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 Nothing I'm about to say is research-driven, but rather instinctual. As a human, I tend to analyze the world according to parameters that were either taught to me or I learned on my own. Because christian churches were part of my childhood, I learned to view the world through independent baptist eyes. (I clarified the denomination, because that does make a difference. A catholic does not see the world the same as a baptist, nor does a 7th day adventist see the world as a Jehovah's witness, and so on and so forth.) That worldview taught me how to feel about society as a whole, about interpersonal relationships, about the earth, and about the afterlife. It influenced every aspect of my thinking and behavior, even when I didn't realize it.
When I abandoned the faith 5 years ago or so (after more than 30 years as a fervent believer), it created a void in my life that left me feeling lost and bewildered for awhile. I discovered that without faith, I had to rethink how I view society, relationships, the earth, and afterlife. I had to decide for myself what I valued and didn't value. I had to make judgments based not on a religion, but on my intellect, life experiences, and values. That was no easy path to trod, but I did it.
Five years later, I've become comfortable in my skin and in how I view the world. I'm ready to examine spirituality apart from any particular religious viewpoint. In particular I'm working through the concept of the afterlife. That's what motivated my thoughts about the evolution of a religion--the desire to explain what is, technically speaking, impossible to define. Oh, scientists have attempted to explain away "life after death experiences," where people follow a bright light or return with inexplicable knowledge that hadn't possessed before briefly dying, but in reality, scientists can only measure the tangible. They have not yet learned to analytically define and explore the intangible.
Religion, the afterlife, spirituality lay firmly in the hands of philosophers--of which religion is a subgroup.
I've recently lost my mother and it has been a devastating experience. To see her bodily shell devoid of that spark we call life is shattering--life changing. It has forced me to find peace with it. And since religion is no longer a source of comfort, I've had to find my peace elsewhere.
Death is universal. It is part of living...making my experience the norm as opposed to the unique. When death touches someone we love, it forces us to think of our own mortality and what lies beyond this physical body.
No doubt, that conversation has been debated, discussed, and contemplated more than almost any other because we refuse to accept death as an end. Think about it. Just look into the sparkling eyes of someone you love. Then look into the eyes of that person when dead. The spark is gone. That indefinable something has left the body.
- Does that mean the spark was destroyed along with the flesh, or merely removed itself and gone to find another body to inhabit?
- Can that spark of life exist without flesh or does it need flesh to think, feel, hope, and love?
These questions have undoubtedly existed since the beginning, even if there weren't words to describe it. After all, don't all religions deal with the question of death? Don't all religions seek to give some kind of peace to the survivor about their loved one?
Add to these questions, those about retribution and vengeance. What if the dead was a mass murderer? Or responsible for a terrible calamity? People feel a horrible sense of injustice when crimes are left unpunished. We want life to be fair. Religion answers that question and, once again, gives peace to the impotent. There will be an accounting. Evil will be punished in the afterlife. Without such assurances, governments would topple more often than they do. Society would be rife with vendettas. But, ah, if a person suffers in the afterlife, people can be content with that.
The concept of an afterlife has so uses for politics and society, that it is no wonder every religion develops them. It preys on people's fears of death and what occurs after death, to control them. It turns human laws into the words of god and therefore, punishable in the afterlife. It motivates people to war in the name of god, knowing they will have a reward for fighting god's battles. Society, controlled by a religion, uses censure and threats of eternal damnation to control the masses.
And it all begins and ends with beliefs about the afterlife. |
