Set the Priests on Fire

Why religion? Did it arrise from a sense of wonderment upon the reemergence of green nature at the end of the last ice age or was it simply a social contrivance of community?

Religiousity is a process like everything else. Animism springs from nature. Creation stories evolve, creatures are ascribed human traits and personalities, human/animals are diefied and populate newer myths. The progression probably should have stopped with Hinduism. Monotheism and institutionalized religion only serves to distance man from nature. The emergence of faith, bred sectarianism and encouraged war. The social benefits of organized religion do not offset the distructive history of parochial behavior.

Our animistic history announces the fact that god is obvious, he exists in the world around us. Scripture, law and any codification distances man from the apparent. Patriarchy and the elevation of dieties to singularity diminishes the familiarity of humans. We find ourselves greatly distanced from god and religion becomes wishful thinking, salvation a lottery and existence stressful, isolated and without solice.

Religion should always be a gathering, a celebration and an invocation. If you don't know the person in the pew in front of you, you are not in a proper place of worship. Religions have always built walls, going back to the Golbekli Tepe. A picnic, a beach party or a baseball game would be more proper than a cathedral. Even these might be too organized.

Take a walk, go fishing, take a drive in the country then go home and speak of what you saw and thought. That's a religious service. When you die the little fish will nibble on your ashes, the worms, bugs and grubs will clean your bones and only then will you be back home. Atomically, microbially, physically we never leave existence. A pile of crap is as alive as you, everything else is ego.

Sorry about the title, if you knew I was talking about religion you'd never take a look.