Dwain Northey (Gen X)

(this is from an abstract ‘Oxford Academic’)

“‘The origins of superstition’ describes practices of magic, prophecy, and divination in the ancient world, and the changing meaning of superstition through time. Throughout its long history, superstition has been a transactional concept with no fixed meaning of its own except in contrast to some other, more accepted world-view. The origin of the concept is found in ancient Greece in the 4th century BCE, and for the next 2,000 years, superstition stood in contrast to the religious practices recommended by the elites. The word ‘superstition’ has often been levelled at practices that, even today, we would consider magical or paranormal, and yet versions of most of these practices are still with us.”

Religion is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

I believe that superstitions became religion. My theory is that ancient man did not understand on a scientific level the processes of nature and those “magical” processes were superstitious is the mind of early man. Those that paid more attention used that knowledge to prophecies upcoming events and through this magic were able to divine outcomes and astound the masses. As the cycle of season became more apparent those actions had to be equated to a super natural for so on came the Gods. The Greeks had Zeus, Poseidon and Hades not to mention a myriad of other  deities that dictated the actions of nature and lorded over the lives of men. Every large gathering of people had their set of deities and worshiping them gave society structure and thus the practice of religion was established.

I had a sociology professor in college that had a theory on religion that has stuck with me. His belief was that man being a thinking animal understood the finality of his existence, that his time was limited. That awareness of finality did not sit well with a species that’s driving force is to survive, every animal has that same drive but not the awareness of life’s limited nature, so to reconcile this man had to create a more. The more gave man purpose that his existence was a steppingstone to an infinite after but with that promise of an everlasting more there had to be rules. With rules there had to be structure that would require a hierarchy, gate keepers so to speak, along came the church and with it control of the masses if they wanted to progress from this mortal life to paradise, Valhalla, heaven, whatever they wanted to call it.

I believe that the more man understood about his world and the natural forces around him the number of Gods that were praised diminished until monotheism was the common practice. Church leaders had to maintain at least one God so that they could maintain there position as the righteous gatekeepers and their prized seats of power. Don’t get me wrong religion has done good but it has also done great damage in the evolution of our societies. Countless wars have been waged in the name of faith and those wars continue even today.

Is it all a hoax, is there an infinite afterlife, is there a heaven for the righteous and a hell for the damned? All questions that none of can answer. If your faith is what drives you and gets you through, more power to you, if not that’s fine too. Our invention of religion has been with us for millennia, whether it is reality or fiction will continue to be up for debate. Honestly we all make our own decision if you believe that Heaven awaits you then that’s what will ultimately be your fate, if your belief is in reincarnation or that we are just random atomic particles at eventually vibrate at different frequency then who truly knows… this debate will never end and we wont know the real answer till we END.