The Next Religion

Gaak ... up at 5:18 because a phone wouldn’t work – never mind why/who woke me to inform me. After making sure problem wasn’t in the incoming lines, had to undo every terminal wire to track the specific line that was causing the problem – connect each wire back ... one-by-one checking which phone went on and that it worked properly. Boring ... blank mind stuff ... which is cool when you’re half asleep.

Being half asleep and with nothing much to think about – at least when not cursing out the stupid circuit problem – the mind has a change at waking REM and random thoughts.

On and off over the years I’ve gotten into this “origins of religion” thing ... making connections and seeing if there was archaeological and scientific evidence affirmed them. About twenty-five years ago, did a book, “Path of the Serpent”, which tracked population migration based upon common religious elements. The idea being, either there was a “True REVEALED Religion”, or religious practices developed and were transported with population migrations.

All the earliest religions – from cave drawings of the cro-Magnon to the earliest defined writing – are associated with serpents, hence “Path of the Serpent”. There is another pattern – seen most clearly in modern Christianity – the absorption of earlier faiths and beliefs into newly evolved belief systems. Again the serpent – as subordinated strong earlier elements are demonized. We see the serpent; the Greek deity, Hades; the Roman goddess whose name became our Easter; and numerous other evolutionary paths.

Why was the serpent the one to tempt Eve? Aside from recognition that it was a common deity of the period in which the story was FIRST written, it was the deity of origin. So the Serpent represents the Judean God in an alternative physical form – much like the Romans later held Jesus to be an alternative, and physical form, of his Father.

Mentally, humanity has never breached the evolutionary pattern of incorporation and unification – or transmutation and demonization. This is a natural part of the learning process, and a natural part of evolution – within today’s generally recognized knowledge base.

Religion is a way to make sense of the world. It is also a thread upon which we string the beads of our code of conduct toward each other – our ethical basis. It is very difficult to invoke any form of consistent ethical conduct without invoking a higher power to enforce it.

Reject “religion” and talk about the “universe” in place of a “deity”. The sentences remain the same – with “universe” substituted. Comically, that too is a historic religious approach – at least as old as written language.

Knowing the history, it is therefore easy to say that the Christian faith is dead – it just hasn’t been planted; or, more accurately, transmuted; but the process has begun. We can even utilize, and will see utilized, the basic teachings and words – and they will allow the process to happen.

We are seeing this with the sharing of knowledge about eastern faiths – the adoption of their core beliefs into those of western religions – and vice-versa. “We know in part” is the language of unity – followed by the words “the parts will come together”. Predicting the ultimate viewpoint, I would tender this: The universe, creation, is a circle without beginning or end; all things evolve, learn and grow; this is as true for God as it is for man; we see the pattern in the biblical stories – the lack of knowledge, or the deceit, which is associated with the story of Eve and the fruit (if she had eaten of life before knowledge – in the story, both together and freely available – she would have been immune to death; but the deity says they will die; so either is ignorant of the future, and not “all-knowing”, or the serpent bit was a setup, and event known beforehand and so there was no sin because the deity knew it would happen and that the warning was meaningless.)

Cast out “original sin” and Christianity falls of its own weight. Cats out the literal nature of scripture – which clearly contradicts known reality and logic – and again it falls; and with it falls the interventionist deity. So what will replace it – what is the circle of creation, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth?

I suspect we will determine that we are the deity, or cells in it. Possibly the faith will view us as having it’s DNA – with generational knowledge that yields prophecy based on past incarnations in the birth, death, rebirth cycle. The “big-bang” becomes something like conception. Evolution is fetal growth. At various stages of fetal development there are spirts of “insight” – religious change or heightened self-awareness – consistent with formation of the ultimate being. That being will then know all things, and be a universe unto itself – as we are a body unto ourselves.

The Greek and earlier concept of multiple deities will reappear as being just that – as there are multiple people on the planet – or not. If so, we are confronted with a higher deity of which the lower deities are a cellular part. An infinite cycle – Russian Boxes – one inside the next largest.

We need not think that far out ... but can hold that the deity we are evolving into was the one we evolved from and so are “in its likeness”. Conceptually, there is an X and Y chromosome at the beginning; a single pair at the end; while in the middle – where we are now – all possible pairs and variations are tried until the original is improved upon and emerges as the promised deity. That is the Buddha, the Messiah, the ultimate Godhead.

What might be called evil is simply bad cells, or cancerous cells, to be eliminated – which means the species could be eliminated without any damage to the whole. If all life vanished from the earth, would the Universe notice? What if just human life self-destructed? How much less significant would it be in the evolution of the world, or the universe?

Which brings us to morality and ethics. We are insignificant and must therefore make ourselves significant. We are one option of an infinite possibility of options – thus must make ourselves the option worthy of progression and survival. Since we can formulate that viewpoint, we have already established we are on the right path – but no more so than our primate ancestors at their stage of evolution.

Problem, Christianity is lock-stepped into dogma, devoid of evolutionary potential and so devoid of any justification for further continuance as we know it. Judean concepts have evolved ... the Buddha concept works ... Islam is more dogmatic than Christianity and so must also fade away – which it’s prophecies allow for, but require a killing war of the type Bush has created.

Gee ... you can see just how simplistic phone line work is – for the mind to be able to randomly associate a new religious doctrine ... LOL ... and my kids say I’m weird ... guess they’re right.