Religion, Esoteric groups, secret societies, and cults. What do all of these have in common you ask? They all preach the same thing, that they, and they alone hold the secret to 'life' and its true meaning. Why are there so many of these organizations out there and why are new ones coming into existence all the time? Because we are always looking for answers.
We cannot stay still and just accept what we're told, at least not any more. Once upon a time, when religions had a strangle hold on its 'faithful' we didn't question what we were told because of fear. Now that we live in an age of information and better education, we have a lot of catching up to do. There is no need to ask 'why' there so many different groups out there; the answer to that should be obvious. We need to 'know', and we won't stop until we do, even if the answer we find isn't what we expected. After all, we didn't get to where we are today scientifically and educationally if we weren't inquisitive by nature.
Maybe a more important question we should all be asking ourselves is, “Will we ever find the answers?” Are we even looking in the right direction? Is religion and all of the rest what we really need in order to find what is fundamentally the most important question we have asked ourselves since we first developed intelligence? Can we, as a people, live without religion? Are we meant to find the answer to the above questions?
What prompted me to write this article is a discussion I had with a couple of friends not too long ago. We sat down and discussed this sort of topic for a few hours, and although we thought out numerous theories, we left that night with no answers. That's just it, I personally don't think we are going to find the answers to these and other similar questions that easily, but if we don't try, we'll never get any closer. A good point one of my friends brought up that night was that without religion, we might have still been barbaric. What he meant was that during the early years of our existence, religion played a key role in governing our lives and instilling rules that prohibited us from going to our neighbour and killing him. Back then, religion served the purpose of giving us guidelines by which to live by and to give us hope. Today, is religion really necessary? During the dark ages, religions kept its 'faithful' uneducated because it was easier that way to rule the populace. This was at a time when religion was the law of the land. Now however, the law of the land is separate from religion, to a point.
Is religion necessary? I believe it still is, we all need to have something to believe in, something that's bigger than us. If we didn't, then there wouldn't be so many different religions and other such groups. The problem is that we as a people will fight for what we believe is right, so, if we believe that a particular denomination is correct, then we will fight for it. Historically that has always been the case. When Rome was still 'Pagan', it went abroad and spread its beliefs to all nations that it conquered. Hey, let's not forget that 'Jesus' was crucified by the Romans, along with many more people. Some of the bloodiest wars have been fought over religion and religious beliefs.
That aside, I still believe that as a species, we need something to believe in. We take comfort in thinking that once we die, it is only our physical bodies that die, not us. Let's switch things here a little; let's suppose that in the next 10 to 20 years, aliens come to Earth and make themselves known to us. This is going on the premise that they haven't already made themselves known to us on mass. What would we do then? How would we view ourselves and all the beliefs that we have? Sure there are people on this planet that truly believe we have been visited, but there are a lot more of us who don't believe that. So, if aliens were to come to Earth and actually make themselves known, wouldn't we just throw out all of our old beliefs? Most of our religions preach that we were created in 'God's' image and that we are the centre of the universe, so if we get visited, wouldn't that theory be shattered. How would we, as a society, cope with that kind of revelation? Would religions put a spin on it and say that it is the 'Devil' at play? I think we are all a bit too intelligent to think that, but who knows.
Recently I have heard that the Vatican is spending a huge amount of money on a space observatory. Whether this is correct or not I can't say because I haven't looked into it, but, if it is, what does something like that mean? Does this mean that the Catholic Church knows something we don't? Further more, wouldn't that go against all that they have been preaching, about we being the centre of the universe and being created in 'God's' image? Well, I guess as time goes on, change has to occur, or else they would go the way of the dinosaurs. But, with this in mind, if it is correct, that should tell us something. We need to progress forward, not regress backwards. If a two thousand year old institution is progressing in this manner, then so should we. It's fine that we chose to believe in a supreme being, it's okay to belong to any spiritual organization, but this should not deter us from trying to find out the answer to that most fundamental of all questions, “What is the Meaning of Life?”
We can all believe in whatever deity we chose, but belief in a deity that we don't know isn't going to give us the answers. What's going to give us the answers, eventually, is trying to search for them. Looking for 'God' as opposed to just believing will eventually get us there. What's even more important to our evolution is not bickering about each others beliefs; really, where does that get us? I don't really care whether someone is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and so on, because in the end, all these religions have similarities are their core. They all preach about deities, they are all used as guidelines on how to conduct ourselves, and they all give us hope in a better life to come. Why are we squabbling over the details? Does it really matter? Are you going to be a better person if you put someone else down for their belief? Are you going to be in 'God's' good books if you successfully convert people? Do you even know this beyond any shadow of a doubt? NO! People can argue all they want, but the answer is still 'NO!'
So, in closing, let's stop worrying and squabbling over who's religion or belief is right and let's start focusing on what's really important, us, and why we are here. Let's use our religions as a stepping stone to get to where we want to go. Just like everyone has a different preference in what kind of vehicle they drive, we also have different spiritual beliefs. No “one” answer is the right answer, but combined, we might actually get somewhere instead of just staying stagnant and regressing.
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Re: The Meaning of Life (Score: 1) by Marko on Friday, July 11, 2008 @ 15:39:28 CDT (User Info | Send a Message)
>>Recently I have heard that the Vatican is spending a huge amount of money on a space observatory. >>
Indeed they do. See "Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist" by Guy Consolmagno. In addition, look for the articles about the dialog between Zecharia Sitchin and Corrado Balducci, a designated Vatican speaker on extra-terrestrials; the latter is true at least for the year 2000; I was present at this dialog in Rimini, Italy, at the International Convention on Para-normal.
Marko
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