By Mickey Walker-July 31, 2011
When Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons heard the first clap of
thunder in their primordial backyard, quickly, they invented gods. They needed an explanation for the
powerful disruption in a superstitious existence that was full of mystery to
them. Such a powerful bolt of
thunder must have terrified them. They feared their very destruction. So they jumped instantly into the survival mode and paid homage
to these powerful phenomena they could not understand. In desperation they sought to be spared
and protected. At least it is a
good guess, though none of us know for sure how long it took gods and religion
to break the horizon of early man’s consciousness.
Possibly to quiet their fears, they began living in tribes
for protection. Communities mushroomed. There was strength in numbers. Conditions were ripe I would guess for
medicine men to dazzle the tribes with magic tricks and such voodoo shell games
that made them seem special and in touch with the gods. Medicine men often elevated themselves
to positions of priest, and in some cases, gods. And the people, out of fear, went along with it. In addition
to being worshiped in return for protecting the tribe, these leaders were
rewarded with riches and power. But
religion was in its infancy then. Untold riches and TV Evangelists with their own TV satellites
and banks in Scotland were yet to come. Religion filled the gaps and explained
away the fears of an unsure and tumultuous world. And the medicine men, the soothsayers, the men who could
bring something to the table to frighten the clan into following them,
appointed themselves to high positions in the clan hierarchy.
Fast forwarding to the Nile Delta before Christ, the
Egyptians had many gods, some with animal heads and human bodies. Great cities and civilizations
flourished there for thousands of years. The pharaohs were deemed to be gods,
and they ruled in complete, unchallenged authority for over 5,000 years. Every human on the planet has seen
pictures of the great pyramids and the Sphinx.
Great cities and cultures flourished also in Meso America,
too for thousands of years. Many
different tribes, e.g., the Toltecs, Olmecs, Itzas, and Incas built great stone
cities and pyramids that stand even today, unchallenged by the ravages of time. Many tribes, e.g. the Mayans, created
the most accurate calendar of all time. They invented the numeral zero. They were astronomers par excellence.
On the other hand, the Aztecs would tear out the hearts of
sacrifice victims to offer to their gods so that it would rain, or maybe it
might help them defeat their enemies. They weren’t messing around. Religion to them had to be serious business. But they had great stone cities and pyramids, too. Until the Spanish destroyed them and
built Catholic Churches on the same sites.
Funny, but even the Old Testament’s Abraham was asked to
sacrifice his own son in a burnt offering to God, just to prove to God that Abraham
was a faithful and true servant. Human sacrifice has been a part of man’s unconscious compass for longer
than he might admit to.
Religion became the most powerful motivator known to man
right after he came down from the trees and began to walk upright. And nothing has changed. The lizard brain was then and is now,
alive and well and a part of us.
The fear of what might happen to you if you challenged
religion or its priests and doctrine made the individual walk a straight and
narrow line of acceptance. Religion
controlled the masses completely. Many
religious leaders were deities. The
Mayan city states of the Yucatan Peninsula in present day Mexico are proof. The leader wore a giant head dress
taller than the person himself. Commoners were prohibited to gaze upon his
face. He was known as the True
Man, god of all. His family held high positions in the Mayan society. None of them worked in the fields. Yet the Mayans willingly supported all
of the higher rungs on the social ladder by donating a portion of their own
corn they planted and harvested. It seemed to be a win-win situation for the hierarchy and the common
peasants of the field.
Many historians contend that the Mayans’ fascination with
astronomy and predicting eclipses of the sun and moon were tools of science
used to scare the unknowing people into believing that the high priests could
control the very light of the moon and sun. Pretty strong evidence for that.
So early on, organized religious institutions found that
they could successfully motivate people who followed them to give up part of
their earnings. Call it offerings,
tithing, or selling protection, organized religion successfully discovered that
they could pick the pockets of poor believers who strived to save their crops,
their families, and their very souls. Religion became the greatest mover of men the world had ever known. And the coffers and property of the
churches grew to enormous proportions. Today the Roman Catholic Church, after 2,000 years of passing the
collection plate collectively might possibly have a net worth larger than
Exxon, who knows? Certainly, all
the organized religions over the world have unimaginable masses of wealth and
power. And assured accounts
receivables where future earnings are guaranteed by the faithful believers who
will be counted on to shell out regularly all the days of their lives,
generation after generation.
So much for the historical introduction of how religion
might have come to be. Yet as
humans we need other questions answered. We are not holding a pat hand when it comes to religion and
our beliefs.
Is religion a real and worthwhile entity that serves
humankind? Or is it a scourge upon
civilization? Does it give to the
individual and society or does it take from each? Arguments can be convincing both ways.
First came the Popes and the Crusades. There were several Crusades under
different Popes of Rome. French
and English kings, from 1096-1272, under the direction of various Popes, tried
9 long Crusades to take back the Holy Land from the Infidels. These noble knights of each Crusade
sacked and killed non-Christians in the Holy Land for almost 200 years. During the Fourth Crusade, the huge
Christian Church at Constantinople was rumored to be in possession by
Infidels. When the knights in
shining armor and red crosses on their white tunics came to see for themselves
they discovered that the church was occupied by Christian monks. Not Infidels. But after a day to consider the irony, the Crusader knights
attacked and sacked the church anyway. Hmmmm. Gold and spoils
might have been a larger part of the mercenary quest of the Crusades instead of
ridding the Holy Land of Infidels, you think?
Pope Innocent II gave King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of
Spain, complete authority to purge the country of Jews, Moors, and
Protestants. Many were found
guilty of heresy and burned at the stake. Their property was confiscated. The Spanish working class believed that
the Inquisition targeted rich heretics so that the crown could steal their
property. That conversion to
Christianity was a ruse to torture thousands of human beings, kill them, and
take their possessions. Stealing
from Jews, Moors, Protestants, and other branded heretics was not new. Spain unleashed their soldiers upon the
New World and brought Friars to convert the savages while taking their gold.
The same Spanish crown directed the Conquistadors to plunder
the Aztecs and Incas. Hernan
Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, MX and began his trek to Tenochtitlan (now Mexico
City). Along the 200 mile trek, he
accumulated an impressive army of Indian tribes who had axes to grind against
the Aztecs. So within the year,
the great Aztec empire fell, Montezuma, its chief, had been killed, and many
tons of gold had been confiscated from the Aztecs and sent to the Spanish
Treasury. The Museum of the
Americas in Madrid, Spain, is full of possibly billions of dollars of rare gold
artifacts the Conquistadors took from the Aztecs and Incas. There had been two missions: to convert the savage Indians to
Christianity and (unofficially) take all the gold possible and send it back to
the Crown. Not necessarily in that
order. Each Conquistador got a
share of gold in the Spanish Treasury credited to his account according to his
rank. Was the motive a religious
one or one of avarice?
These are but a few examples in history where religion and
God were invoked to allow the smooth and clear-conscience stealing of land and
resources to flow. Often I have
wondered at the first Thanksgiving where Indians and the Pilgrims sat down to
give thanks. I mean, how could the
Indians give thanks to the white men who had invaded and taken pieces of their
land with many more of the same to come, shoot their game and displace them to
reservations? And how could the
Indians perceive the white men and women as a blessing when their arrival
spelled doom for the Indian way of life as they knew it?
Since the Middle Ages and sacking and looting in the name of
religion, man has become very sophisticated in “bringing in the sheaves,” so to
speak. Now it is done through
political enmeshment with governments, wars started in the name of God, and in
response to unholy terrorists whom Allah, they contend, tells them to attack
America and to bring down the World Trade Center buildings. And it would be wrong not to include
former president George W. Bush who told Russian Premier Putin that God told
him to attack Iraq. I’ll swear, even
Sarah Palin proclaimed Bush to be about God’s work in Iraq. Stay tuned.