When the Gods Compete, You Win!

Wherever you look, competition is everywhere. Advertisers spend billions trying to capture your attention and imagination, prompting us to buy their latest gizmos to entertain you and satisfy your every desire. It seems that it's the way things have always been. Always something new with dubious benefits to top it off! Since childhood we've been conditioned to be prolific consumers in a get-get-get vulture-culture (you either get or get eaten) and so we run our little fannies off to make enough money so we can participate in the revels.

Religion has always been a business and has always followed a business model. Many different preachers have hawked it over the millennia in order to grab our attention to the quality of their wares. They form alliances by getting on the same page and organizing themselves into corporate structures that can both keep its customers satisfied and keep them continually putting cash into the till. If you've been around a few decades and have sampled their offerings (not the offering basket, of course) then you probably know what I'm talking about.

That reminds me, in Mel Brook's 'History of the World,' one of my favorite movies, you might have seen the part where Comicus, (Brooks) a 'stand-up philosopher' does a comedy routine for Caesar (Dom DeLuise) and gets rousing applause for his joke about how Romans have a god for everything and gets near the end of it with the line, "The only thing (we Romans) don't have is a god for is premature ejaculation - but I hear that that's coming quickly!" and gets Caesar to burst out in uproarious laughter. Comicus then says,"The little fag gets it," referring to the effeminate court spokesman's girly giggle." (I always get a laugh from gay humor.) Unfortunately, Comicus blows his sketch by making a reference to Caesar as being a "big, fat pig" and thus his career at 'Caesar's Palace' comes to an abrupt end with an order to his guards to "KILL HIM!!!!" Brooks was a master comedian to be sure and puts a funny edge on that period of history, which had as its backdrop a colorful and plentiful array of different competing beliefs. Rome in its golden age was blessed with an incredible variety of material as well as spiritual goodies and so a parallel can be drawn between their culture and ours. The only real difference between the two, in my opinion, is that Roman civilization was just a touch more on the brutal side than our own is currently. Our world is like the forum was back in the day with many different people and ideas mixing in a huge multi-cultural coliseum-like structure and is a perfect breeding ground for conflict between the top religious contenders, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. New to the game but not without precedent are the new age varieties that are more Gnostic in origin. Organized religion hates Gnosticism because it's relatively anarchical but that could change if one of them ever really caught on fire. Some Gnostic based belief could actually turn out to be the One World Religion that the main line religionists fear and might engender some type of millennial conflict as laid out in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions. With much to gain and lose in their competition for adherents the mainliners must highlight the immanent coming of an Anti-Messiah to ward off the increasing influence of the up and comers, that these new beliefs will lead to the destruction of the human race by defying their Gods' edicts to not worship 'other gods'.

Many people however, remain unswayed by this type of fear mongering and continue to ignore the mainline religions' apocalyptic warnings of doom and continue to stream into the faith marketplace to sample the merchandise to see which looks and tastes best to them. Now I listen to a lot of fundamentalist Christian radio and it tends to demonize certain tangents even within their own general sphere of belief. The Church Growth Movement led by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, for example, is often spoken of derisively as being 'in error' and a tool of Satan to mislead the flock due to certain 'covenanting' requirements and to various 'mark of the beast' features that appear both in belief and in manner of worship. Among other noted 'false teachings' is the relatively recent spiritual sensation known as 'The Secret' which purportedly opens up a whole new world of prosperity, counseling its viewers and readers in practicing techniques that harness the power of the mind, in a cleverly wrapped package which also includes the realization and energizing of 'the God within' who actively wants us to have all our heart's desires come true. Right now I estimate it to be THE major threat to American Christian fundamentalism maybe even more so than is Warren's Church Growth Movement.

Religion is definitely supplanting other philosophies that have become popularized in recent times. Communism and Fascism vied for the lead for a while until the really nasty stuff manifested itself in horribly violent excesses and although these political and philosophical systems retain some of their former steam, neither is likely to displace the other-worldly aspects of religious idealism which have so much appeal to us fragile, finite beings. The Davidic injunction to "taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him." (Psalm 34:8) is still just as relevant today as it was the day it was penned, supposedly under the inspiration of the Almighty. The true nature of the 'Lord' that's mentioned in the Psalm is what remains in contention today as it has always been, but it is even more so today due to religion's influence upon governmental decision making and the art of war and peace. So it's yours and mine to decide which among many is the real Lord that we're going to put our bets on. The gods of a (shrinking) world are upping the spiritual ante and are graciously letting us, their subjects, decide on whom the winner is going to be. Ultimately we are the winners though, since we get to do the choosing this time, and for once they have to listen to us!

The Power of Stories

The power of stories has built our world. They are told to mature audiences by comedians, in front of students by teachers, to campers on summer break by campfires, in song by musicians, to children by their parents just before bed, and even in the womb when the child in his or her watery bubble hears sounds from the outside world for the first time. They go back a long way to the time when humans were first able to take their imagination to places not yet conceived from the raw material of their daily lives. Nations and their cities were built on them and though the tales may have been woven from a just a little truth and a lot of embellishment, they've had the power to inspire their hearers in turn to create their own legends and civilizations and so we have as our inheritance a very large historical quilt that tells us a lot about who we are in the good we have done as well as in the bad.

One of the best and most influential of them is found in the story of Jesus and in the later books of the New Testament that went on to flesh out the original salvation theme. The Gospels themselves grew out from the volumes of Hebrew writings and took much of their inspiration from them as their writers made them relevant to the first century setting in which they lived. They were made meaningful not just to the nucleus of Jewry which had known many lesser saviors in the past and the promises of greater ones to come but also to other tribes and peoples with different but no less inspiring icons of their own. These were woven into the original story by their tellers and were gathered together into what we might refer to as more or less fixed orthodox belief. Many of their truths however were not only based on ideas that came from the older Sumerian, Indian, Egyptian and Babylonian stories. They also reflected some of the character of the companion religions that paralleled first century Christianity. I've always felt that if something of quality is created, it has the power to endure the changes that occur even after its time has long passed. That's the reason why I believe many bits and pieces in the Gospel story are also found in the stories of Osiris, Mithras, Hercules, Dionysus, Krishna, etc. The older ones live on in the newer and so it is that although the former ones becomes a bit tattered and worn after a time, their essence remains, though slightly changed to inspire the next generation. Conflicts develop though when the established order is threatened by the desire of some to modify it and the latter is born painfully from the former like a mother that regrets her pregnancy in the hours just preceding the moment of the delivery. Death accompanies change as the old order in its desire to dominate resorts to violent authoritarianism through fear in order to stay in power and though it may in the short term find success in repressing the newer idea, it eventually and inevitably must yield to it. Unfortunately, many die in that repression.

We humans are not always enthusiastic about change because we often like what we've become accustomed to and whether it's from want, suffering or just plain boredom we brace ourselves for it and derive courage to face it from the great stories we create and the heroes that live and breath within them. Although we have always been more or less the same in our wants, desires and values throughout time, we've had the need to continually change the legends and myths which reflect them just to give a little new life to the old and to revitalize our long-cherished ideals. Change being the nature of existence, we are as much actors as audience in watching and experiencing the passage of time. Our stories tie us to our past as well as to the unknowns of the future and we feel a multidimensional connection to others in their continued telling. We throw away our fear and cast our lots to whatever may happen because we know that we are part of the greatest story ever which is ourselves.

artwork by Sir John Everett Millais 'Boyhood of Raleigh'

We Want Peace, But...

There are two competing philosophies that stand out in my mind that seem to affect the course of civilization, one that allows for unrestricted use of force to gain its objectives and one that constrains us in the use of that force. In relation to these concepts we develop fixed ideas that color all that we do whether for good or ill. Within the span of these core belief systems are the innumerable actions we take as individuals or groups that range from extreme pacifism to uncontrolled aggression. If those who are cautious and wise gain more influence in the marketplace of ideas than those who are reckless and authoritarian, I believe we as a race are in a much better position to nurture peace and implement just political and social policies.

Religion, I think is a force for great good or great evil. It is a two-edged sword that great prophetic voices through the ages have made very clear. While religion can be used to do great harm against those who are deemed to be servants of evil, it can also be an incredibly positive force to do good since all scriptures have passages within them that are universal in the ability to redirect our energies toward making the planet a better place to live. Of course, it is tempting to think that God doesn't care about humankind because people everywhere have always suffered as a result of natural catastrophic events. Destruction is part of physical existence. We can't escape it while in our bodies or while dwelling in homeworld Earth. The galaxies live and die in cycles of unending creation and destruction as do those who live here on this small blue dot in space. If we in our struggle to survive, can't transcend to a higher thought plane other than the "grab what you can and to hell with the others" mindset because of the constant precariousness of life, I think we're in big, big trouble.

Using God to justify violence is absurd because no one can prove that their ideas of God are one hundred percent true as claimed and giving lip-service to peace while hiding under its cloak does not bring it about but does just the opposite. Using it as cover is manipulative in that it deceives people, skewing their ideas and poisoning their spirits. As members of the human family we have much in common yet our leaders repeatedly vilify other nations and cultures and teach us to do the same. When are we going to rise as a human family and finally force our leaders to abolish war and ignore those who preach hate? Do we have that much of a global death wish? We have the tools to make peace. They are in our minds and hearts because we have all learned them from childhood and though we sometimes forget the ways of peace, if we are doggedly committed to their pursuit, we have a good chance of propagating it and limiting unneeded suffering in our individual and collective lives.

Evolution, Religion and Social Change

Well, maybe they're one and the same but this is not about the on-going evolution debate as to who's more right in understanding how life came to be. It's an intriguing question. How in the heaven (or hell) did we get here on this lonely remote galactic outpost called Earth? Many devout Christians, Muslims and Jews feel that only a literal interpretation of Scripture can accurately explain this and they view that scientists and their admirers are sadly mistaken and under the influence of strong delusion from the Dark Side. A fundamentalist sees his or her Scripture as mostly an all-or-nothing package and either one believes in the Word of God or one doesn't. I am however, of the rebellious and heretical, 'I don't believe anything unless you prove it to me' set. Preachers plying there 'get to heaven' wares don't get too far with me and even the ones who show up at my door like the Mormons or the J.W's, after they’ve visited a few time mostly lift up their hands in frustration and leave because I just can't see the obvious truth in what they are saying.

People tend to like simple solutions to hard questions. Unfortunately there are few of them around. As the pace of knowledge inexorably moves into uncharted waters there are few including myself who have the patience to explore all the intricacies of inner-space or outer space for that matter. Better leave that to the experts I say, and watch with wonder the Discovery Channel shows that are so completely fascinating to me. I see the world as a great puzzle which we are frustratingly unable to piece together to into one overarching grand truth. Maybe it's because there's so many in-between truths both within and without the mind's imagination like so many facets of a gemstone, and though we can't pick and take home all the fruits of the tree of life, we can settle on just a few to keep us busy asking questions. One I'd like to pose is this: Can the theory of evolution explain and amplify what we know about humanity from the study of history? We know that evolution is the process in which living things adapt to the needs of their environment, giving rise to gradual genotypic and phenotypic variations, resulting in new species. If we look at human history as a sort of 'evolutionary laboratory' and view the gradual social, religious, economic and political changes that have occurred within civilization's roughly six-thousand year span, (in deference to the biblical literalists, of course), we can compare the state of a society to the causal framework which supports it. Change occurs in dynamic relationship with present and past events and that each change within a society brings about an effect in the overall development of humankind. Each cause and effect occurrence brings about either a successful or an unsuccessful adaptation to the changing conditions at any one particular time and space. The social 'organism' itself does not query each part since the stronger parts rise tend to the top of the order to set the agenda and the weaker parts remain suppressed and the resulting unequal structure provides the upward or downward movement needed to balance stasis with change. Bound by pre-wired heredity, the power of the human brain to change itself is limited and the instinctual drives continue to pulse within and even though the mind has the ability to set the conditions of its environment and create new ways of tweaking it, consciousness is still bound by the innate drive to conquer and subjugate through violence and war. The two mechanisms of religion and law serve as a framework to corral those instincts through higher principles of social good and social order, but even these mechanisms after a time become stale, useless, and oppressive. Because of this I believe that though laws and beliefs are more or less constants in the struggle for the survival of civilizations, there exists unknowns that give rise to changes and adjustments in the order, especially now since scientific knowledge has increased exponentially within just the last few hundred years.

So we can trace this process beginning in Africa to the Near East and the Far East which we refer to as the cradle(s) of civilization through the different 'ages' until the present. Religion has always been 'Advisor to the King', and becomes the spiritual framework for support of the established order. Certain religions have often joined forces with the state in an attempt to create hyper-dominant power centers which claim 'divine' prerogatives, but these attempts tend to give rise to new ideas and social concepts that ultimately subdue those centers. In our times, the concept of a just World-State has emerged but the religious framework to support that state still has not yet been decided upon, the new main contenders being Islam and Judeao-Christianity, both vying for control of the individual and collective minds and natural resources. Religions however, if they become overly dominant will usually suppress scientific discovery that threatens their systems as 'heresy'. Each promises freedom, but it is the way freedom is defined that makes the two systems so vastly different. Of course I am biased toward the liberal Judeao-Christian system because that's what I know more about and feel most comfortable with. Whichever is more successful in capturing the human imagination I suppose could eventually become a One World Religion and ultimately tip our destiny toward its vision but assuredly just as weather changes, so will the winners eventually become the losers and what once were fresh ideas will become as stale bread as the old order recedes into the twilight.

New ideas of state and faith will propel social evolution onward toward the future, and human history with its peaks and dips will hopefully find ways to continually refashion itself and to replace more tyrannical institutions with more just ones. One thing is certain though. Religious autocracies once they are securely in power will suppress all heretical ideas that threaten their systems and in that respect those that represent change may have the challenge of confronting both the Church and the State. These systems may be the more difficult to replace, but they are the ones that are most likely to fall the hardest.