Religion is one of the oldest practices in human
history. It includes a common set of elements, which may be believed or
practiced differently, which are the existence of ceremonial occasions, the
divine power, sacred things and places, faith, supernatural being or beings
etc. The existence of different geographic areas, genetic differences between
races of humankind, distinctive languages and ethnic groups lead to different
cultures in which religion is born.
Human
beings have been wondering in the quest for the meaning of their lives. We have
encountered ourselves immersed in deep pools of unanswerable questions about
our existence. Where did we come from? Who created us and everything around us?
And someone could answer," the supernatural beings". But then, who
created the supernatural beings as we also were created? That is where things
start getting complicated and confusion is born.
Before
going any further, let us look closely at the beautiful universe and nature
around us. I have seen and heard people talking and admiring the Aurora natural
lights, Grand Canyon, steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in
Arizona, the elevation of Mount Everest, the amazing Mosi-oa-Tunya, the
shooting stars at night, the glowing luminescence of the moonlight, the shining
sun, the harmony of a flowing river, the melody of birds singing in the
morning, wonderful landscapes covered with evergreen trees and blossoming beautiful
flowers. How could our ancestors and we today explain the emergence of all
these phenomena?
Many
religions have been formed until our present days, the list is endless. However,
to name just a few, which are most noticeable, we have Christianity, Hinduism,
Judaism, Muslim and Buddhism in which all of them have different doctrines. Mankind
has been evolving in religious beliefs, leaving different kinds of religious
vestiges behind, for example, vestiges of the Vikings Age remained in our
modern culture. Some of our week days' names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday were named after the Vikings gods. Tyr the god of the sky who brought
light of the day and darkness (Tyr's Day), Wodin (Odin) the god of death and
battle (Wodin's Day), Thor the god of thunder and storm (Thor's Day) and Freya
the god of harvest and fertility (Freya's Day).
Vikings
believed much like the ancient Greeks when it comes to death. They believed
that if the dead had lived an unexceptional life, would travel to the place
called Hel, which today is well known as hell. It was thought to be cold and
damp place, where the spirits of the dead continued in a dreamlike from
existence. However, some Christians today use the same word and believe that
hell is a place of unbearable furnace in which all bad people are going to be
burned after the judgment day. The question is, have the Greeks and Vikings
been wrong after all these centuries of great attachment to their beliefs on
life after death.And what if
Christians who assume to be right now are wrong also, and after a millennium
from now other generations laugh at our poor beliefs as they will have
considered it to be. Won’t it be an endless and hilarious cycle of changing
thoughts on religion through time?
Christianity
is the largest religion in the world today. It expanded throughout the world
during Europe's Age of exploration from the Renaissance onwards. This
exploration contributed to many negative actions which were taken by some Christian
extremists of that time. These Christians were convinced that they were the
true followers of Jesus Christ who led them to God, thereby having the need to
convert everyone to leave their false beliefs. So, for thousands of years
before Christianity, had people been astray in their beliefs? If God from the
beginning is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and perfect, why does he have
to choose or determine his true followers from a specific period of time and
race? Aren’t we running the risk of choosing or discriminating ourselves before
him? Now, we argue among ourselves. Others read the bible, others read the
Quran and others don’t read neither the Quran nor the bible, they prefer
kneeling and pray before their idols. Who wrote the bible and the Quran? Could
God have inspired specific groups of people through divine providence into
writing two different holy books there by creating division and confusion among
his own people? If God is omnipresent, was there any necessity of him choosing
only a certain group of people, a specific race in a specific geographical
region so that they could spread his word?
Before Europe's Age of exploration, Africans
had their own religion. They believed in ancestor worshiping who could pass all
their problems and needs to one Supreme Being, the creator of the unknown
world. They believed that spirits inhabited the world along with the living. It
is they that interacted with humans on daily basis rather than God since God
created the spirits and could use them to achieve different purposes on earth. Besides
Greeks and Vikings, had the Africans been wrong too about their beliefs?
As
most religions are based on dogma, which is a code of beliefs proclaimed and
accepted as the truth without proof. This led to the critical divergence of
perceptions on who naturally we are. We are born reasonable by nature. We are
curious beings, we think, observe, analyze and rationalize on things around us,
that’s our nature and that’s who we are, which distinguish us from all other
species we have known.
During
renaissance, many philosophers and brilliant thinkers were persecuted by some Christian
extremists under Roman Catholic Church. For example, Galileo Galilei, a
brilliant Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. He
played a prolific role in the Scientific Revolution. His contributions to
observational astronomy – all of which undermined the Christians' cosmology,
included the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of
the four largest satellites of Jupiter. Galileo had to be required to adjure,
curse and detest his opinion that the Sun lies motionless at the center of the
universe and had to be put in prison for heresy. Instead of religion solving
the problems and unanswerable questions, which people have, through divine intervention,
however the religion seemed to cause more harm than good.
Human beings have hated, killed, despised,
stereotyped and discriminated each other based on each one's religion, making
this wonderful planet unsafe place to live. We spend our precious time fighting
each other about things we don’t understand. Why don’t we just accept each
one's beliefs and start seeing different religions as different organizations
with the same objectives, which are to perpetuate love and happiness until the
Almighty reveals himself to us all ,as we are all his people. Let’s stop
compelling each other by trying to convert others to our beliefs, because we
are not sure whose beliefs are true or false. We are only beings living in a
confusing turmoil of faith.
"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we know
least". Michel de Montaigne.
References:
Encyclopedia of African Religion; Molefi Kete Asante,
Ama Mazama
An Introduction to African Religion; John S. Mbiti.
God's Philosophers, How the Medieval World Laid the
Foundation of Modern Science; James Hannam
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