by Patrick Sills

Created on: January 02, 2011

There are many thousands of different living creatures that share our planet, but the concept of religion is exclusive to just one: humanity. As the most intelligent of beings to occupy this tiny speck in the universe known as Earth, religion serves but one purpose. Every life form is finite and will experience death, and as such, many possess an inborn trait to survive. For example, a rodent such as a mouse or rat will run as fast as it can to escape becoming a feline predator’s dinner. Similarly, a small fish will swim with all its might to avoid being eaten by a shark. To put it another way, many creatures fear death, but mankind; good old Homo Sapiens, fears the end of life much more, for our brains are developed enough to understand that we will all die someday, regardless of how often we may escape it for the time being, and this is where religion comes into the picture.

In simple terms, religion was created by man to alleviate this universal fear of death. Since the earliest times true humans roamed the earth, very few have been willing nor wished to believe that bodily death signifies the end of everything. Try to imagine living in some primitive environment around 20,000 years ago. People were probably lucky if they lived 30 years, and thus somebody had to come up with the idea that this wasn’t fair! There just had to be something waiting beyond the death of our physical bodies! How about a reward of sorts?

Thus God, or a Creator of all things, was appointed. This Creator went by many different names; depending on the period of time and the location. Yet there was one basic and recurring theme: If you were a good person, an eternity in Paradise awaited. On the other hand, if you were not so good, you would forever be cast into a horrible existence. So just what determined whether someone was good or evil? An additional man-made set of rules! These mandates varied greatly, depending on mutual agreement and again; location. Thus, religion can not only be thought of as a man-made tool to ease one’s fear of that which is unknown, but also organized behavioral modification.

As we enter 2011; incidentally measured in years since one of these versions of religion tells us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born, science has taught us many things. Famed physicist Stephen Hawking has declared that no Creator was necessary for the formation of our universe. Decades earlier, it was determined that our brains give off electromagnetic energy. Physics dictates that energy cannot be destroyed, but only altered. Thus, it stands to reason that our “spirits” or “souls” represent all of our individual recollections and knowledge that is stored in our brains, and this is in fact the electromagnetic energy. When our bodies die, this energy will take on a different form, so we will end up somewhere. Since ages past, religion has explained this in simple black and white terms of Heaven and Hell or righteousness versus wicked.

Sadly, and also through the ages, religion has largely been responsible for a countless number of wars and lost lives. And all in the name of differing theologies. The followers of one religion or another today still number in the billions worldwide, but it will be most interesting to see if this will still hold true within a few decades. Antiquated morals are being displaced with each day that passes, and the science that deals with the cosmos in particular is progressing at a rate that would make Albert Einstein dizzy.

Will churches still be welcoming worshippers in 2060? Will religion still have a purpose? Our grandchildren may hold the answers.

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