We: Our Declaration of Interdependence
Chapter One — Religious Influences
[If you have not yet read the book's Introductory Chapter, here is a link.]
Since God is One and all things in heaven and earth are created by God, heaven and earth must be One as well. — Ilia Delio
How did our experience of being separate and not connected first begin? Primitive tribes did not have that experience. They felt deeply connected to the world, other humans, and the non-human world. How did that change as humans evolved?
Hunter-gatherer tribes collaborated and developed effective survival strategies. Humans collaborated with other humans and began the most ancient and longest human-animal collaboration with dogs. Humans were dependent on the non-human world.
There were many incomprehensible blessings and threats that shaped their experience of a power greater than themselves. Humans have always created meaning out of experience. Humans believed they were integrally connected to plants, animals, and their natural environment. Animism is the term anthropologists have used to describe this ideology as the belief that “all living things have a soul.” Hunter-gatherer tribes did not experience any separation between heaven and earth.
Religion progressed from animism to polytheism. Polytheism is the belief in, and often worship of, multiple gods/deities/spirits. Ancient Greek, Roman, German, Celtic, and Norse people worshipped gods, goddesses, spirits, and deified mortals (both god and human). Zoroastrianism (the religion of the Ancient Persians) was the first to define an afterlife. The concept of monotheism, as we understand it today, did not exist in ancient times. Ancient people were polytheists. They may have elevated one god as higher than the others (henotheism), but they recognized the existence of divine multiplicity.
The sky was the domain of the polytheist gods and goddesses. Many of these more-than-human characters had the power to transcend (cross over) from the sky to the earth. They could also travel to the underworld. There was no central authority or book. Myths and legends about the various gods and goddesses were passed down from generation to generation through stories (oral traditions). Groups developed rituals and practices to worship or influence the gods. Many of the rituals were closely tied to the seasons and cycles of life.
The earliest of the three modern Abrahamic religions, Judaism, developed within a predominantly polytheistic culture. Initially, Ancient Jewish people (Hebrews) practiced a nomadic tribal religion. There is evidence that ancient Hebrews regularly acknowledged the existence of other gods. However, their religion discouraged any form of worship of any gods or spirits other than Yahweh. Yahweh rescued them from captivity as Egyptian slaves. Yahweh was their god. They were Yahweh’s chosen people.
The transition to monotheism occurred when the Hebrew people were exiles and captives of the Babylonian Empire. A small group of priests and scribes created monotheism to unify the scattered exiled Hebrew people. These priests and scribes gained power by asserting that Yahweh (their God) was the only God; this one God chose the Hebrew people above all other people.
In our time, Christianity is the largest world religion, and Islam is the second largest. Judaism is much smaller, but all three trace their history to Abraham. They are called the Abrahamic religions, and all practice some form of Monotheism. There has been a consistent correlation between religious beliefs and social division that can be traced to the rise of monotheistic religions.
Ironically, these three religions trace their origins to Abraham, and all have compassion and love (including for enemies, foreigners, and strangers) as core teachings. Jesus taught his followers that the very nature of God is love and that we are called to love one another. One of the core teachings of Islam is compassion. Moses, David, and ancient Jewish (Hebrew) prophets also taught love and compassion, including compassion for travelers and foreigners. One of the core teachings of Islam is compassion. The Prophet Muhammad was known for his compassion towards everyone and taught his followers to do the same. Muslims are encouraged to show compassion towards all living beings, whether humans, animals, or plants. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was known for his compassion towards all those around him, and he taught his followers to do the same.
It is hard to deny the correlation between religious beliefs, violent crusades, and religiously motivated warfare. A connection between extreme religious beliefs and violence is present in our current wars. Yet nearly all the major world religions emphasize love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. How do we make sense of this dichotomy?
Christians and Muslims were both involved in conquests, crusades, and violent support for colonization by Empires. Historically, Jewish people were more likely to be persecuted and less likely to force their beliefs on people violently. Are there beliefs that are common within Christianity and Islam that can shed light on the intensity of our divisions and the resultant violence throughout the world?
Religions and ideologies are both systems of belief. All religions are ideologies, but not all ideologies are religions. Feudalism, capitalism, communism, fascism, authoritarianism, feminism, environmentalism, and globalism are just a short list of the ideologies that have shaped our experience of the world as divided. One belief is common in many of our current ideologies: a fundamental belief in the separation of heaven and earth. Monotheism inherently separates the universe into the Sacred (God/Heaven) and the Profane (humans, the earth, and material reality). God exists outside of the physical world. God is distant, and we need religious intermediaries (Preachers/Priests/Popes) to know and understand God.
Monotheism developed within ancient Judaism as a belief system that was core to their story of escaping slavery and successfully conquering and claiming land (modern-day Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and the West Bank) home to competing nomadic tribes. Using violence to seize land from nomadic tribes as a God-given right would be repeated in the Americas and other parts of the world.
Monotheism not only inherently separates the universe into the Sacred and Profane; it is also an ideology that separates God from the earth. Early monotheism was not only an ideology that fueled violence and conquest of nomadic lands; Abrahamic religions interpreted the distance between God and the earth as a transfer of power over the natural world from God to humans. The notion of original sin is a religious explanation for the dual nature of human beings. God was good. Humans were bad. Humans made sacrifices (other humans and animals) to appease God and overcome their sinful nature. Colonizers felt righteously justified in forcing indigenous people to convert to save their lives as well as their souls.
With the displacement of God from the earth and the natural world, at the same time, as the social structure became more complex, hierarchies of power developed. The first hierarchy was the suppression of the female goddess and women. Polytheistic religions recognized masculine gods and feminine goddesses. There is also substantial archeological evidence that agrarian and pastoral societies revered the Earth as their Mother/Creator. Monotheists needed to displace the goddesses and all the gods who did not show a preference for their tribes or people with one all-powerful God.
Since the ancient Israelites believed in one God (separated from the earth), God became more distant and unapproachable. God was no longer experienced as dwelling with humanity in the natural world, the changing seasons, or the cycles of famine and abundant harvests. Humans needed an intermediary to please or experience this distant god. Soon, there were Priests and Kings and hierarchies of power. The Priests and Kings demanded sacrifices from the people.
The Hebrew people were required to give part of their harvest or herds to their religious or political leaders. The Priests also demanded the ritual sacrifice of animals, preferring the best of the animals, the beginning of the use of scapegoats. A perfect lamb was slaughtered to atone for the sinful nature of the group or tribe. The sacrifice of the innocent scapegoat served to appease God and save the rest of the tribe.
A scapegoat remains effective as long as we believe in its guilt…
Learning that we have a scapegoat is to lose it forever…
If you scapegoat someone, it’s a third party that will be aware of it. It won’t be you. Because you will believe you are doing the right thing.
— Rene Girard
Scapegoating has always been a powerful and effective tool of hierarchical power. It evolved into a system of power-holders blaming innocent people (including groups and categories of people) for the circumstances and complaints of the mass of people. The scapegoat had to be eliminated from the tribe either by driving them out into the wilderness to die or by ritual killing.
Because we evolved from animism to monotheism, organized religion and politics have always been intimately connected by a common thread — both ideologies require power over people by a small minority. The separation of the Sacred and Profane created the divide between heaven and earth. Religious leaders inserted themselves between the people and their God, requiring obedience and submission to systems of oppression and division. Monotheism became one of the roots of our sense of separation.
We are not separate. God is not distant. We do not need hierarchies of power to experience the presence of the holy or the sacred. The sacred and the profane are always with us. All living things are sacred. We were created to love creation, including all that is. When we open our hearts and minds to this experience of unity, we are free to love it all. Everything becomes holy and sacred.
Love is the most universal, the most tremendous, and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces… the physical structure of the universe is love. — — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Read the Introduction Chapter for We: Our Declaration of Interdependence with this link: https://medium.com/we-our-declaration-of-interdependence/our-declaration-of-interdependence-5ce7d6c93300
Author’s note: Writing about the forces underlying our current deeply divided world is challenging. If you are offended, we apologize. If you are interested in responding or contributing to the conversation, please consider responding to this chapter or submitting a story to this publication. Please do not attack the messenger. Critique the ideas and content instead. We plan to publish this book (paper and eBook) in April, and your comments or suggestions will be taken into consideration.
