Co-Existing 101

I'm going to start right off by throwing out a number at you. The number is: 4,200. Now, I'm going to throw out another number at you: ca. 7,000,000,000 (that's circa 7 BILLION). The second number is the approximate number of people that live on this planet. The first number (hold onto your hats folks) is the estimated number of religions that exist, today, on a global level. This means, by basic math, that (theoretically) there is 1 religion for every 1,666,666 people (notice all the 6's there and please don't freak out, it's not the mark of the beast, it's the mark of the calculator). No worries on this end number though. Christianity, Muslim and Judaism are the 'big 3' religions on the planet - at least for this little portion of the over all life-span of humanity's existence. Of all the 'taboo' topics people can discuss, religion, in and of itself, has become THE 'hot topic' of the past oh...5,000 years? Really? It's that big of a deal to everyone? What is it with everyone? My god is bigger than your god type talks? Now, I'm reading in the news that a piece of ancient text is being hailed as 'the find' in the realm of Christianity....with most of the Christians disregarding this find as being a fake. Why? Because it mentions that Jesus may very well have had (again, hold onto your hats) a wife! ~gasp~

      Now, when we consider the time that Jesus lived in, and then consider the world he lived in, and THEN we realize that Jesus wasn't even Christian (NO, he wasn't), well....do the math. What is it about religion that makes it such a heated topic? I see the pro-religion images all over the Internet, with no actual backing behind the statement other than 'because I say so'. This is true for ALL belief systems, alternative or not. So if we turn back the clock a bit and think about things for just a moment, we will find that history isn't necessarily repeating itself on the religion home front. In fact, it's kind of going backwards. Keep in mind that Rome and Egypt were the 'ancient melting pots' of that part of the world. There were people from all over the map conversing into those two cities. There was never just ONE religion for either of those cities, although they both followed a Mythology-type religious system for many centuries prior to the increasing popularity of Paganism and Monotheism type belief systems (meaning - the following of a doctrine that held just one singular all-creating god). It wasn't until 325 AD that the Council of Nicaea came to order, where the topic of Christianity was discussed (to the N-th degree).  It was here that topics such as baptism, kneeling, and holidays of the Christian religion were debated...among other 'sundry' topics. It is within those 'other sundry topics' that one has to really pry in order to get the entirety of the truth out into the open. And this, my friends, is where verbal wars can start.

 This isn't just true for Christianity, but for all religions. Regardless if you're Christian, Jewish, Pagan, Wiccan, Muslim...it matters not. What is true for one, may not be for the other, and yet another might find truth in both statements. What we can all agree on though are the things we know just from being human. First, and foremost, we are alive. We breathe. We require food and water to sustain our lives. We need shelter from the natural elements...and sometimes, from our own pollutions. We know there are trees, plants, animals, rocks, mountains, forests, oceans, rivers, cities, towns, farms and islands. We know the Earth is round, and that we travel around the Sun (our star), in our own little solar system, which is nestled into our own little galaxy (The Milky Way Galaxy), which is part of this enormous gigantic universe. How do we 'know' this though? We see it. We feel it. We hear it. We learn about it through books, lectures and photography. We learn about it through...science! We'll take a brief time out right here and explain this little thing we know as science. Back in the days of Newton (you know, the one who got bonked on the head by an apple and thereby wound up 'discoveriny' gravity), science was basically banned by the church. This put a tremendous pressure on folks who were scientists, especially since most of them were also prominent members of their local churches. Hmmm....that's certainly something to think about! OK so we'll speed back up in time again, and zoom forward into present day.

     In today's society, as advanced as we like to think we are (and in many areas of life, we ARE advanced....OK, in some areas of life), the topic of religion STILL ignites eruptive conversations. People, such as myself, sit and listen to (or read about) these conversations and honestly, the only thing that runs through my mind is: Oh for the love of anything you consider even remotely holy...shut up already! Stop your arguing in the name of your cat box for all I care, but whatever you do, just stop arguing! What do people think? The louder they yell, and the longer the words that are used, that they will verbally brow beat someone into submission and/or conversion? Do people think that if they repeat themselves over and over, while holding THE holy text of their specific religion, that the rest of humanity will just fold and bow to them? Unfortunately, the answer to these questions, in many cases, is yes. It is for this very reason (the arguing) that many people are starting to turn away from organized religions, to alternative belief systems. They are sick and tired of the arguing. They are tired of being told who to love, who to hate, what is holy, what is sinful and what is 'normal human behavior', compared to what one particular belief system considers 'unnatural human behavior'. They are tired of being told that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, when every single other branch of humanity has proven (over, and over, and over, and over....etc.) that the Earth is 4+ billion years old. People are tired of being told that one god is more powerful than another god. People are also sick and tired of being persecuted just because they don't believe the same religious doctrines that other people do (lest we be reminded of the Inquisitions and the witch trials that took place all over the world - and still do today in a few nations).

Considering the fact that the first known record of religion was 5,500 years ago, and was a nature-based religion...and humans have been walking on this planet for approximately 200,000 years (which also blows a bunch of holes in the 'earth is only 6,000 years old theory), that means that humans have been around for 194,500 years LONGER than the first known religion. This is where it would be proper to say "what the hell?". This also brings us to the question of: "What were people worshipping prior to that?" Answer? Nature. It has always been the habit of humans to try and find answers to questions. Thus, when a question could not be answered, the answer was then "It must be god", or, "It must be magic", or, "It's the mystery of the universe". That is, until science comes along and explains it, in which case, that un-answerable question, now finds its way into some belief system, and the scientific explanation then becomes a religious explanation...and while the religious explanation ends up being interpreted into the religious texts, the scientific explanation ends up being added to school books and research data banks. In other words, what we knew then, is nothing compared to what we know now...and even with all those discoveries...religion is still such a battle ground, that more people have been killed in the name of religion, than for all other reasons (including the witch hunts) ever...COMBINED.

   Is it not possible that there are more people turning to the alternative belief systems because of how their personal experiences have been within an organized religion? Is it also not possible that humanity is slowly turning back to its original nature-based beliefs? Keep a few things in mind while pondering these questions.
1. Less than 200 years ago, every person on the face of this planet was using herbal and homeopathic treatments for every type of disease and illness they had to deal with.
     This means that....

2. During the time of the Inquisitions, every single person was using alternative medicines, tinctures and potions in order to heal themselves (which, included, among other things, alcohol).
     This also means that....

3. SOMEHOW humanity survived, and thrived, for about 200,000 years, which means that someone did something, at some point, correctly...otherwise, we'd have killed ourselves off a LONG time ago - god, or not.