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BELIEF Belief is a very small word for such an enormous subject. It goes to the very core of how we perceive our place in the universe and how we view ourselves. Are we the product of a series of ancient random chemical reactions in the primordial soup of ancient Earth, or are there more intelligent forces involved in the process? Did we evolve or were we made? Was the initial spark of life struck by a divine intelligence at the dawn of time? All
of this has been at the heart of the world’s religions for thousands
of years. So much pain and suffering has been caused by those who
insist that their beliefs are right, and those of others are wrong. All of
that insistence is unsubstantiated by any real scientific fact or proof.
Nobody has provided definitive, conclusive and scientific verification
of an afterlife, yet there are many who claim to know the truth of
things in that respect, despite the lack of proof. When examined all the major religions of today’s world seem to have their beginnings in an origin myth and provide a blueprint for organizing a functioning civilized society, governed by rules and regulations. The famous Ten Commandments of the Old Testament in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible are a prime example of that contention. The rules are designed to provide order, structure and hierarchy and all too often, they also ensure the continued dominance of one social class over another. All religions tend
to be corrupted from their original intent over time, and they are
interpreted and used by those who wish to twist them and have them say
what they want them to say. Religions that began by professing the
virtues of love and peace can sadly end up espousing hatred and war. One prime Biblical example of that particular holy book being used to the detriment of the bulk of the people, is in the idea that ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven’. This was used in times past by the rich and powerful to maintain their positions of privilege, by assuring the peasants that though their lives were full of servitude, poverty, suffering and drudgery, they would live in certain paradise in the next word. However very conveniently, there was also an injunction against
the committing of suicide, which would send a person’s soul straight to hell. Once the
people have been convinced of paradise to come, as one of the exploiter
class, you certainly don’t
want them all heading prematurely for the doorway to paradise, before
you have have worn them out by hard graft and poverty stricken servitude. Historically,
the rich who were supposed to be excluded from heavenly paradise, simply
donated money and land to the church and in so doing were given a golden
ticket
to the pearly gates. After all, as Gods representative on Earth, the Pope
was able to bargain on behalf of the almighty and absolve all Earthly
sins. A ‘get out of jail free’ card for the exploiters and
abusers who could live a dissolute life of cruelty and debauchery,
yet still get to strap on a pair of wings and sit on a cloud playing a
harp. Is it any wonder that Karl Marx referred to religion as the
‘opiate of the masses’? Religion has always been one of the great
levers of control for the elite and in earlier centuries, was one route
to power and influence taken by the 'spare' male of-spring of the
aristocracy . In
the modern world, the forces of absolution on a grand scale are the TV
Evangelists in the USA with their fake smiles, their fake tans and their
degenerate lust for material wealth. In the Islamic world they have
their counterparts in the power-crazed, swivel-eyed fanatics, spitting
venom and hate, whilst calling for the murder of innocents in the name of
some warped notion of religious Jihad. On the cusp of a new age In
the Christian nations of the Western world, religion continues to
decline as its historical mechanisms of indoctrination and control are
no longer accepted by the general populace. It is in stark contrast to
the forces of Islam that seem to be drawing believers into an ever more
fundamentalist, medieval and extreme form of the religion. As the West
becomes more secular, the East seemingly becomes more religious.
Tensions become stretched to breaking point with acts of terrorism, hate
and war the inevitable result. Whilst a significant portion of the
Islamic East turns in upon itself and endures its insurrections,
uprisings and revolutions, where is the West turning? Stripped
of a belief in the veracity of Christian doctrine and losing belief in
their religion as a result, the people of the West have had to look
elsewhere for new gods. They have unfortunately found them in mass
consumerism, materialism, the dark forces of global capitalism and the
vacuous cult of celebrity. Far too many people are kept passive, bovine
and docile by the moronic reality programmes, game shows and soap operas
available on television. It is a moronic, dumbed down fast food world, the
Imperial Roman
bread and circuses of the modern epoch. People today are as much in thrall to the insidious doctrines of big business and global capitalism, as they ever where to the doctrines of established religion. This new ‘church’ also keeps them in a kind of indentured servitude, they are akin to hamsters on a treadmill. They are encouraged to take vast amounts of personal debt in order to seek instant gratification through consumption and material goods, and to boastfully show that wealth off to others in a peacock-like display of perceived superiority. Jesus overturned the tables of the blasphemous money lenders at the temple in Jerusalem; now the people forsake the Christian message and worship the money lenders.
The ruins of Western Christianity in the 21st century It
is a bleak recognition of just how far society has moved away from
established religion. In throwing out the hocus-pocus, the people have
also thrown out the morality and common humanity that sets us apart from
the beasts of the field. With a loss of spirituality, all that is left
is greed, avarice and the ugly, selfish and corrosive pursuit of money
to the detriment of a socially cohesive and caring society. Given all this, it is hardly surprising that many people are rejecting this corrupt and bankrupt ideology and its selfish gods, and seeking genuine spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. They are not returning to the established churches, especially those mired in the scandals of paedophile priests or those who are bending over backwards to accommodate political correctness or religions that are anti-democratic and tyrannical, or indeed those who simply seek to cynically extract money from parishioners. The recent scandals in the established churches are a betrayal of those hardworking and genuinely decent parishioners who believe in a better world, and work so hard to help their local parish church at a time when attendances are falling. As Christianity dies in the West, it leaves a dangerous non secular vacuum that risks being filled by a fundamental and extreme medieval religion imported from abroad. Lessons from the past Today,
many
people in the West are seeking self-discovery by delving into the older beliefs of
our ancestors. They were far more in tune with the seasons and the cycles
of nature than we are today. These people are seeking a better way, one of
fraternal love, respect and peaceful co-existence, one that does not set
a priestly class between them and the object of their devotions, and one
that does not profess a spiteful doctrine of fundamentalist orthodoxy. It
would appear that we are on the cusp of another turning of the wheel in
terms of belief and spirituality, at least in the West, and a
progression that regains the concept of humanity, a basic respect for
life and a moral compass. In essence people are seeking a world that
cares and that values humanity over greed and profit. What
are these new beliefs that are emerging as the wheel turns? In truth
there really isn’t anything new under the sun, it has all been done
before, but as circumstances change and irresponsible social experiments
end in failure, people tend to seek their future in their past. Both
here in the West and in the East change is occurring, but all too often
in polar opposite directions in terms of freedom of speech, thought and
religious expression. Over
the past century there has been an upsurge in nature religions in the
West, these are our most ancient belief systems and they go back to our
hunter-gatherer past. The Paleolithic cave paintings such as those at
Lascaux in France, which are estimated to be over 17,000 years old,
depict hunting scenes and would have had spiritual significance for the
artists painting them. They suggest a respect for nature and for the
animals they shared their world with. Animals that were so important to
their own survival. During
the first half of the 20th century and into our current millennium, the
rise of globalisation, consumerism and the consequent exploitation of
the world’s resources have divorced us further from our
natural environment. People have become detuned from nature and they no
longer feel its rhythms, except when it bites back and natural disasters
remind us of its power. Over-population has only added to this
estrangement and in the rush for ever greater profit and economic
dominance, our verdant and beautiful world is becoming increasingly
polluted and damaged. It is being stripped of its richly diverse fauna,
via extinctions brought about by the actions of greedy multi-national
corporations and extreme population pressure. The
reconnection with nature has a cathartic effect on people, enabling them
to slow down and synchronize once again with the rhythms of the natural
world. They can feel the elements once again and marvel at the wonders
around them, the forests, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes and the
moon and sky. More and more people are looking at the old beliefs for
positive inspiration in their lives, and finding new paths through such
beliefs as the Northern Traditions, Asatru, Druidry, Shamanism and Wicca
among others. Each of these belief systems provide a pathway to the ultimate truth, the great unknown that awaits us all as the wheel of life turns full circle and reaches its end. They seek what all religions ultimately seek, the meaning of life itself and the purpose of our place in the universe. We are all made from the stuff of stars and we have a divine right of existence, just like anything else in the cosmos, but why are we here and for what reason? Those are the questions we may desperately ask but may never receive an answer.
The new gods of free market capitalism and globalization fail What
we do know for certain, after the catastrophic global economic
events of 2008, is that the poisonous and bankrupt doctrines of
globalisation and free market capitalism are certainly not an answer. I
fear it may be some time though, before those doctrines are rejected and
abandoned by people who have become enmeshed in their widely cast net,
and who continue to desperately seek fulfillment and salvation in the
siren call of their false promises. Final thoughts As
for me, what do I believe in? I believe in Family, in Clan and in the
strength of a Name. I believe in the power of the ancestors, who have
battled and struggled down the ages from the dawn of time and who have
made us what we are today. Each of us contains those ancient genes
within us, and the inherited folk memories of our people in the deep
subconscious recesses of our minds. Ultimately we are all connected and
related, and we are all born of one great unknown source that sparked
the ‘Big Bang’. It was a truly profound
event that gave birth to the universe and ultimately, to mankind itself. I think perhaps it is an apt conclusion to give the last words on this piece to a very wise counsellor of an early Anglian King of pagan Northumbria. As the king sat in his Great Hall, along with his retainers during the depths of a northern mid-winter, with a comforting fire blazing in the hearth and the wind howling and snow falling outside, he pondered the wisdom of converting to Christianity. He had heard the reassurances of
salvation and everlasting life in a heavenly paradise and he found the
idea attractive. If he converted then as loyal Thains, so would his
powerful retainers and the ordinary folk in turn. At that very
moment as he was deep in thought, a small bird flew quickly through the
hall, in at one end and out the other. The
counsellor turned to his King and intoned, “A sparrow flies swiftly
through the hall. It enters at one door and quickly flies out the other.
It flits from your sight, out of the wintry storm and into it
again. So this life of man appears but for a moment; what follows or
indeed what went before, we know not at all”. ©Copyright - James of Glencarr |
