It could be argued the belief in God was borne out of ignorance. Those things humans couldn't understand were explained away by attributing them to a higher power, and "God" was born.Actually, far from ignorance it's evidence of the highest powers of thinking. It's creative to say the least! Hell, all science begins as an attempt to, if not find god, at least try to understand god's creation.
All of the stories, the tales, the gospels, epistles, Zen Koans, books, art, music, architecture, and theater that's come from that effort to explain, visualize and celebrate what we don't know pretty much represents the high point of our creative talents. From
Where Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach to Coltrane's
A Love Supreme, from
The Sistine Chapel* to
Piss Christ it's shaped everything we know in Western Art (though it has done the same in all arts, everywhere). It's Genesis, Exodus and Job, it's the Psalms, the Gospel of John and the Revelation of St. John, the Tao, the Quran, the The Bhagavad Gītā, Greek and Roman (and just about every other culture) Mythology, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the entire mess of Egyptian funerary traditions and beliefs and architectural including building the pyramids. (It's also Mayan temples and human sacrifice, but we'll skip that, though highly creative that was too.)
The writing alone represents some of the best writing that's ever been done:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Man, I'm hooked, I'm going to keep on reading. That exactly what they teach in 'great writers school' - start with something so compelling that the reader has to keep on going.
But here's the funny thing, at the end of the day, the god image aside, what all those texts - and all the ones I didn't mention too - say and are about the same thing, and it's not god. It's this:
'Indeed, We sent Our messengers with evident truth, and We sent down with them the Book and the balance (of right and wrong), so that people might behave with each other with justice.'(al-Hadid 57: 25)
Though I prefer the version from the Gospel of Thomas (6) where Jesus simply says:
and don't do what you hate. You know, that person you can't stand? Don't be that guy or girl. It's the Golden Rule, the principle of reciprocity, it's what Jesus finally said, in total desperation of how stupid everyone was being, when he wiped away all those other laws (and there was a big huge dogpile of them, books and books) and asked if we could possibly just follow one - JUST ONE - simple rule? It's this: "
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." (Luke 6:31, KJV).
Every religion, every spiritual system says that. It's the one supreme thing they ALL agree upon.
** It's proven to be a perfectly obtainable deal. I've been a part of many communities at times in my life that were places where people lived with each other like that. It's pretty nice. Low stress for sure.
Now I believe (in terms of sense one:
Belief (1) - An absolute truth (100% certainty) that when people let that principal guide them, with or without a god, life is better for everyone in just about every way. As the Tao would have it, life gets done. I've experienced, and continue to experience that. I believe (sense two:
Belief (2) - Something less than an absolute (sub-100% certainty). Often in opposition to a fact.) that it is possible to do on a large scale, though facts, like 'history' for one set, tends to lower the odds - or at least the optimism.
Black Elk said that
"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One." And
all are one, and one is all, as Zep sez. That huge universe we are apart of, that is us, as we are it:
"Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded." (Lawrence Krauss). We're only at the thin beginning of understanding, but what we are learning is that it's all a little bit more than previously envisioned. We're standing on the edge of time. It's going to take a while for our eyes to adjust.
* - Click and drag mouse, etc.
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html** - here is a list of 21 different faiths/systems saying the exact same thing in only slightly different language:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc2.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc3.htm
