Abrahamic Religions – From Necessity to Disaster

Buddhism and Hinduisim, and perhaps some other belief systems on the planet, were born out of the pursuit of enlightenment. Often these types of religions are categorized along with Judaism, Christianity and Islam as ‘religions’, but nothing could be further from the truth. These two (and perhaps some others) were not born out of necessity for survival… they were created to improve the already stable lives of the communities they surrounded. Buddha and his people were not being massacred when he founded Buddhism. India was not being invaded, and did not use Hinduism to rally people together to fight of invaders. They are religions of substance, not survival.

All three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism were all born out of a far more insincere source. Now, when I say insincere, I don’t mean dishonest… people did need to survive. However, there was no sincerity in the pursuit of truth with these three. They were created out of necessity to aid a dying or suffering group gain power, or faith to stay strong. The Jews have always been persecuted and were persecuted from Egypt – to survive in the desert they came up with a set of rules and said God spoke to them, that they were blessed people in order to keep them going.

Christians were persecuted BY the Jews and Romans, and created Christianity saying God spoke to them, that THEY were the chosen people, etc.

Islam as well was created for the tribes that were being persecuted by the governing peoples of the area, and inspired them to fight violently to defend their lands.

Now, the most relevant part of this entire investigation is what happens when these people are no longer being persecuted? When we ask ourselves this question, we start to find some really ugly answers.

When a people are being persecuted, and they are given supernatural incentive to survive, and this incentive in some way or another suggests that they are special as opposed to the rest of the world, this seemingly positive boost in morale can become quite devastating when the persecutions end. This is because what was once clinged to for survival then becomes a means of elitism, and elitism breeds the same injustices around them, caused by them, that was being perpetrated on them when they were being persecuted.

The lesson to be learned is that in the midst of hardships, especially in the midst of hardships, people must cling to something within them rather than something external to them. Humans must learn to harness the power of some spiritual confidence within themselves instead of relying on it from an external source. They may cling to it for dear life, hanging on when they are down, but when they are up they may use it to strike the hammer down on those weaker than them.

The Image of Christ

What is lost in not only anti-Christian circles but also Christian circles is a realistic view of what Christ is, just as what all examples of piety are. History, even when it comes to things we have records of, interviews of, and photographs of, changes, and all we can do is utilize the image of the idol we remember to improve ourselves and our communities.

To be fair, however, the problem with the image of Christ is primary modern Christians’ fault because they tend to try to legitimize the folktales which drags others into focusing on the legitimacy of the stories. Again, all of that is somewhat irrelevant to the primary point of the image of Christ.

Was he a good man? Presumably so. Was he compassionate? Presumably so. It is then not our jobs to understand what he defined compassion as – we all have our own definitions, and should peacefully subscribe to our own definitions with the example of a man who followed his own definition. It is in trying to find that one universal motive that Christ had that causes all the trouble, because one group says this while another says that, and this is where conflict arises.

The notion that we, as humans, require outside assistance to guide our social culture is in itself one of the largest insults to our intelligence. We sit in awe of 3D documentaries of animals that live in huge herds in perfect harmony, and have for thousands of years, without any means of receiving outside influence into how to govern their moral behavior. They are driven by the need to survive, and for most mammals this means co-existing with our brethren.

The need to co-exist, I am convinced, is the methodology that most intelligent human beings swing towards. I believe my definition of compassion is similar to what Christ’s would have been, for it relates to prioritizing our survival and understanding that this can only be achieved, on an individual basis, if we operate as one. This is why religion is, and always will be a problem. It is a dogmatic system of beliefs that tries to create one set of rules for a millions different people, and examples of its failures are starting to show dramatically, from blacks to gays to divorce and abortion. Cracks seep into any fundamental belief because there is only one fundamental truth about all species on the planet: They Evolve.