Thesis 1: The Origins of Religion
One of the strangest facets of religious people is their absolute certainty that their religion is correct and that the other religions are incorrect, misguided, or even evil.
Take Greek Mythology, for example. It says that Zeus is the God of the skies, Poseidon is the God of the sea, and Hades is the God of the underworld and that they each have profound influence over their sphere of control. What is so different from Christians saying that Elohim or Jehovah have control or influence over the heavens and seas and afterlife? If you combine some powers and change some names it’s basically the same thing at it’s core.
But Greek Mythology has somehow been proven wrong? We look back on Greek history and call their religion “myth”ology and say the Greek’s didn’t know any better and say “how cute” and turn it into a Disney movie. And then we go to church and pray to our modern-day Gods that do essentially the same thing.
When you dive into Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism or Judaism, the people practicing those religions think that they’re right. The people in Asia burning incense to their ancestors aren’t saying “well, the Christians have it correct and we’re silly for doing this.” No, they think they’re right. Same with the Jews saying prayers in their synagogues or the Muslims prostrating themselves on the ground 5 times a day to pray towards Mecca. They all think they’re right. And so do Christians.
And if we are right, then they are wrong. And if our burning bush and virgin birth and loaves into fishes and magical versions of heaven and hell are correct, then obviously their Vishnu and Brahma and reincarnation and magical-filled original stories are incorrect.
No.
Since humans became humans we’ve been creating religion to explain the unexplainable and to cope with death. Because of where each was founded and how it branched and spread, It’s estimated that there are 4,200 active religions on earth today. And that’s not counting the thousands of religions that have gone extinct since humans started creating religion 60,000 years ago. Take a look.
You can’t be so arrogant and brash to say that you know your religion is the true 1 out of 4,200. And you can’t say that the impossible/magical elements of your religion are no-brainer facts and that the 4,199 impossible/magical elements of the others are made-up fiction.
As a budding agnostic, I’m not going to say that I know that any religion is true or false. I’ll probably always maintain a slim hope that one of them somehow got it right and that a life-after-death is real. But to ignorantly believe that I know that one of them is correct is ignorant, disrespectful, and downright sad.
