I think one of the biggest impediments to understanding mankind is the fact that a Darwinian (and all the other styles of uniformitarianism) world view has invaded and tainted almost every area of human education. Science, History, Philosophy, Religion, Anthropology, and most every other study of man teaches or believes some form of Darwinian Evolution and speaks it as though it is an indisputable fact, though it has glaring holes. Thus since it is taught as a rock solid fact (though its acceptance requires as much faith as any religious belief to believe) it is believed as fact, and those who study anything to do with life put it into an evolutionary frame work.
The study of human religion is not free of this. Those who are experts in this field most usually have had many, many years of college in which they were filled with Darwinian concepts. Then when they see similarities in the religions of earth they point to the great-great grand dads of all humanity, who in a flash of primitive creativity and superstition, created fables to comfort their minds and explain their world. Thus is it due to common club toting cousins and not a common origin that we owe all the commonality of our spiritual systems.
Though It is not the point of the paper to consider how any philosophy supported by popular “authorities” and the government can skew and cage our understandings I must say something on the point. The modern Sciences should be questioned, analyzed, and pruned of all concepts which conflict with observations of our universe and prevent free exploration of all explanations.
All possibilities must be explored and the evidence followed to the most likely scenario. Those who have a inflexible world view (on all sides) prevent this and thus dwarf the advancement and improvement of human observation and enlightenment. Dogmas, scientific, religious, and philosophical, destroy human advancement.
Those who consider life should look at anything in the space time stream with a mind completely open to all possibilities. If not, those who are closed minded become as jaded and assumptive as the other side which they look down upon for the same ways of thinking.
When I look out at the commonality between all the religions and core beliefs of humanity, I cannot help but wonder if they are so alike not because of a common ancestor’s psychological delusion, but because of a common creation, and a common civilization from which all cultures have been born.
There is no doubt that it is in the human heart to seek after a divine or transcendental truth but could this not be more than some primitive or cowardly rationalization for life? What if the reason why all the cultures have stories of god men, is that on some subconscious level all of us know that the only way that humanity can better itself is to find something or someone beyond itself?
Love, truth, peace, joy, the liking of beauty (regardless of the perceptions of it), bravery, strength, sacrifice for others, the need to look beyond the material world, all these things are held in common by almost every religion or “ism” on the planet. So is the idea of reconnection to the endlessness which is beyond us, to the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and others it is an endless deity. While the Buddhists it is the void, and to the Taoist it is the unnamable Tao, or Way of all things.
Anyone who sits and thinks beneath a mighty oak on a clear day, and who has any idea about how life and world function, begins to feel themselves shrink and the wonders around them grasp their soul.
This natural inclination and common need of the thoughts and energies which wears the names of goodness, holiness, rightness, virtue, etc. is a very good reason why all the stories of divinity touching humanity have so great a similarity.
Another reason for similarity, is that all the stories we covered cannot be told without a natural overlap. How many romance novels do we have which share a great many common traits? What about science-fiction books? Comics? Adventures?
All the books in any given genre have many similarities yet that doesn’t mean they were copied from those which came before. To write about a popular theme in ones’ book is to create a natural overlap with all who have wrote about that theme before you. Romance novels often are centered around whirlwind relationships, fantasy books about a fierce battle between a mighty dark magic and a powerful holy magic, just as sci-fi films usually share space travel, time travel, dinosaurs, etc.
As with these fictional writings so with the spiritual and philosophical. When one begins to think about the best way to live and to analyze the interplay of cause and effect, mind and matter, spirit and man, there is a vast number of basic principles which surface. Thus all who think and pursue a deeper meaning come up with many a similar idea.
Furthermore, when its comes to validating a religion, or establishing the truth of it, all humans appeal to the highest authority possible, and what authority is higher than Divinity? Is it therefore strange that so many books claim a divine source as their author or main character? It important to add here that merely because many spiritual systems and writings claim a divine origin does not mean they are all false or that they are all right. What it does mean is that every one ought to be researched, accepted and rejected based on its own factual and historical validity.
Did I hear someone say that would take a life time? OF COURSE! How long has science been struggling to understand all the elements of gravity? If a physical phenomena is capable of creating enough questions to occupy an entire life, how much more capable is the quest for spiritual truth, the origins of humanity, and ultimate meaning capable of occupying an entire life?
To tenaciously cling to any one interpretation of fact or data without study is an easy way out. So too is the pronouncement that truth doesn’t exist, or that we each have our own. This merely allows us to grab whatever we like, and sit complacently on our butts in whatever state we deem acceptable. However, to dig deep and see far, to grasp the fact that even when we know much compared to other humans we know but little, and to realize that authority is not at all the same as truthfulness, it is then that we begin to truly live and learn.
Part Ten: Conclusion
