Losing My Religion

When I was in my second year in college, I had a brief encounter with religion which changed my view for some time. I was told that the word came from the Latin term re-legare which roughly means to bind again or to connect again. It was explained that religion is a way in which a man reconnects himself to God again; to again try to commune with the Highest Power - to try to once again "unbreak" the bond that was broken between God and man. Whatever that bond might have been, it is a serious one. Even today, most of humanity still depends on religion to guide them, affecting them in many ways. Millions have suffered and died in the name of religion. If this is the case, I surmised that religion, after all, is actually man-made, and anything that is man-made has its faults. Nothing is absolute.

Studying different kinds of religion gave me an opportunity to dissect man's role in religion. The first assumption I had is that religion was invented by man because of two reasons : first, to find an explanation to what his senses detect and to his experiences; and two, to control his feral nature. Since time immemorial, man has been subjected to the the forces of nature. If man experiences or senses something that he cannot explain or understand (which is more often than not, extraordinary), he attributes it to a force unseen and more powerful than him. The idea of a God then arises. He needs to convince himself that anything beyond his control and power comes from a supreme being or force. By inventing this, he submits himself to this force, ends his struggle of finding an answer to anything. He venerates this force, and by submitting to this force, his actions and decisions are all affected. He lives his life under the guidance of this force.

Secondly, man completely understands his feral nature ; that is, his capability to kill, destroy, misuse and abuse anything. Religion becomes a source of control and discipline. For example, the crime of murder. Man is an emotional being, and emotions cloud his rationality. At times his anger overcomes his reasoning, enabling him to kill another. If there's no law against murder, the world would be a different place. A law must be present, and such law should be made under the guidance of a powerful force to compel man to fear punishment. Religion now becomes a source of fear and a form of control. Food is collected, conserved and offered depending on such divine laws. The very nature of man's life is molded and refined because of religion.

The idea of religion being an invention of man rather than something that is given by God is somewhat true. Man has to make something out of his limited understanding of life and of the universe. He then succumbs to a body of axioms, beliefs, fundamentals and perceptions, neglecting the sole purpose of faith. Many have suffered in man's misuse of religion. Religion will never be able to solve life's problems nor will it able to give you the answer to very nature and essence of life. God never spoke of religion I believe. He spoke of love, faith and trust in Him, and not to a set of rituals, rules, ceremonies, forms, culture and traditions that tends to misdirect man into thinking that these are proper ways. Faith is a whole different aspect.