by Akshay Aswani

Created on: November 23, 2008

Mankind has been in existance for 10,000 years now and in this era we have gone from being from just one of the many species of mammals to the foremost indisputable ruler of the planet. Over the years, science and technology and moreover our understanding of our own selves and the capabilities of our brains and senses has led us to achieve marvels. From a simple caveman scratching sticks to make fire we have touched the skies and even reached the moon. Such surreal achievements do not happen overnight; every way in which we are superior is due to cumulative progress of our thinking and rationalizing capabilities.

I mention this paradigm of events because in the debate of god and religion's importance in our lives, there are only sides taken but no forethought into how the concept of god and religion came into being. Man has always been a rational thinker and before the advancement of science to the point where we understood how the world and nature works, we were perplexed by simple phenomena such as rain and sunlight and the existance of life itself. Surely men were perplexed, and seeked answers from the older and wiser peoples of their tribes and communities. Given the limited scientific knowledge of men at that time, the easiest solition to this problem was to club all matters 'unknown' to superior beings. With time these concepts of superior beings and their control over the universe became more widespread and as new questions arose these doubts were laid to rest with more stories. As these 'wise men' were the only ones that knew these answers that even in their own heads seemed to be the only right ones. This gave them power over the rest of the people because now the wise men could communicate with the gods and tell thepeople what needed to be done, what was right and what was wrong. This power was handed to them by the masses and they gladly accepted the role of the communicators. Naysayers and non-believers were considered sinners and were either punished or ostracized from the tribe.

As these concepts were passed down to the following generations there were mnor adjustments and additions along the way. Practices to appease these gods and goddesses came about and became part of the cultural practices of the particular tribe. An agricultural community would pray to the 'rain gods' for rain, hunters and gatherers would probably have other gods to be thankful to and such. This is probably the reason why so many different religions came into being in different geogrophical regions. In more modern times, say 2000 years ago, religion became such an important part of peoples lives that the government and the State was affiliated with the church. Laws were made with religion in mind and that to some extent has continued on.

In today's time we have an answer to almost all the things we attributed to superior beings but the concept of religion and belief in god has enslaved humanity and we as a population cannot accept life in any other way. Calling this faith a crutch is demeaning and in a way obiliarating the very premise of faith itself. Belief in a super power is a way of life for most people and a major motivation for most. I believe that these people should have their fath and their beliefs but ialso hope that this article has helped you understand how fickle and shaky is the cobblestone that mankind treads on.

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