A while ago, I decided to consider alternatives to Atheism. I wound up creating my own religion. I didn’t do it for the chicks, for the fame or for the chance to be crucified. Nor did I do it because I have grown disillusioned by science. Science does a great job of explaining the world, our history, the laws of Nature, and even what our near future might look like. It is essential to our survival and it must continue unhindered, with the full support of humanity. But what of the big questions that science still cannot answer? Are we not allowed to wonder why we are here and what our struggle through life is for? It is for this reason I developed Etheism.
Throughout history, philosophers and preachers have searched for a meaning, some clue as to what it’s all about. To know this is to know God. Well, are we getting closer to knowing God yet?
Etheism holds that God is energy. Using this simple substitution, I dare you to read the ancient biblical texts and see if they don’t make more sense. What was always most imbecillic about mainstream religion was its view that God was some kind of father figure sitting up in the clouds, listening to what humans do, meddling in their affairs. Unless you are a young child or a complete and utter moron, this will obviously be insulting to your intelligence. Defining God as energy allows us to clearly define Him by the natural laws we have for how energy functions in the Universe. There is still much to learn if we are to become fully enlightened, but at least we are on the way. As we come to expand our view of the Universe, so too will we expand our definition of God, from petty father figure, to omniscient deity, to Universal constant.
But why define God at all? There has been, thus far, no evidence to support any theory of a higher consciousness having created any of the phenomena we see around us. Existence is not evidence of creation. Even if there had been creation, it must’ve occurred billions of years ago, as our most advanced techniques for dating the age of the earth and of the living creatures who have lived on it indicate. The absurd idea that the world is but a few thousand years old and that woman was created from man with one of his ribs is childish nonsense which ignores so many facts about the world we have come know.
If you really are religious and are still reading, consider: God gave you a brain, so why don’t you use it? You have been given the amazing gift of volition, of choice, of understanding and knowledge. You are conscious, self-aware and capable of understanding the mysteries of the universe. You can know why the sun and moon appear to move across the sky, or how people came to look different from each other, some with dark hair and black eyes, others (like me) with fair hair and a fragile relationship with the sun. God, if He exists, surely doesn’t want you to treat your brain poorly by ignoring the voluminous amounts of evidence supporting the theory of evolution on the one hand, with a book authored by God-knows who, compiled by a bloodthirsty dictator about a prophet none of the authors ever met.
Let me put it another way. I’m sure that if I put a bag over my head, I could eventually learn how to get on with my life. But for God’s sake, why not just take off the bag?
Yet, in spite of the horrors committed in its name, religion has been the greatest cause of human population growth in the history of humanity. The prescription religion has dispensed throughout the Ages has been to “go forth and multiply” and the multitude has obeyed. Where poverty and religion have combined, the effects have been especially pronounced, generating generation after generation, perpetuating paternalism, all the while passing religion on. We have assumed that religion was indoctrinated into children early enough that they weren’t able to rationally comprehend it, thereby accepting it as a part of their lives. But what if it wasn’t just nurture that helped religion to grow and flourish? What if there was a genetic factor involved? If there was a genetic link between genes and suceptability to religion, then the religious may well give birth to naturally religious children. As those who are most religious would quite possibly pass on their genetic material with a greater urgency, the numbers of the religious would be increasing compared to the non-religious.
This may sound like the rantings of a maniac. “Genetic link to religion? Such a thing has never been proven!” And it hasn’t. But there is good evidence to suggest that there is something in human psychology that gives rise to belief. You just have to look at it from another angle than religion.
Look at a group of people. Tasked with a job to do, the group naturally falls into a team of leaders and followers, as each member finds its political place within the group. We call this politics, but it is actually just an effective way to manage the group dynamic and achieve the result desired. If a group has too many leaders, it’s focus is diluted and the group can splinter into factions. Unless some members can switch to a follower mentality, allowing themselves to “follow the leader” as it were, the group will be unfocussed. Unless other members can lead those other members, giving direction and balance to the group, the group will be doomed. It seems that, like bees, a person can adopt either role in order to achieve the higher purpose of the group. Throughout history, those who have been able to follow their leader precisely, by aligning their own goals, dreams and desires with the group have had an uncanny ability to win. Independence of mind and spirit have traditionally worked well for the leaders of the world, but have fared poorly in group dynamics. Hell, I have a hard enough time living with this kind of mindset in these supposedly independent and free times. I would’ve probably been burned on the stake before my 15th birthday, had I been born a couple of thousand years prior.
I think it is not a coincidence that political fervour often mimics religious fervour. Our tendency to follow has protected us in the past, allowed our groups to function more effectively (though quite often being murderously effective). It gave humanity strength, yet it is at the same time its weakness. In the evolution of human thought, it is natural that we would transition from a group to an individualistic mentality. Trouble is, it seems we are going backwards. Back in the 4th century BC, Aristotle and Socrates were chatting philosophy, trying to derive the nature of the universe. Artistotle himself could be said to be the founding father of Science. Yet, it took almost two thousand years for scientific thought to actually take hold. Had we not been afflicted with the mind-stunting ignorance of religion for centuries, where might we be now.
I’m pretty sure we’d have flying cars. Leonardo da Vinci would have invented them for sure.
I created Etheism in the hope of creating, not another closed dogmatic system of belief, but an evolving, inclusive vision of a universe which would one day welcome us into its arms. As our technology and our knowledge increase, as we come to learn more and more secrets of this amazing universe, we may well give birth to creations which allow us to explore the cosmos (or at the very least fly to work). Who knows what intelligence we may find, given the means of conducting a more thorough search. But even if we remain alone in the universe, we will advance or die together. Our own small roles in continuing the delicate spark of life will remain, even after the circumstances of our birth, death and all that happened in between fades into eternity.
Etheism is a celebration of Life. A unifier, not a divider. It is a religion which is pro-science, pro-life AND pro-choice, pro-rational individual and pro-understanding. It is inclusive. If you’re alive, you can join. Those who we disagree with, we feel compassion toward, never hatred. We feel connected to the universe and relish the joys of life. We understand that God may fill our bodies and world around us, but this universe is a self-determined one. We live and die by our own choices. There is no supernatural force, guiding the outcome. We are not disappointed by this, as we understand that the natural world is so full of wonderful and amazing things that there is simply no need for the supernatural. As for the purpose of humankind, perhaps one day it will achieve harmony. That is our goal. When we learn to form a synnergy with our natural world, we might discover a higher form of existence, leading to still other higher and higher forms.
The answers to all of our questions are right there in the puzzle we call life. It’s up to us to solve it.
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