The Answers May Be Scary

Religion cannot be set aside.

Why did Egypt feed its people? How has China (recently) created a middle class out of a starving people? Why did it matter that the hungry were fed in Inca or Ancient Rome? Three out of those four civilizations used slaves, but even those slaves’ quality of life was better than the average citizen outside said civilizations. Why did a Pharaoh, god on earth, give a shit about feeding all the people of his realm? Why did Soviet Russian Communist leaders not give a shit about the people of their realm? Why did some civilizations care and others not give a damn?

How has the United States of America, China, Israel, or India escaped demographic decline; while Europe, the Middle East, and Russia head toward extinction? Why is modernity so hard to overcome? Why do some cultures embrace it while others run from it? How does it destroy some cultures and boost others?

If you follow human reason logically to its end, there is no point to life. Rational thought ends human existence. Is there hope for man? No. Is posterity worth a damn? Not to a man… (but maybe to a man’s soul? How do you define ‘soul’?) What can humanity do? Avoidable evil remains. What is evil? Community defines ethics and mores. Where does community form?

In so far as religion as shared answers to impossible questions, is it the basis of all community? Is shared work the foundation? Is mutual survival the start of community? How about modern community: Does it need to be a physical happening, or can it be an assumed agreement? Does organized community necessarily need a government? Religious leaders or secular leaders? One or committee?

Exploring the different religious beliefs and values that ultimately lead to a group of people acting with common goals will answer a lot of these questions. Where human rational thought meets immortality is where religion springs forth. Do you want to live forever? How do you live forever? Is this it? What is good? What is evil? What will my good deeds bring me? Does anything happen if I turn away from shared community goals? Does it matter if I let someone starve?