DO you believe there is a God? Today is not going to be a religious expose, but a look at human beings through the ages believing in a deity.
There are many religions in the world that truly believe that they have the only true religion and God.
But is it one that dominates women, bringing the female of the species down to a level of dominance, or is it one who feels that they are God’s chosen people.
Or is it an animal worshipped by many, or a witch, or an evil spirit, or even a witch doctor.
Many people throughout the ages have twisted religion to suit themselves or their perceived congregation.
Mormons live in purpose-built communities and go about their business very simply with many rules and regulations.
Most are ordained by the leaders, who expect their group to adhere to the principles laid out years before by mere mortals who say they’ve seen God or a premonition and some have followed their principles to the letter.
People are gullible sometimes; they want to believe. Words and actions from the leaders of a group can be persuasive and have a tremendous effect on those who are seeking an answer. Just think of political rallies.
Religion seeks to honour God by building massive cathedrals and churches at enormous expense, lavishly adorned, with the cost born by the people in their congregation. But for what – to get closer to God?
When one is told you can pray anywhere if you want, what does that mean?
Does it mean that all this expense is wasted? What does that say to the person who struggles to get by each day to put food on the table or who might be very ill, handicapped from birth or had an accident which has rendered them reliant on others for help in doing the day-to-day tasks?
Religious beliefs are based on faith, not on science or factual evidence.
But there are many people who are religious that don’t see a conflict between their religious beliefs, evolution and science.
As seniors, we start thinking about what might happen when we die – does our spirit, our soul just die and we are no more?
We either get buried, cremated, frozen or otherwise diluted in some form.
What do we think about all this, do our children have a different view? Some of us are bewildered about all this. Do we just die and that’s it?!
How is it that as thinking human beings we can only truly believe in what we know, or what can be seen to be true.
Do we really know how electricity works?
Or how all the information gets on the cloud or for that matter who puts the trillions of articles on every subject known to man on the computer, all in different languages.
Yes, there are many things that we don’t understand, but we must have faith that it will all work out in the end.
My late wife had a favourite saying, “What is, is.”
