Origin of Religion

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For at least as long as we have written records, people have had questions like: Where do we come from? Why are we here? What sets us apart from all other species? What do we all have in common? What causes natural disasters?

Just about every culture or people group has some kind of dominant religion. Opinions about exactly what religion is vary widely. There is even widespread disagreement within religions with the same label. Take Christianity for instance. There are major subdivisions such as Orthodox, Catholics and protestants; thousands of protestant denominations alone.

What is religion good for? Although it may change over time, religion explains the unknown like where we come from and why. Most religions have a creation story and sometimes also an end of time story or version of a perfect world. It provides some of the glue that connects us with one another, the cooperation we may depend on for survival. It provides a reason to live. It may provide a social structure or moral code.

Some say that, since religion is part of human nature, in a sense we all worship the same god except we do it in different ways depending on where we are and when. The details of religions may be different from place to place and change over time, but fundamentally the same for everyone.

Paradoxically, while religion may bring us together and give us a sense of belonging, religion has also caused some of the fiercest divisions among us.

The Kingdom of God is Possible

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 The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture had some serious consequences for the early humans. On the positive side, the food supply became more reliable and accessible. On the negative side, property rights now had to be defended and the fields had to be worked. Soldiers and slaves would do that. Faced with these new challenges, families united into tribes and nation states. Leadership became more concentrated onto fewer hands. Instead of individuals competing for resources, nations led by kings commanding powerful armies began to rule the world.

As pressure from the outside and corruption in leadership from within increased, the Jews thought the best defense was to get a strong king too, a strategy that had already proven to lead to nothing but destruction and suffering. Voices in opposition were ignored so sure enough, that's exactly what they got. 

The arrival of Jesus into the chaos rekindled a hope for what could have been. Here was a man with radically different ideas about how to fix the world. Using language familiar to the Jews, he told about a different kind of kingdom, the Kingdom of God, a world freed from domination, violence and greed.

For us today, it is plain to see that the Kingdom of God still has a ways to go. Famine, war, poverty and conflict seems to be on the rise rather than in decline. What is the holdup?

Tolstoy published The Kingdom of God is Within You in German in 1894 after it had been banned in Tsarist Russia. That title is a direct quote from the King James Version of Luke 17:21. Newer translations interpret the Greek word for "within you" to mean "in your midst" or "among you." In other words, it is up to us, but perhaps not the way you might imagine. One thing is for sure, using more force, domination and calling each other names isn't going to do it. The first step is to believe. Believe that a different way is possible. Next, identify and quit doing the things that harm or separate us from one another. Commit to always be on the side of compassion and love. Make that the foundation for everything that you do. Do nothing but that.

Private Property

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When you have lived as long as I have, you will know that the world is quickly becoming more complex. Going back far enough, the world's population was only a fraction of what it is now. People lived on hunting animals and gathering plants in nature. There was very little that was individually owned. Everything was communal. That began to change when people discovered that cultivating the land yielded larger crops with less effort. Some began to claim exclusive ownership of pieces of land and the crops they had planted on it. These claims of exclusive ownership resulted in a need for defending against rival claims. Without a doubt, private property creates division and enmity among us.

After a while a succession of superpowers took control of all available land. By the time of Jesus, it was the Romans who laid a heavy burden of taxation upon most of the then known world around the Mediterranean Sea. 

Fast forward to the 21st century. Since the industrial revolution in the 19th century, people are increasingly becoming wage  earners first in manufacturing and more recently in service oriented jobs. Instead of collaborating about hunting animals, we now compete for the highest paying, most prestigious jobs. After the abolition of slavery, the rich have built an elaborate scheme of runaway consumption and production to continue to extract wealth from the poor and the middle class.

Rich people live in rich neighborhoods behind guarded gates. Poor people often live in substandard rental housing. Unlike poor people, the rich have access to first class healthcare and education. Without a doubt, private property and the pursuit of wealth and power continues to separate us. 

The idea that a God outside the universe created and controls it and everything in it originates in an era without the science and knowledge we have now. Whether God is a supernatural being or a creation of the human imagination it doesn't change the fact that the world today is a far cry from the Kingdom of God the ancient writers recorded and Jesus proclaimed long ago.