We, using the collective "we" to describe the human species, have been grappling with the basic questions of "what is life all about", "how did it all begin", "what is the purpose", and so on ever since we evolved past the primitive needs of food and shelter consuming all our mental and physical capacity.

Leave it to the gods

In every culture on earth, the human psyche has leaned toward supernatural forces to explain all phenomena for which they do not have a known and explainable cause. Without exception, throughout the world in all groups of people, gods have been created for this purpose. All things can then be dealt with because there is a label and compartment to put all those unexplained and unexplainable things into. Events, be they good or bad, blessings or curses, are given a reason albeit a reason that we are simply unable to understand but that it is not our place to ask the gods to explain themselves. More to the point, we are not even expected to try to understand powers beyond the natural world but to leave things unexplained in the lap of the gods where they rightfully belong. However, part of that package is that we are required to pay homage to the gods in order for the gods in turn to favor us with desirable outcomes or circumstances in our lives. It is obvious that gods have the power to override anything and deal out whatever they choose at any time according to their divine whim. If the gods are pleased, we get good things, if they are displeased, we get bad things. This is the common thread across all theology regardless of its origin.

In less enlightened times, and these not really so long ago, submission to the "laws" of these gods was enforced and the authority for this enforcement was held by those who claimed to have a communications channel open directly with the god or gods and these men (always men, of course, never women) knew exactly what pleased the gods and what did not. This allowed them to write the laws and doctrines and to have them enforced through campaigns of fear when coercion didn’t work well enough. Brutality followed from church authorities when the instilled fear of god alone did not work. It seems that the common thread of gods' laws is total acceptance and submission to those laws and doctrines, no matter how incomprehensible they may appear to be. We are all familiar with these stories and it is not my intention to go over all that ground. However, certain illustrations from these times now reviewed in light of current knowledge and technology do provide us with a contrast that hopefully we can identify and then project into our very uncertain future with some confidence.

Who is included in “we”?

First, we have to address just exactly what and who the collective "we" really are. We do tend toward the arrogant assertion that mankind is now at the pinnacle of evolution, or creation, or whatever particular starting point to which you care to subscribe. The general viewpoint is that we are already in possession of all the knowledge of the natural world that there is to know. Everything that cannot be answered logically with the current state of knowledge must still be handed over to god. Again that very primitive need of the human psyche gravitates toward the explanations offered, we feed our minds with the theories and assumptions, mix in that it is generally accepted that faith is a good thing, and we then embrace our acquired belief systems completely and defend them enthusiastically, even fanatically. No one likes it when their beliefs are questioned and a strange thing happens within people's mind when the unthinkable happens - that is that a belief that they have held dear for years, perhaps all their lives, is actually proven to be quite false. Most religious beliefs that are held stretch back generations, so to deviate is not only a blow to the personal ego, but also seeming to be an affront to one's ancestors as well.

As a matter of illustrating this view that the collective "we" of the 21st century really are quite a primitive and underdeveloped culture and our knowledge is miniscule, I put the following story. We all have learned in history that there was the great plague in Europe. The 14th-century eruption of the Black Death had a drastic effect on Europe's population, irrevocably changing the social structure. It was a serious blow to the leaders of the Catholic Church who were questioned by the faithful about why had god thrust this curse upon them. The god that they were indoctrinated with was well known to inflict plagues on the people to discipline them for some form of transgression. So, the believers demanded that the church find out what it was that was upsetting god so much so that they could fix it. Rather than have to tell the dear parishioners that it is simply god's will that they all die horribly of this squalid disease, they had to come up with a more plausible story. The only answer that seemed to work was that the good Christians were letting the Jesus murdering Jews live among them, that the curse was intended for the Jews only, but that the Christians were just innocent bystanders being affected by god's wrath being metered out to the Jews. This resulted in widespread persecution of all minorities, not only Jews, but also foreigners, beggars, and lepers. It seemed that no one questioned the morality of such actions. It could be easily justified as simply the Christians, those favored by god, were helping god do his work by persecuting those people that it was now very clear that god hated. And if god hates them, then hating them and killing them is not only justified but even made to be an honorable act.

My contention is that we today are no different to the situation that prevailed in the 14th century. Sure, we are much more advanced, and science has answered many questions such as the causes of the plague and that the whole god curse story was just an invention in the mind of the people who claimed to know the mind of god. During the 14th Century, the cause of the plague was still in the super natural world. People had no way to ever even conceive of the slightest notion of what was really going on and so they trusted those who claimed to be able to be in touch with the vindictive invisible god. Today it is simply a matter of fact about the nature of the disease and that it exists in the real world, and the cause, prevention and treatment is also found only in the real world. These days when someone gets sick at least most of the people of the world will seek treatment from a doctor or hospital, and not from a church. Strangely though, in many countries, when a patient becomes well again by the intervention of medical science, god still gets most of the credit.

So God, um, wtf?

However, we still have no way to understand some issues that confront us and we are completely confounded. There are many questions to which the answers are still being sought. We are unable to find any explanation for certain events any more than the people of Europe could find a reason for the plague that descended upon them. We ask questions about why did god not intervene in the holocaust, or why does god allow child abuse, and if god really is interested in the salvation of mankind, why is he making it so utterly confusing about how we should go about it and allowing the proliferation of so many different systems of belief? As we grow more, so we shall know more, and things now ascribed to the supernatural world shall be relegated back to the natural world.

We have the same unfortunate trait brought about by our personal indoctrination and we simply insert god into the debate and that allows us to just forget about it. Faith solves every issue. By the way, it does not matter which particular god you choose to pledge your allegiance to, the belief pattern is still the same. When there is no other explanation or theory that works, simply hand it over to god. God moves in mysterious ways, and apparently he prefers to deliberately withhold huge amounts of vital information from we mere mortals. Again we have to remain totally subservient and if we grovel for mercy long enough and earnestly enough, we just might get lucky and win favor with god and not be condemned to eternal torture.

My great hope is not that we just need to watch the entire catastrophe going on and wait until god turns up to "cleanse" the world and make everything just as utopian as we could ever wish for. My hope is that from a continuous process of questioning, debating, and applying our collective intelligence, we can continue to grow and learn more of the things that currently seem unknowable will become known. We have so much to do if we are to have the real nature of our universe emerge. We need to understand that the collective "we" has to become a truly collective "we the people of the earth". The state of the human condition in such places as North Korea and Iran have to be dealt with by the "we", the people who value freedom and human rights and want those things for all of the family of mankind.

The Christians have nailed it (sorry, no pun intended)

The most unfortunate part of the current situation is that the first thing that we see with people who are most in need is that they are most times not Christian. Given that so much of the world is Christian, and certainly so much of the free world is indeed Christian, then it falls to the Christians to do something about it. Christian people are only Christian because of the very fact that they were lucky enough to be born in a country that allows them the freedom to choose that religion, for their parents to have had the freedom to pass it on to them. By the way, for most people in developed countries the notion of choosing no religion at all was never put on the table. The Christian teaching was exclusively taught and actually enforced until quite recently. To choose no religion even now only earns a person the label of atheist to be generally persecuted for their non belief as much as Christians were persecuted for their beliefs in past centuries. However, that said, the debate about whether god exists or not and also if then the Christian god is the true god and all other gods are false is a totally irrelevant argument in the overall scheme of things regarding the human family on earth.

It is this very argument that is at the basis for preventing our basic humanity and compassion for our fellow man to be shown. Christians invariably want to first win the religious argument before they are prepared to do what has to be done; If you cannot agree with our theology, then you are wrong and you deserve everything that you get; if you are not worshiping our god then you are worshiping Satan; accept every part of our doctrine on blind faith or be labeled heretic; and so on and on. There is this commandment to save their souls for god before we are prepared to show them humanity and save their lives. Are they not people first, with a right to dignity and freedom that the Christians cherish so much for themselves? Surely we can save their lives first and let them be candidates for our brand of spiritual salvation later?

Right at the basics, religious leaders are still showing the same attitude as they did to Galileo. They do change their attitude, but generally only when the truth cannot be denied any longer. This was clearly shown when the pope finally admitted, on behalf of the Catholic Church, that Galileo was right after all. It only took 400 years to admit it - but it was progress. But they are still absolutely right about everything else and their doctrines are still infallible. It is very clear that if the world had been left to the religious leaders, all scientific inquiry would have been banned for all time.

21st Century break out time

In this the twenty-first century, the world is a safer place than ever before for more of the population of the earth than ever before. The standard of living of the human family has never been higher. Medical science has conquered many diseases and so we are all healthier and living longer than ever before in the history of the world. Every one of these achievements has been made possible not because of religion, but in spite of it. Every worthy endeavor of science was opposed by the church establishment, notably starting with Galileo and through to the banning of condom use today. Clearly, we are at the juncture of human history where it is time for all of us to wake up, work together for the benefit of all of us.

The planet is choking, step on the gas!

I fear a positive process of human cooperation is not going to happen soon, and we simply don’t have the luxury of any more time. The evolving catastrophe can be clearly seen all around us. The planet is choking to death on plastic, but production of plastics is at an all time high and being ramped up. Air pollution is many cities is so bad that the citizens are all getting sick and yet, apart from leaders “showing grave concern”, absolutely nothing is done. Seas are rising and costal cities around the world are sinking, but apart from some “greenie” style documentaries, nothing whatsoever is being done to address that one – just too hard, I guess.

It would take a strong and bold leader to make a difference, but we simply don’t have anything like that in the political animals calling the shots these days. There simply is not the political will anywhere in the world to change anything. The precipice is right in front of us and clearly in view. Disasters are not just imminent; they are happening. And yet we, including you and I as part of the collective we, not only ignore the issue, but we seem to be closing our eyes and stepping on the gas pedal.