Blessed are those who know how to relax without looking for excuses; they are on the way to becoming wise. Blessed are those who know when to be quiet and listen; they will learn a lot of new things. Blessed are those who are sane enough not to take themselves too seriously; they will be valued by those around them.[1]

“In a way, religion is humanity’s greatest invention. Whether or not you believe gods exist, it was humans who built religion into the cultural force that enabled various cultures to transition from small scale hunter-gatherer society into the massive scale we are at today. But like many of our greatest inventions … religion is not without its costs”.[2]

I am writing this blog based on my own experiences, perceptions and knowledge of religion and certainly don’t consider myself an expert on the subject. Be that as it may I have been moved to write this blog to improve and broaden my understanding of the influence that religion has on our lives.

The initial inspiration to write this blog came from listening to Kev Carmody’s poem/song ‘Comrade Jesus Christ’. Here is a link, it provides some context for what this blog is about. My favourite band, The Herd, created their own version of this song for the ‘Cannot Buy My Soul’ album which includes various artists covering Kev’s songs. Here is a link to their version.

Please read this blog in the spirit it was shared; with love, compassion and a desire to learn. I wish to state that in no way am I wanting to impose myself on others with my writing but I feel a deep desire to share my thoughts and inspirations with whoever may be reading this and I am very grateful that you are, I warmheartedly wish you all the very best.

My aim is to improve myself and strive to be better each day. Writing is one way I am trying to meet this aim and it is one way I can contribute towards my wish to live in a society that sustainably exists within our planetary limits and that has a loving heart at its core. Hopefully my writing will go some way to showing why this is important and how we can achieve this.

I hope my words inspire some understanding and reflection and above all, some hope.

…

 According to Frans De Waal, religion is “the shared reverence for the supernatural, sacred, or spiritual as well as the symbols, rituals, and worship that are associated with it”. A key element of religion is also the importance of shared experiences that unite into one single moral community.[3]

This blog will explore the history of religion and why and where it started, identify some of the benefits and challenges we are facing because of religion and provide some thoughts on what role religion may have in the future. But first I wish to outline my personal experience with religion.

I was brought up as a Catholic but my family is not overly religious but I did attend a Catholic High School so was well indoctrinated into the religion. The only time I attended church was when I had to as a kid so apart from the odd wedding and funeral I haven’t been in a church since I was a teenager. No, I tell a lie, I have visited many a church, cathedral, temple, synagogue and even a Mosque or two on my travels around the world but that was more to do with appreciating the architecture and history of the buildings and nothing to do with my religion. I witnessed the benefit of the church community for our family when we lived in Adelaide in the mid 1980’s. We had relocated to Adelaide and attended church, this enabled mum and dad to meet several other families, some of which had also relocated, and these people have become lifelong friends. I also witnessed another side of the church when we moved to Sydney and the local church seemed to be more concerned with what mum and dad would donate to the collection plate. Suffice to say it didn’t provide the same sense of fellowship as the church in Adelaide. As a teenager wandering the streets of Castle Hill, I did come across evangelical Christians trying to encourage us to join them, but there was always something weird about these people and it just wasn’t my scene. Anyway, I observed enough hypocrisy by my own church let alone anyone else’s to develop a healthy cynicism of all things religious pretty early on in life.

I didn’t meet anyone of other faiths until I started working. When I worked at Hungry Jacks, I recall stealthily taking burgers out to my manager who was Muslim. It was Ramadan at the time, I guess he wasn’t too devout about his religion. During my studies at university, I became friends with a fella called Abdi, he was also a Muslim and a refugee from Somalia. I recall having several interesting conversations with him and his friends about their faith, as well as the circumstances of why they had to leave their home in Somalia which really brought home how easy my life is here in Australia. Their tales of survival and how they managed to escape were quite harrowing to say the least and has fuelled my utter contempt and dismay at how we are currently treating refugees, which for a supposedly Christian nation is bewildering. I also remember them laughing at me when I said that I thought Jesus was just a good bloke who was fucked over by the Romans. I guess I had developed an admiration for Jesus, but not a devotion to him. Our conversations did provide me with an appreciation of how their religion provided them with solace and support during such difficult times.

Whilst not a churchgoer I identified as a Catholic up until all the stories of paedophilia that had been covered up by the church came out. Once I became aware of the extent of the insidious culture of the church I could no longer in any good conscience have anything to do with it and certainly didn’t want to associate with it. Ever since then, when asked of my religion in the census I have marked ‘no religion’.

I don’t consider myself an atheist as I do believe that there is something much bigger than ourselves at play and this is something I think about often, but I don’t believe in a ‘god’ as such, certainly not in the traditional Christian or Abrahamic religion sense. If anything, I am drawn to the god that Baruch Spinoza[4] envisaged back in the 1600’s. Spinoza believed that God is ‘the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator’. He introduced the idea that the best way to know God is to understand how life and the universe work and it is through a knowledge of psychology, philosophy and the natural sciences that we can come to understand god. According to Spinoza, ‘The minds highest good is the knowledge of god, and the highest virtue is to know god.’

Spinoza’s god has also been called nature and is the totality of everything. It follows then, that if we are all aspects of god, or one being, one nature, then it would be ridiculous for us to destroy others and the environment as to cause suffering to anything is to cause damage to ourselves as well. With this in mind, it blows my mind that the only people we hear talking about their religion in the media and more specifically their ‘religious freedoms’ seem to just want to use such freedoms to oppress, discriminate and/or cause suffering to others who happen to be different to them which, as Kev Carmody eloquently points out in his poem ‘Comrade Jesus Christ’, is the antithesis to everything Jesus was teaching us. Hence, I agree with Barry Jones when he points out that “Jesus has been essentially hijacked by hard right religious fundamentalists who seem unfamiliar with the Beatitudes or the parable of the Good Samaritan, and do not recognise him as having been a child refugee, sympathetic to woman, non-judgmental, and a victim of judicial abuse and capital punishment.”[5]

Anyways, I’m digressing somewhat now, but my experience of religion has provided me a healthy sense of the hypocrisy of those who feel a need to espouse their religiosity and force their faith onto others and I find it astounding that whenever we do something abominable to other people, religion is usually the justification behind it. However, I do acknowledge that at its core, religion is primarily about bringing people together as a single community under a shared narrative, elevating a sense of connectedness and enabling people to achieve more as a group that they would as individuals. The community building aspect of religion also builds social capital through trust, respect and reciprocity which is the key to religions success and why it is so appealing for so many of us in the world.[6]  I also believe there is certainly a spiritual element to our existence which is much more than just fearing an interventionist or judgmental god. We in the west have lost our connection to spirit and maybe it has something to do with the type of God we have created. I will elaborate on this later in the blog.

I am intrigued by the history of religion and how it all came about in the first place. For tens of thousands of years, we lived in bands and tribes, small groups of people numbering from dozens to hundreds. In some parts of the world, we still in live in bands and tribes. The predominant ‘religion’ for these bands and tribes has been described as animism. Whilst each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, animism is used to describe indigenous peoples spiritual and supernatural perspectives. Animism is the belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence and encompasses the belief that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no categorical distinction between the spiritual and physical (or material) world and that soul or spirit exists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks and geographic features.[7]

European anthropologists of the 19^th century regarded animism as primitive superstition and that these people were at the earliest knowable stage of cultural evolution. However, it should be noted that animism beliefs have survived in more complex and hierarchical religions and examples of animism can be found in Shinto, Hinduism, Buddhism, Pantheism and Paganism.

For Indigenous Australians their connection and management of land was intrinsically linked through the Dreaming which encompasses their version of animism.

“All religions attempt two things; to explain existence, and to regulate behaviour. Aboriginal religion integrated these by assuming the spiritual parity of all life, and by subjecting every aspect of it to overwhelming religious sanction.”[8]

The Dreaming is comprehensive, let place dominate time and translated well understood ecological associations into social relations. It taught why the world must be maintained and the land taught how; making land care compulsory and rewarding and thus fusing theology and ecology.[9] It is hard to recognise the Dreaming as primitive superstition, in fact it is far from it, and if the test of superiority of a society was whether or not all were fed regardless of rank or whether all contributed to the spiritual and cultural health of the civilisation then Aboriginal Australia would have a much higher rank compared to many other nations[10], and is arguably more sophisticated than Western civilisation, considered by some as the hallmark of human evolution.

A few thousand years ago some of our cultures developed polytheism which is considered the next evolution from animism. Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple gods, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious groups and rituals. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally; they may specialise in the worship of one god or might worship different gods at different times.

Polytheism was the typical form of religion before the development and spread of the Abrahamic religions that we know of today, being Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Many of us probably recognise polytheism through learning about the ancient Greek and Roman gods but I also note that the people of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were also polytheists.

Notable polytheistic religions practiced today include Taoism, Shenism, Shinto, Wicca, Druidism and most forms of Hinduism.

Whilst there has been a plethora of religions across the world, and there still is, nowadays the world is dominated by five religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all coming to being between 2000 BCE and 700 CE. These religious systems provided foundations of cultural communication, moral expectation and personal trust among people who were meeting, sharing ideas, and doing business with others far beyond their local community. It could be said that these religions were best able to survive as they were able to win over the most converts and/or eliminate their rivals. The means of conversion or elimination were not always convivial, and history reveals they were generally quite abhorrent.

There are some common features of these religions, such as there is usually a founding man who receives the word of God; there is a key text or set of texts that defines man’s relationship with God; there are recommended ways of living and worshipping; people come together regularly to have God’s word interpreted for them by an authority; and there is a path to self-transformation and eternal salvation in one way or another.[11]

HINDUISM

Hinduism is often referred to as the ‘oldest religion’, with many practitioners referring to their religion as Sanātana Dharma or ‘the Eternal Dharma’ which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history. It is believed Hinduism started around 2000 BCE, or 4000 years ago, in the Indus Valley of Northern India and has approximately 1.2 billion followers. It is closely interwoven with Indian culture and is very diverse and adaptable, allowing the worship of numerous gods and goddesses. Given Hinduism’s intrinsic link with Indian culture (80% of Indians are Hindu’s) it has not spread far outside the subcontinent and is also not overly expansionist or interested in converting others.[12]

I am fascinated by the Hindu Yugas which tells us the world is made up of four main Yugas, the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga and the Kali Yuga, each made up of tens of thousands of years. According to Hindu cosmology the Universe is created and then destroyed every 4.1 to 8.2 billion years. The Yugas repeat themselves in cyclical patterns with each Yuga involving stages of change; of evolution, of not only the physical universe but also the whole thought process and consciousness of humanity, either for better or for worse, depending on the particular Yuga. We are currently in the Kali Yuga, which is when Hindus believe humanity degenerates spiritually and is referred to as the Dark Age as we are as far away as possible from God.

A Hindu that I admire is Mahatma Gandhi, he was a lawyer, politician, and activist in the struggle for social justice and for India’s independence from British rule, which was achieved in 1947. Mahatma is an honorific meaning ‘great soul’ or ‘venerable’ and was bestowed on him in 1914, he was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1869. Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha, often translated as ‘way of truth’ or ‘pursuit of truth’ and he often said that his values were simple, based upon traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya) and non-violence (ahimsa).

BUDDHISM

Buddhism also started in Northern India around 500 BCE and now has approximately 520 million followers. It drew on the tolerance of Hinduism to grow within, and spread beyond the borders of India and has adapted to the cultures it entered such as China, Japan, South East Asia and more recently, into the West.[13] I am drawn to Buddhism and have learnt about it primarily by listening to Wendy Shinyo Haylett’s podcast, ‘Everyday Buddhism’. At Buddhism’s core are the four noble truths and the eight-fold path which is:

1. Right View: Understand that there is suffering in the world and that the Four Noble Truths can break this pattern of suffering.
2. Right Intention: Avoid harmful thoughts, care for others, and think about more than yourself.
3. Right Speech: Speak kindly and avoid lying or gossip.
4. Right Action: Be faithful and do the right thing; do not kill, steal, or lie.
5. Right Living: Make sure that your livelihood does not harm others. Do not promote slavery or the selling of weapons or poisons.
6. Right Effort: Work hard and avoid negative situations.
7. Right Awareness: Exercise control over your mind and increase your wisdom.
8. Right Concentration: Increase your peacefulness and calmness, in particular through meditation.[14]

The main intent of Buddhism is ‘compassion’, the Dalai Lama frequently says, ‘My religion is compassion”.[15] Tibetan’s regard compassion as nobility or greatness of heart and it implies wisdom, discernment and kindness. This intent is what makes all life meaningful and as Master Shanti Dava says, “All happiness in this world arises from cherishing others, every suffering in this world arises from self-cherishing.”[16]

Apart from the Dalai Lama, who is probably the person I’d most like to meet in the world today, another Buddhist I admire is Ashoka the Great. He was an Indian emperor who ruled over the Indian subcontinent from 268 to 232 BC. Whilst initially he used violence to expand his empire to reign from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, he was able to transform himself through introspection to become a compassionate and tolerant leader and promoted the spread of Buddhism across ancient Asia. He is considered one of India’s greatest emperors and is renowned for his tolerance of other faiths, setting up one of the first welfare states in the ancient world with equal laws for all and focusing on peaceful and effective communication. Ashoka’s edicts were etched in several languages and by translating his message of peace he was able to reach out to as many people as possible across his empire as well as to foreign emissaries from Greek and Persian Empires. H.G. Wells wrote, “Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star.”

Whilst both Hinduism and Buddhism have polytheist and animist elements, the other three major religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all monotheistic Abrahamic religions, meaning they have one all-powerful and all-knowing god.

JUDAISM

Judaism commenced around 2000 BCE in Israel and has approximately 15 million followers with about 50% of all Jews living in Israel and another 40% living in the USA and Canada with most of the remainder living in Europe (there are communities of Jewish people in Australia as well). Some believe Judaism is the oldest monotheist religion, and it is certainly older than Christianity and Islam, but the mantle for the oldest monotheist religion may go to Zoroastrianism but I will let the historians fight that one out.

The most important teaching of Judaism is that there is one God, Yahweh, who wants people to do what is just and compassionate. Judaism teaches that a person serves God by learning the holy books and doing what they teach. These teachings include both ritual actions and ethics. Judaism teaches that all people are made in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Some of my most poignant experiences have been in Europe learning about the atrocities committed against Jews during the holocaust when 6 million Jews were murdered. I will never forget visiting the Domany Street Synagogue in Budapest (a magnificent building which is the largest Synagogue in Europe) and learning about the mass grave of 2000 Jewish people there. Or visiting the ‘Shoes on the Danube’ memorial, also in Budapest, which is a memorial to the 3,500 people who were shot into the Danube during the time of the Arrow Cross Terror. The Arrow Cross Party were a particularly repugnant right-wing political party who murdered 10-15,000 people in the six months that they were in power from October 1944 to March 1945. Or visiting Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The basis of antisemitism is religious differences and can be traced back to ancient Greco-Roman times however it really became more prevalent with the rise of Christianity, despite the fact Jesus and his disciples were practicing Jews! Here is a link to an article by Michael Berenbaum which explains the history of antisemitism if you wish to learn more, but for me antisemitism is one of our most enduring examples of the way power, intolerance and exclusion is encouraged in a religious and political context to discriminate others. It has been referred to as one of our oldest hatreds and is unfortunately still prevalent today.

I admire Victor Frankl, he was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. His book, “Mans Search for Meaning’ recounts his experience as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. Whilst reading about his experiences is harrowing, I find much hope and inspiration from his ideas about meaning and purpose. One of his conclusions is that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living, life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. Frankl also concludes that there are only two races of men, decent men and indecent. No society is free of either of them, and thus there were ‘decent’ Nazi guards and ‘indecent’ prisoners. Here are two quotes from his book that I try to remind myself of.

 “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

 “No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity began around 100 CE and is the worlds largest religion with approximately 2.4 billion followers. It emerged from Judaism and is based on the life and teachings of Jesus. To most of the people of his time Jesus was a preacher, teacher, healer, and prophet from ancient Judea (now Israel and Palestine). However, his disciples believe him to be much more than that: they believed that Jesus was God’s one and only son who was sent down to earth to die on a cross for their sins. To me, Jesus was one of the world’s great radicals and to borrow some words from Kev Carmody, ‘One of the greatest humanitarian socialists.’

Christians consider the Bible as sacred; it is made up of the ‘Old Testament’ which is the Hebrew Bible of the Jewish faith and the ‘New Testament’ which includes the Gospels which are about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

The four largest denominations of Christianity are the Catholic Church (1.3 billion), Protestantism (920 million), the Eastern Orthodox Church (230 million), and the Oriental Orthodox churches (62 million).

Apart from Jesus, well he was actually a Jew, a Christian that I admire is Jan Hus. He lived from 1369 to 1415 and was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a church reformer and an inspirer of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism. Hus opposed several aspects of the Catholic Church which led him to being excommunicated and when he refused to recant his views he was burned at the stake for heresy. The integrity of Hus and his high standing in his community is reflected by the fact that after his execution the followers of his religious teachings, known as the Hussites, refused to elect another Catholic monarch, and defeated 5 consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as the Hussite wars. I am drawn to Hus as he stuck to his convictions, which led to him paying the ultimate price, and he was a person willing to think independently and was quite radical for his time. I am fortunate to have visited the monument to Hus which is located in the Old Town Square in Prague.

Another Christian I admire is Mary MacKillop, she was an educator, pioneer and a leader who was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 2010. Together with Julian Tenison-Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, known as the Josephites, a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor. The first of these schools was established in Penola in 1866. Mary had a radical vision for how the Order of Sisters would be run as she didn’t want the Order to be subject to direction by the bishops of particular dioceses. This obviously wasn’t appreciated by the patriarchy of the Church and led her to being excommunicated in 1871. This was subsequently overturned the following year, but her tenacity was evident by her taking her case all the way to the Vatican where she received approval for the way she wanted the Order to be organised. Her motto was ‘never see a need without doing something about it’. She is another radical who stuck to her guns and in the process provided an education to children who may have otherwise not received one. I guess I am drawn to compassionate radical thinkers willing to question the status quo and hence why I admire the likes of Jan Hus and Mary Mackillop.

ISLAM

Islam commenced in the Middle East around 622 CE and is the worlds second largest religion with approximately 1.9 billion followers. It is also the fastest growing religion. Islam means submission to the will of God and believers of Islam are called Muslims. All its teachings and beliefs are contained in the Qur’an, and it is believed that the Qur’an was spoken to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel and that it is the word of God (or Allah).

There are five pillars of Islam which are considered as obligatory acts for all Muslims, they are:

• Shahada or Profession of Faith. It is essential to declare one’s faith to be a Muslim and it is usually done during prayer.
• Salah or Prayer. Prayers are done five times a day, at set strict times, while facing Mecca.
• Zakat or Charity. Zakat means purification which indicates that a payment makes the rest of one’s wealth legally and religiously pure. By following this pillar, Muslims deduct a certain amount of their income to support the Islamic community.
• Sawm or Fasting. Fasting takes place during Ramadan, which is the holy month in the Islamic calendar.
• Hajj or Pilgrimage. A Muslim is required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Muslims believe that there were many other prophets that came before Muhammad, including the Prophet Adam (from Adam and Eve fame), the Prophet Noah (the one with the Ark), the Prophet Abraham (the father of the three Abrahamic religions), the Prophet Moses (who received the ten commandments from God), and the Prophet Jesus (refer above). They believe that those interpreting the bible had lost their way so the prophet Mohammad was the last prophet who taught how we can get back on track and live a moral and ethical life.

Most Muslims belong to one of two groups, Sunni (approximately 1.7 billion or 85% of Muslims) and Shia (approximately 230 million or 15%). Apparently, the split between Sunni and Shia Muslims occurred over a dispute over who should succeed Muhammad when he died.

One of the things I love about Islam is the ‘call to prayer’. This can be heard in Muslim cities and towns five times a day on most days and all day on some religious holidays. I have been privileged to hear it several times, the most memorable was hearing it when I was in Doha with the sound of it reverberating off the buildings around me, it was a moving experience. I’m not a Muslim and don’t understand its significance really but hearing the call to prayer always makes me feel good inside, it’s a similar feeling to when I hear the bells from the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Amsterdam.

A Muslim that I admire is Rumi, who was born in 1207. Rumi is a renowned poet and believed in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. It was from his ideas that the practice of the whirling Dervishes developed and upon his death in 1273, his followers and his son, Sultan Walid, founded the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for the Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony. Sama represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love. A participant in this journey turns towards truth, grows through love, abandons ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect and returns from this journey with greater maturity, to love and be of service to all of creation without discrimination. That sounds awesome to me.

“Rumi’s verses, dedicated to otherworldly love and entrenched in a deep mysticism derived from Sufism, endure as one of the most widely celebrated bodies of eastern poetry in the world.”[17]

All the above religions teach that human relations should be guided by kindness, selflessness, and decency. But the question that comes to my mind is, why is it that so much evil has been perpetrated in the name of these religions? I guess this occurs as religion is a human construct and as such power, ego and greed, as well as intolerance and exclusion, can also infiltrate religion. As identified by Viktor Frankl, there is good and bad amongst all of us, and sometimes those with nefarious motives have the power and means to impose them on others. I also can’t help but think that the above religions have all arisen at a time when patriarchy was the norm, and the dominance of males means a greater propensity to revert to violence. It is argued that patriarchy became a thing alongside the advent of agriculture. We settled in one place and needed resources to defend and as such power shifted to the physically stronger males. Fathers, sons, uncles and grandfathers began living near each other, property was passed down the male line, and female autonomy was eroded. I am a strong advocate for an egalitarian society where everyone is equal no matter their gender, race, class or identity. Anyway, I’m digressing now but the point I wish to make is that much of the war and conquest that has been a feature of our world for the last few thousands of years has been done in the name of religion. Capitalism has also played a role, but I will leave that thought for another blog. But I should make the point that the colonisation around the world in the last few hundred years was not only motivated by the want to accumulate vast amounts of wealth through the exploitation of resources and people but that Europeans felt free to steal any land they came across given that Pope Alexander VI had decreed that land not ruled by Christian Kings was free to be claimed, thus any land not ruled by a European was fair game. As far as slavery goes the official rationale for enslaving Africans was, they were heathens but in true Christian fashion this was also justified through interpretations of the Bible.[18]

But have we made some other fundamental errors which has made religion less about compassion for each other and more about control? I believe one of the greatest mistakes we have made is to believe in a story that creates God in our own image, moving on from worshipping the natural environment; be it the sun or the moon, or fire, water, earth and wind. By creating Gods in our own image, we have allowed ourselves to think that we are greater than and/or separate from nature. This is reflected in the Abrahamic religions story of creation, the Book of Genesis, when it says “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.“[19] Given that 55% of the worlds population follow one of the Abrahamic religions it is no wonder we now face the existential crisis of climate change as we have felt we have a divine right to exploit Earth as we see fit which has led to over exploitation and the desecration of it. Another contributor to this may be our idea of ‘heaven’ leading us not to care what state the Earth is in as if we tick all the boxes of our respective faith we will end up in paradise after we die. But why wait for the afterlife to be in heaven, why not make it here on Earth?

I also believe that we have made another fundamental error, that being the apparent split between ‘reason and/or science’ and ‘spirituality and/or religion’. I had thought that the split between science and religion, and hence considering matter and spirit as two distinct fields, occurred due to the scientific revolution that commenced in the 1500’s with Copernicus who proved that Earth rotated around the sun. Up until then, it was thought that the Earth (and humans) were the centre of the universe. The period saw a fundamental transformation in scientific ideas across mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology, many of these ideas were contradictory to religious teachings at the time. To save face, religion was to focus on matters of spirit and science on matters of matter.

But this may not be entirely correct. Colin Wells identifies that the split between, as he puts it, reason and faith, occurred much earlier. He identifies that the usual story we have told ourselves is that faith was invented by the Jews whose monotheistic religion goes back to Abraham. Meanwhile, the ancient Greeks invented reason and science. This tradition of pure reason has always clashed with the monotheistic tradition of pure faith. However, faith and reason are not the rigidly separate traditions we have believed them to be.[20]

This is evident by considering the new way of thinking by Thales of Miletus who lived from 624–545 BC. Thales is recognised for breaking from the use of mythology to explain the world and the universe and instead using secular explanation. Thus, he is considered the father of philosophy and the inventor of reason which established free rational inquiry.

“But Thales’ significance doesn’t end there. For in peeling the sensible from the insensible, the seen from the unseen, Thales didn’t just invent reason. He also made it psychologically necessary for someone to invent faith as well. We can draw a direct line from Thales through Plato, whose Demiurge shapes the seen in the image of the unseen, to St. Paul, who denounced Greek philosophy and pointedly defined faith as ‘the conviction of things not seen,’ and to Muhammad, who dedicated the Qu’ran to ‘those who believe in the unseen.’ In what became programmatic messages for subsequent believers—and they became so, we must realize, because they resonated psychologically—Paul and Muhammad thus accepted and embraced the split between seen and unseen. Where Plato and Aristotle had tried to close the gap, the new faiths would own it. If Thales sensed God’s presence in the seen, and Plato and Aristotle used God to try to mediate between the seen and unseen, the Christians and the Muslims triumphantly proclaimed God as the definitive victory of the unseen over the seen.”[21]

So, it appears my original thinking about the apparent split of religion and science, or reason and faith, was incorrect and that we actually can’t have one without the other. As Wells points out, faith and reason define what we regard as Western Civilisation and are central to its success and furthermore, they both stand ready to be invoked by the peaceful and the violent, the tolerant and the intolerant so perhaps we best get used to them both.[22]

Perhaps our best course of action is to recognise the polarity between faith and reason and acknowledge that the creative tension between these two ways of knowing may define the extent of our human understanding. We should embrace the idea that there is truth and wisdom in both ways of knowing and that our future understanding will be reliant on recognising that each side is incomplete without the wisdom and input of the other.

“There are those who seek certainty; who divide the world up and take sides. I don’t trust certainty; I know that in certainty, ignorance and deceit lie. Give me questions more than answers.”[23]

The complexity and mysteriousness of the world is something that we can embrace but to do so we need to accept uncertainty and be open to different ways of thinking. However, another concern I have of religion is it cures feelings of uncertainty at the cost of masking the complexity of the world causing us to cling to false beliefs. One way certainty is sought is through religious dogma. Furthermore, having an incontrovertible and unambiguous moral code also leads to judgement and censuring those who fail to conform with it.

As Tim Dean points out, “The thing is, these three features and their corresponding problems – moralizing leading to intolerance, conformity leading to oppression, and dogma leading to ignorance – are not flaws in the way religion’s function, they are features. They are fundamental to how religion has worked, and so often part of the very reason why religions have been so successful throughout human history.”[24]

We have witnessed some of these features at play in response to the recent marriage equality debacle and most recently with the Religious Discrimination Bill, which if passed, will enable Christian schools to discriminate against transsexual children. From my way of thinking nothing is more unchristian than discrimination against vulnerable members of our community and our government prioritising this bill appears to be all about appeasing the religious groups who opposed marriage equality. My heart goes out to all LGBTIQ people, I have felt sick to the stomach when hearing the garbage so called Christian people have said during the marriage equality debate and now with this heinous bill. For me racism, sexism and homophobia are not opinions as I don’t believe we get to disagree about someone’s identity and human rights.

The following words from Sally Bugg pretty much sums up the downright wickedness being advocated by Christian churches.

“In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Christian faith churches are the key peddlers of the myth that LGBTIQ people are a danger to children, and not because it says so in their bible (because it doesn’t). The vast majority of victims of child sex abuse perpetrated by members of the clergy are boys. As such the church has historically defended rape allegations leveled at priests by suggesting that homosexuals have infiltrated the clergy and that it is actually homosexuals, not priests themselves with their unquestioned power, forced celibacy, access to children and God complexes, who are responsible for priests’ heinous crimes. In 2002, the Vatican – an organization responsible for child sexual abuse on an industrial scale – directly responded to ground breaking, harrowing revelations of the widespread perpetration and cover up of child abuse by priests by declaring that gay men should not be ordained.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but to be very, very clear: there is absolutely no correlation between sexuality and crimes against children. The same cannot be said of priests.”

The recent debates around marriage equality and religious discrimination also identify the apparent increasing political influence religion is having in Australia. Whilst our constitution insists there should be a separation of church and state there appears a greater representation of conservative Christians in parliament than in society. It is puzzling to me that religion is exerting a stronger political influence when we are seeing a reduction in religious observance in society. In 2016, 61% of Australians were affiliated with a religion with 86% of those identifying as Christian. However, between 2011 and 2016 there was a 7% drop in those identifying as Christians which also corresponds with a 50% increase in people identifying as having no religion or followed a secular belief such as Atheism. I look forward to seeing what the 2021 Census reveals. As Sally Bugg points out, perhaps this increasing influence of religion is because the kind of people who believe it is their duty to dictate how other people live their lives seek the power to do so.[25] Hence we are seeing a push from conservative Christians to exert greater influence which is particularly the case for the Liberal Party and I have provided links to several articles identifying this at this footnote.[26]

It is evident to me that big government, big religion and big corporations are all about control, manipulation, power and greed, and are the source of most of the issues we are facing at the moment. I will leave governments and corporations alone for this blog, but it appears the bigger the religion the more hypocritical it seems to get.

Furthermore, the leaders of these religions appear to just make things up based on their interpretation of their holy text, whatever that may be. Some examples, it wasn’t until 1123 that the Catholic Church decided priests must be celibate, for the previous thousand years they could be married. The Church of Latter Day Saints used to teach that black people weren’t allowed in the church because they were cursed and if they repented their sins they’d turn white. But when they saw their numbers dropping and other churches growing, especially in Africa and Central and Southern America they decided in 1979 to change the rules and now there are Latter Day Saint temples in Africa.[27]  I don’t even have words for the interpretations of Islam that ISIS and the Taliban have made up that enable them to treat woman so atrociously, an example of a patriarchal religious interpretation on steroids! The Taliban have also previously banned TV, music, shaving your beard, flying kites and keeping birds.

The marriage equality debate also highlights that it appears that many leaders of our Christian churches are completely out of step with their congregations. Be that as it may I will reiterate that at the congregational level, religions do play an important role of bringing people together and providing fellowship, community and charity. At an individual and congregational level, I have no issue with religion per se, especially if it encourages honest and ethical behaviour and so long as people don’t impose or force that faith on others.

But if we don’t have a god, where are we? On our own, I guess. This may be better and much more responsible than hoping someone will save us from ourselves. I am a believer that we must take responsibility for ourselves, but I do concede that a set of ethical or moral codes, or values, is a beneficial thing. I guess that is where religion has stepped in, but we can do that without religion as well. Everything that religion can provide, such as a stable identity, a purpose and moralistic path to getting to that purpose and giving hope of an afterlife can all be provided through culture. A secular version of an after life is just called creating a legacy.[28]

Perhaps we can set ourselves some new values, aspirations and ways to be in the world and consider a new paradigm, a new secular system of social and ethical philosophy that draws on our religions but also other existing ethical philosophies.

The Chinese have created two ethical philosophies that we can learn from, they are Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism commenced around 550 BC. There are four teachings of Daoism that I think are useful, they are:

1. Simplicity, Patience, Compassion – These three traits are our greatest treasures.
2. Going with the Flow – Rather than fighting against the conditions in our lives, we can allow things to take their natural course. This can also mean that when you don’t know what to do, do nothing.
3. Letting Go –We must remember to let go and allow life to take its course and accept there are only two true constants in life, change and death.
4. Harmony – All things carry the yin (femininity) while embrace the yang (masculinity). Neutralising energy brings them into harmony. Yin and yang always flow and changes with time.[29]

The Daoist attitude toward life can be seen in the accepting and yielding, the joyful and carefree sides of the Chinese character, an attitude that offsets and complements the moral, austere and resolute character attributed to Confucianism.

Confucianism commenced around 500 BC and is best understood as an ethical guide to life and living with strong character. Confucianism emphasises public moral behaviour, good government, social responsibility and human-centered virtues for living a peaceful life.

The ethical philosophy that I have learned the most about in recent years is Stoicism.

Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BC. It asserts that there are four types of virtue; wisdom, justice, courage and moderation. What I like about Stoicism is that it is not a moral philosophy that is to be projected or enforced onto others, it’s a personal philosophy to direct your own behaviour. In simple terms, it is about recognising what you can and can’t control, determine your reaction, ignore people dominated by their negative emotions and master yourself and aim to be virtuous. In other words, take the obstacles in your life and turn them into your advantage, control what you can and accept what you can’t.

I think Stoic philosophy and its values are well encapsulated in the following quote;

“Our ambition should not be to win … but to play with our full effort. Our intention is not to be thanked or recognised, but to help and to do what we think is right. Our focus is not on what happens to us but how we respond. In this we will always find contentment and resilience.”[30]

I also love the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He saw self-improvement as a duty and defined self-improvement as the ability to adhere to the categorical imperative, that is to ‘act that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another person, always at the same time as the end, never merely as a means.’ More simply put, we should never treat others as a means to an end and always do our best because anything less is to treat ourselves as a means rather than as an end.[31] Just imagine if we all lived by that one rule … the world would be an awesome place.

You know what, at the end of the day we just need to try to be as good a person as possible and we don’t need religion to do this.

We need to be willing to challenge the status quo as we need to change and address our conceit that we are separate to nature and regain our spirit. This may occur by recognising we need to love. As Victor Frankl wrote; “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”

It’s more important than ever that we overcome intolerance, oppression and dogma to create a peaceful, trusting and tolerant society where everyone can flourish. This will also require us to build trust in our institutions and our democracy, how do we do that, I’ll have to leave that for a future blog.

Religion has provided some of the tools and wisdom to do this, but it has also brought some of our worst traits to the fore and perhaps it is time to think of a new paradigm so that we can live in a world that values freedom of thought, sovereignty of consciousness, diversity of beliefs, innovative new ideas, challenging the status quo and finding new and better ways of living. Then we may find ourselves living in a society that sustainably exists within our planetary limits and that has a loving heart at its core.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Hmmm, now that I’ve tackled the subject of religion, perhaps my next blog will take on the other taboo subject … politics!

Here’s the link to Kev Carmody’s poem ‘Comrade Jesus Christ’ and here’s the link to The Herds version too, enjoy!

[1] Not sure where I got this quote from, but I thought these ‘new’ Beatitudes are relevant for today’s world. If you know who wrote these please let me know so I can properly acknowledge them.

[2] Dean, T., 2021, ‘How We Became Human’, page 107

[3] Ambrosino, B., 2019, ‘How and Why Did Religion Evolve’, article on BBC website, here is a link

[4] Baruch Spinoza was a dutch philosopher. I have written a blog about him, here is a link.

[5] Jones, B., 2021, ‘What is to be Done’, page 82

[6] Dean, T., 2021, ‘How We Became Humans’, page 112

[7] Animism – Wikipedia

[8] Gammage, B., 2012, ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’, page 123.

[9] Gammage, B., 2012, ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth, page 133, 139

[10] Pascoe, B., 2018, ‘Dark Emu’, page 146.

[11] Ravi, A., nd, ‘The Origin of World Religions’, Khan Academy, here is a link

[12] Dean, T., 2021, ‘How We Became Human’, page 134

[13] Dean, T., 2021, ‘How We Became Human’, page 134

[14] Ravi, A., nd, ‘The Origin of World Religions’, Khan Academy, here is a link

[15] Haylett, W., 2018, ‘Everyday Buddhism 6 – Got Intention? AKA How to be less of a jerk’ podcast

[16] Haylett, W., 2018, ‘Everyday Buddhism 6 – Got Intention? AKA How to be less of a jerk’ podcast

[17] Ayubi, D., 2021, ‘Parwana’, page 15

[18] Fredrickson, G., 2003, ‘The Historical Origins and Development of Racism’, article found on www.pbs.prg.

[19] Quoted from the King James Bible, here is a link

[20] Wells, C., 2010, ‘How Did God Get Started?’, Arion, Vol 18, here is a link

[21] Wells, C., 2010, ‘How Did God Get Started?’, Arion, Vol 18, here is a link

[22] Wells, C., 2010, ‘How Did God Get Started?’, Arion, Vol 18, here is a link

[23] Grant, S., 2019, ‘Australia Day’, page 31

[24] Dean, T., 2021, ‘How We Became Human’, page 120

[25] Bugg, S, 2019, ‘How Powerful We Are’, page 241

[26] Articles about religions and more particularly pentacostal influence on politics include; Kevin Rudd in the Guardian here, Anne David in the Guardian here, Gary Adshead in Perth Now here, Chris McLoughlin in ABC News here, Ben Smee in the Guardian here, David Hardacker in Crikey here and John Wren in Independent Australia here.

[27] Bugg, S., 2019, ‘How Powerful We Are’, page 246

[28] West, S., 2022, ‘The Creation of Meaning – The Denial of Death’, Philosophize This! Podcast.

[29] Dienstman, A, ‘These 4 Teachings of Daoism will help you navigate life’, Goodnet, here is a link

[30] Holiday, R & Hanselman, S., 2016, ‘The Daily Stoic’, page 148

[31] Manson, M., 2018, ‘The One Rule for Life’, article found at www.markmanson.net