Ego, Death, Religion and Human Purpose

Life as a human being is a complex and confusing series of events that humanity has struggled to make sense of for thousands of years, ever a since a voice appeared inside of our head. The pesky voice is the human ego, and it is often a curious fellow who raises more questions than it answers. Is that a bear? Should I run or wait and find out? Blue shirt or yellow shirt? Is God real or fiction? You get the point. And when we have more questions than answers it is easy to feel afraid, but that is merely confusion. There is a great deal of debate as to how that voice got into our head; some contend ego was developed as a process of evolution while others hold onto the belief that the ego is/was an intrinsic property of the human mind. Whatever the case, it appears there is one force that has the ability to silence the ego, supplanting it with all the answers it could ever fathom: religion.

The answers religion provides are proven only through faith, meaning one just has to believe and all is well. Unfortunately, the human species has come a long, long way from the days of absolute blind faith. Nevertheless, religion and blind allegiance are still as popular as they were during the rise of civilized humans. The power of religion is something that baffles most rational human beings because rational people cannot stand behind something unless it is able to be backed up by factual evidence. If one looks at many of the instances expressed in much of the major religious doctrine, more importantly at their origins, it is very hard to accept it as anything other than fiction with moral guidance. However, there are large numbers of people who are willing to kill and be killed over their religious ideals. The reason for die-hard religious beliefs is because religion answers the questions that are unanswerable. Religion is a crutch to lean on in times of need and mental insecurity brought about by questions of the ego. Instead of accepting the fact that there is no way to be sure about certain issues (e.g., death and afterlife) people will turn a blind eye, close their mind and regurgitate the teachings of their chosen religion until the day comes when they must defend it or die trying.

As mentioned earlier, the idea of being unable to answer a question posed by one's own mind is a frightful situation to be faced with. Fear, which is more or less the result of confusion, in turn inspires irrational action as a means to remove any fear poking at the mind. That irrational action, in regards to religion, comes by believing in something that is only believable through accepting concepts that have been taken out of context. There is scientific evidence that has managed to disprove or explain many biblical tales. It is easy to understand how ancient man could mistake a natural phenomenon as the wrath of God, but with scientific explanation for such phenomenon, as a result of advanced technology, it is extremely closed-minded to ignore the evidence.

The Islamic religion was founded by the Prophet Muhammad. Being the husband of a rich widow, Muhammad had a lot of free time on his hands, which he decided to spend meditating in a cave for days on end. During these periods of meditation Muhammad would often fast and avoid sleep. Eventually, Muhammad was visited by the angel Gabriel who informed Muhammad that he was the prophet of God, revealing the Qur'an to him. With that said, I want you to take a week off from work or school and find yourself a nice secluded cave, free of any dangerous animals. Feel free to bring a small mat and hunker down in an area of the cave where light is minimal. Do not sleep or eat for 5 days. By the end of 5 days you will emerge from the cave with a new religion as well as some form of mental instability.

In regards to Christianity, the story begins with Judaism, which contends that God (Yahweh) established a covenant (contract/oath) with the Jewish people. The covenant is essentially a set of agreements between God and his chosen people (the Israelites) who must honor the covenant by worshipping God and obeying his laws. In fact, most Abrahamic based religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam share this covenant. Christianity developed from the teachings of Jesus Christ who was believed to be the son of God and the messiah sent to cleanse the world of evil, thus creating a kingdom of peace. However, little is known about the actual life of Jesus, causing some archaeologists to believe he was a mythical creation. But the little documentation of Jesus that exists is biased, and therefore is not entirely credible.

Nevertheless, let's entertain the idea that Jesus did exist. The Gospels and the New Testament were written after the crucifixion of Jesus. Many of the stories in the New Testament, as is the case with the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), were taken from cultural folklore passed down from past civilizations; the Epic of Gilgamesh predates all Abrahamic religions and shares many similarities with the tales found in Abrahamic doctrine. Switch the names of the characters up and voila, convincing moral tales meant to instill a fear of God as well as an undying devotion to him.

The Gospels were written by the apostles, or students of Jesus. In a sense the apostles were Jesus' fan club as evidenced by their hyperbolic approach to writing the Gospels, which blamed the Jews entirely for Jesus' death. Realistically speaking, the Romans were responsible as Roman law dictated any person claiming to be king must be crucified. While this wasn't the case, Roman soldiers told Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, that Jesus was preaching about being the king. Pontius was hesitant since he knew Jesus was innocent, but due to political pressure he carried out the crucifixion.

Jesus, the man, was probably a traveling philosopher as well as one of the earliest charity workers. He was certainly a good man, but not the son of God. Since the Gospels were written by his followers it is hard to take any of them literally. However, if Jesus did perform the miracles attested to in the Gospels then Jesus might have been the world's first illusionist. Take for instance people like David Blaine, who travel around performing their street magic using sleight of hand to create convincing illusions. Most depictions of Jesus show him in a robe with baggy sleeves, easily capable of hiding items to be switched for another. While that is just a thought, given the little we know about the actual Jesus (not the fictionalized Jesus), any thought is as good as the ones fostered by the Gospels. The Gospels serve as the only documentation of Jesus' life, and since they were written by his followers they are just as good as something written by die-hard followers of any person. It is unlikely that people would create a religion over Gospels written by the followers of Charles Manson.

Fun aside, Buddhism and Hinduism are a couple of the world's oldest religions that focus on self-improvement rather than an individual God-karma being the most popularly known ideal. Both predate Judaism and all other Abrahamic religions yet are surprisingly quiet throughout much of the tumultuous history of religion and humanity. This is due to passive ideals that focus on avoiding harm to others or one's own environment. Nevertheless, it appears that religion is largely responsible for the creation of government and ruling class. This is evident even in polytheistic religions such as the ones found in Ur and ancient Egypt. In early governments the common method for attaining power was to be seen as a communicator of the God(s). This principle transferred smoothly to many of the advanced pre-modern civilizations such as Rome, who used the principles of the Abrahamic covenant in order to maintain social obedience.

Religion may have been enforced as a means to bring about social order, but it is unlikely that social order was the original intent of religion. Getting back to the idea of the ego, the origin of religion is surely the result of inner pondering on life and human existence. Nonetheless, religion cannot exist without language since communication and group worship are integral parts of religious practice. By the time basic communication manifested between tribal societies, the tribal population was of decent size. Being that most of these tribes were hunter/gatherer societies, they often moved from temporary camp to temporary camp, but increased population size along with the discovery of cereal grain's long shelf life and the domestication of livestock, temporary settlements soon became permanent ones.

Once settled down, early man began to share the questions of the ego with one another, leading to the pursuit of the answers. It is no surprise that many of the earliest religions were polytheistic and based around the natural environment. Since language was simple during its early stages so were the religions; there was a god of fire, a god of the sun, a god of the soil and so on. However, once language evolved so did religion, with structured government and civilization coming shortly thereafter. With government there came economic systems beginning with trade-based economies. Certain regions of the land were better for producing goods and resources (i.e., plants, minerals, etc.). This caused people to move about Mesopotamia, creating civilization after civilization. What often occurred with the settling of new land was the discovery of different people and societies, who had created their own religion as a result of expressing the questions of the ego.

Since foreign religions are not usually understood, confusion brought about fear and fear led to conflict. Those conflicts would eventually lead to the building of empires where a state's neighbor was often seen as a threat. Unfortunately, once the land of the neighboring state was conquered another neighbor was discovered and on the cycle goes. The road to the present day was filled with many bumps along the way, but with wars and the constant search for answers to the questions raised by the ego, technology progressed as did the societies using it. Nations grew, alliances were formed, alliances were broken, and global competition shifted from a militaristic focus to an economic one. Industrialization and capitalism played a large roll in the manifestation of Globalization, which is currently moving humanity in a new direction. Capitalism is, like most economic philosophies, great on paper but full of flaws when put into action. The biggest flaw of capitalism is how it creates a situation of tensions between business owner and worker. The objectives of the worker do no coincide with the principles of a capitalistic business owner, which explains why outsourcing is heavily used by many companies. Such business tactics also make it obvious to see why governments favor Globalization. However, economic competition between nations is bound to create conflicts and conflicts will inevitably lead to wars.

Oddly enough the progression from point A (primitive man) to point B (modern man) started with that familiar voice inside of our heads named, ego. While the only thing that seems to change is technology we must understand that religion is relative, although powerful in its own right. It is a mask for communal interaction and has been worn by many people. If the mask of religion vanished the human ego would still ask questions, and humanity would continue to search for the answers. At the rate the human species continues to advance there will a come a time when the insecurities of the ego will no longer require a false allegiance to God and an elaborate back story to remove the confusion. Instead we will be content in knowing that we can't possibly know it all.

Do not take this as some atheistic missive meant to dismiss the notion of a higher power. The world is a mysterious place, and to say a great force does not exist is as dangerous as saying the existence of God is definite-nothing is definite that is why, even in science, there are only theories. The only certainty in life is death, and maybe that is why there is such speculation, by the ego, about death; it is the only thing the ego can be certain of, but cannot explain. We can only formulate new theories and questions that humanity will try to prove, leading to more theories and more questions. Throughout history that pursuit is responsible for advancing technology. By advancing technology the capability of human action increases as does the human life expectancy, causing the population to grow. With more people living on the Earth at the same time, more land and resources are needed to maintain our existence. The environment becomes taxed, nations fight over land, and then we have to face the scariest question of all: What if the purpose of human existence is to wipe itself out? Ego does it again!