Bridges Between Us

• Religions did not come to be and occupy its place in society and the social psyche because of a few and simply identifiable reasons. Rather, like many other things, it is a resultant of the interaction between a multitude of factors, from the past to present. A main force driving the formulation of religion, religious beliefs, and religious practices was of course the need for ways to cope with and persevere through dangers, calamities and losses; things a person had no control over. It was also a way to try to provide some explanation for phenomena that could not be explained at the time, to some things that are yet to be well explained, and something that can never be explained. Religion gives hope, even in the face of the direst adversity, that helps people to endure. Religion forms bonds and communities that people can depend upon and turn to during challenges small and large.

• Since the early times of civilizations, many people who have held religious beliefs and engaged in religious or religion-based actions that were meant to have impacts beyond their own personal lives did so because of a deeply held purpose – such as to correct and prevent injustices, to protect and improve the well-being of their family and community, and to encourage, inspire, and even compel people to become better human beings.   

• Something that is probably also understood by most people is that much, though not all, of the factors that drive religious belief and practice as well as the conflicts between different groups that are based on religion are predicated on the distribution of and access to what is needed as well as desired – including adequate livelihood, wealth, resources, power, control over others -especially women, and luxuries. It is often underpinned by a conflict between those who have more and want to maintain or increase upon that and those who have less – and sometimes regardless of what had led to those differences. These contradictions have sown and will sow hate, jealousy, greed, ego, vengefulness, anger, and fear that will affect how people think, what group they choose to belong to, what group or beliefs they would like to encourage or compel others to subscribe to, and what they do.

• All of these motivations and reactions associated with religion are results of the interaction of our evolutionary developed drives, the knowledge and information we have received, and the environment and circumstances each of us live in. Religions themselves were borne through these interactions and the resulting compromises, to help us cope with and persevere through uncertainties and adversities, to help tame conflicts within and between individuals and between groups, and to help structure and sustain communities within which people can live and function. However, where those lines of comprise were drawn, who benefitted more and who benefitted less, how religious doctrines and practices changed or evolved over the centuries, and how and for what purposes religion has been used or asserted have often been substantially determined by the power differences between individuals and between groups impacted by religion. Complicating this complexity even more is the fact that individuals and groups are not motivated by just a few factors; rather, consciously of instinctively, they are driven by a multitude of them, that are often conflicting with the same person or the same group. These are of course not particular insights. The fact is that there are so many interacting parameters, that it would probably be a challenge to be able to gauge and predict their effects, even at a macro level, by a deep neural network. But what is vitally important to consider is the fact is that in the rush of things we do that have religious motivation, we don’t pause to sufficiently to think about why we are doing what we are doing and how does it helps or hurts what our best selves want. More of awareness about the need for such reflection would probably be a good thing.

References that likely support these ideas: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1saSdYdz45baaUWkjGSf-bxhfkOS2RvDn/view?usp=sharing