CONVERSATIONS IN THE PANTHEON - The Truth about God and Religion

Anatomy of Religion

Thomas: Did you find those passages in the bible, Mathew?

Mathew: Indeed I did, and I discussed them with my priest. He told me that, while the Old Testament is still part of the bible, it should not betaken literally. Christianity is the religion of Jesus, thus the New Testament is the important part of the bible.

Mary: That response doesn't surprise me. The christian church is further distancing itself from its jewish roots. The old testament should never have been part of the christian bible. The old book says, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', while the new book says, 'turn the other cheek'. These are two very different moralities!

But don't you feel short changed for that simplistic explanation? It's like anon-answer. If that's the case, why is the Old Testament still part of the bible?

Mathew: You're right Mary. I wasn't very satisfied with the answer. But that's all he would give me.

So, Thomas, what can you tell us about the intrinsic nature of religions?

Thomas: You may be surprised to learn that it's possible to have religions without a god. Religion is not, as you might think, just faith in one or more gods. Buddhism, for example, one of the major world religions has no god. Animism, one of the smaller religions still practised by indigenous people in many parts of the world, is another. But, if there's a god there's definitely a religion.

I have discovered that every religion, big or small, has three key elements: areligious objective, a human weakness that stands in the way of achieving the objective, and a deliverer that helps to overcome the weakness so the objective can be achieved.

In Buddhism, for example, the religious objective is the achievement of enlightenment. The human weakness is earthly desire (lust) that stands in the way. The deliverer is the Buddha and his teachings – the noble eight-fold path. In this case the deliverer is not a deity, but a human being who achieved enlightenment and later taught others how to do it. In other religions, as we will see, the deliverer is a supernatural being, a divinity.

In Hinduism, the objective is moksha, the return of the reincarnating soul to the realm of the gods. The human weakness is bad karma, which keeps the faithful from gaining the knowledge of the ultimate truth; and the deliverer is wisdom. While the Hindu religion has many gods, their role is not that of deliverer. The Hindu soul is on its own. The gods have more important work to do – creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe!

Mathew: If that's the case, why do they have so many temples and gods? Why do they go to the temples if not for divine help?

Thomas: My understanding is that temples are not like christian churches, where the faithful attend communal masses or services and pray to god for salvation. Temples are intended to be more like shrines where people go to show their devotion to a particular deity. The reason they pay devotion to their gods is that there are four paths to achieving moksha. Devotion is one of them. The other three are knowledge, meditation and good works.

Mary: Do the ancient Chinese religions also conform to this theory? They have so many that one of them is bound to disprove it.

Thomas: The problem there is that religious beliefs and rituals predate the common religions known today, such as Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, which are also old. During the Zhou dynasty between 25 and30 centuries ago, ancestor worship and veneration of spirits in the heavens flourished. This is not really surprising because the concept of the celestial gods was imported from Africa during the numerous waves of migrations that spread throughout the entire world. Many of those ancient beliefs have survived to modern times and have been loosely associated with the current religions.