is trying to adapt to changing circumstances. It just can't agree with itself what would be the best way...