Building the Perfect Religion: Why?

The last thing the world needs, really, is a new religion—been there, done that. What we really need is a synthesis of all the old ones. After all, for all the grief they’ve caused us, they’ve also brought goodness many times over that, a fact which atheists tend to overlook, because it fits their narrative. Atheists seem to assume everything was rosy way back when, before religion, but that’s a ridiculous assumption. In all fairness it’s hard to see into the past, but it’s there if you want it. It’s pretty simple, really: “nasty, mean, brutish and short,” as one famous philosopher once put it, Calvin or Hobbes, can’t remember which.

The only problem with most traditional religions is that the truth, beauty and goodness that they provide, promote and accomplish usually stops at the membership line. If you fall outside that line, then all benefits stop, or in some cases, the wrath of that same loving God will fall upon you—ouch. That’s the problem right there of course, that religions have boundaries and membership requirements that must be respected and adhered to. Ever wonder why that is?

Now VMAT2 may or may not be a ‘God gene’, which supposedly alters chemical levels that alter happiness levels that alter reproductive levels, that alter natural selection levels, BUT… the connections and proof seem so tenuous that for purposes of discussion, I think they can be ignored—take that. For purposes of discussion, free will is the only option, by definition. Now I don’t know where the first God came from, but I have a few ideas: let’s order Chinese…

I suspect that the first conceptions of God come from a form of ancestor worship, in which the origins are so lost in time that Godliness rises in direct proportion to distance from the source. I mean: the idea that the wise men of a tribe just sat around and dreamed all this theistic jargon up is pretty astounding—and absurd. Language? Yes, very possibly it was theorized, created and accessorized with nothing more than a few two-consonant grunts, probably onomatopoeia, as base. But religion? I don’t think so…

Definitions and allegiances to some supposed God date back into a prehistory so vague and murky that nothing is certain, AND… that God is supposed to lead the followers into battle—even today. God was originally a war god. That means that opposing sides have opposing gods. Remember the Titans? Remember the Alamo? Remember the Maine? Remember the milk? All of the above? No, but the first three are proof enough that memories—and adoration—are sufficient tools to make you fight harder, for country and team. And that warrior who gave his life so valiantly a few decades back becomes a demiGod for future generations.

Fast forward to the present, and we’re the recipients of all this mess—mixed metaphors and misplaced messages. Somewhere along the way the old war god of hate and fear became a love god of passion and fulfillment, but not everyone got the message, or not the right one, at least. It’s supposed to be unconditional love…

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