Sitting Indian-style in the truest sense, I humbly respected the religious spectacle before my eyes. A loosely-clothed man, adorned in a single orange cloth, chanted incomprehensibly, while the sparkling, yet controlled fire enchanted my eyes. Subconsciously, I would feign cooperation, mouthing along unconnected syllables to appease my watching mother, and this “reverence” continued for a slow two hours. Periodically, the soothsayer would shift the rhythm or crackle the fire, all symbolically meaningful, of course. In the end, hours had past, oil spent, and sacrifices made, and somehow—or maybe hopefully—faith had been deepened.
Yet, for me, this experience only intensified my skepticism. I sat there with my conscious mind uncomfortably doubtful. Doubtful that my family and others actually believed in what was happening, in the service; doubtful that they realistically could sacrifice their rationality to this intangible faith. They were basing their existence and their purpose upon the idea of the supernatural, a loving, caring, and responsive god. They pray to this figure, give it sacrifices, and beseech its charity, without the slightest notion of its character or being, let alone existence. And this faith transcends a mere mental and emotional commitment—my two-hour imprisonment is proof of that. People die for this idea. All this to my, albeit adolescent, mind seemed ridiculous.
My answer, my salvation (if you will) came inside the pages of arguably a different kind of canon. Almost as hefty, and most definitely as dense as the Christian text,
In its thousands of pages,
As species develop and evolve, they develop unique and advanced capabilities, like opposable thumbs or bipedalism. For the genus hominid, the key development was tool use. A simple concept really, tools have been used by species far before our own spawned, yet not nearly to the current extent. Humans and our evolutionary brethren were able to use nearly everything, from rocks to wood to other organisms, to further their purposes. Our species is just better at it.
We have mastered the use of tools. Everything is a tool. Dirt makes energy, which makes electricity, which runs cars, which get us places, where we buy things and do things with them… No material on this planet is without a use or a purpose in our mind.
And that same cold and calculating mind has been blessed with the gift of introspection. Yes, we, as humans, have to the ability to reflect and ponder, in a seemingly unparalleled way. While this is harder to explain or justify, this phenomenon is another great evolutionary development for our species. Our thought processes are advanced, deep, and often self-centered—all very human qualities.
There is no birthday for religion: No one knows when people first began praying or subscribing to a belief system—it is impossible to know. But considering the evolutionary advances present in our species from development, one might contend the notion of religion may have started instantaneously.
Combine our tactful use of tools with a lucid, introspective mind, and you get a pious caveman. While over time, we have become far more greatly adept at using materials, even the earliest human had the capacity to use most things. Thus, the notion of universal purpose must have struck him eventually. And when mulled over and pondered, that notion—possibly even subconsciously—may have raised questions of his own purpose. With everything around him useful and usable, shouldn’t he have some purpose, and if so, who would define it? These questions and others may have been voiced or not, conscious or not, but definitely, they are rational deductions, which inevitably lead to religion. Religion is, at its core, a source of purpose and answers in our lives. It defines our existence, while asking only of faith. And in a world where everything is with purpose, maybe mankind needs religion to give it some.
I know that this logic is both shaky and crazy. There are tremendous holes and stretches, and you could very easily throw this out with other loony babble in the media. But I only ask of you this: Consider this piece as an exercise in trust, an attempt to find some rationale in the apparent craziness in our world.
Mankind has made sacrifices, killed, and even gone to war over this seemingly irrational idea of faith, religion. Its ideas and concepts entrance the masses, pushing them into extraordinary circumstances. And its differences have created unparallel animosity and hatred. Religious fanaticism is possibly the most pivotal and widespread issue of our time, and people hastily label it as irrational. But maybe, just maybe, if we were able to see religion as innate, as natural, even as rationale, then we could start understand and deal with the issues, not exacerbate them. If religion is really just a product of evolution, then can’t we rise above our different interpretations and save some lives? Maybe, I’m asking for too much.
