The unknowable; trying to know how to do, the undo-able.

To alter fate; and influence the gods within, and without.

TL:DR – The article covers recent decline in religion in the last 100 years. It gives a very succinct definition of religion and its necessary role in man’s orientation and its role as an ‘anchor’. The article then summarises the needfulness of a ‘religious narrative’ in holding a nation together between generations.

N.B. I use a definition of religion that is very broad; one that would cover both deities & mythologies, as well as cultural identities & world views.

Section a: The past 100 years

For the best part of 100 years, religious observance has declined, this fact is especially true of Christianity in the Western world. Before 1900, the percentage of people that considered themselves to be irreligious was less than 1% of the worlds population, by 1970, it was more than 20% of the worlds population.



Major events that could have played a big role in raising the numbers of irreligious are:

World war 1

World war 2 and,

Communist ideology in the 20th century

N.B. I personally believe (so far with no proof at the moment) that the overarching stimulus/cause of these changes began from the enlightenment starting in France, I hope to research further into this idea.

Section b: So, what is religion?

They are a uniquely human expression; they are done by both individuals and groups. A full and complete description for religion is difficult; but, according to Wikipedia, a religion is…

…a cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion (Accessed 03/April/19)

The broadest and most succinct definition of religion though, I believe, would be to view religions more as “The Story” or “Model” that groups or individuals have to explain::

What is ‘happening’ around them and What they are to do/make of it all.

That is, in other words, religion is a grand narrative; within which: events can be placed/classified; given a value and, understood. They ‘orient’ people.

They are attempts to explain:

What, where and who we are – Our present What came before us – Our past What comes next – Our future And suggest what we are to do about these ideas

All these four details are still in need a reference point.

A static, still origin event or an unchanging subject or object,much like the centre (0,0) on a Cartesian graph

These usually take the form of ‘the creation myth’, sacred sanctified places/temples, rituals, texts, laws and most often; the ‘Deities’ and ‘Gods’ themselves.

These ‘reference eternals‘ and our relative movement in time to them are used to form a consistent, cohesive, united narrative of being.

Section c: ANCHOR

The fixed. The unchanging. The reference point. The seed. The dot. The unique. The pure. The imaginary. The star. The start. Origin.

To carry out any process over a moderate to long length of time, there must be at least one (if not a set of) value that is held consistently through out the process.

This not only holds true for religions, tribes and beliefs, but also in our scientific ventures.

Unchanging reference points (values/constants) are used our modern scientific investigations; we also have laws, formulas and definitions that are tied to these unchanging constants and/or principle ideas.

In other words we have facts (the lesser infinite); and values such as, the scientific method & peer review (the greater infinite).

The whole of science would not work as well as it does if:

The values held dear in it (the constants) kept changing; Or each scientists insisted on using their own personal interpretation of what constitutes to be a ‘the scientific method’ without peer review.

I would not classify science as a religion as it doesn’t fall satisfy the 4th quality of religions in Section b.

These eternal concepts are often intangible, or their ‘value’ is raised above that of the normal everyday and mundane to the sacred.

In a similar way, the Deities and Gods themselves are often said to be reside in a far places, where humans are unable to reach.

A reason for this is possibly to have a fixed permanent reference point, far away from the eternal forces of change and entropy in the environment man finds himself in. An eternally reliable guiding star or point of reference, is a world that can at times be very hostile.

If this idea is followed, then these is an even is an even simpler, brilliant, more subtle and interesting explanation to religion.

It is our method of ‘orientation/navigation’ in an ever-changing world. It also gives meaning and purpose to word and action.

The importance of being able to hold on to the past to; to hold on to something more permanent, more articulated, more stretched and meaningful than your immediate environment can be difficult to fully comprehend.

Below is an example of what life is like for an individual who has lost their hold onto their past.

The doom of continual repetition would not happen immediately to a tribe if they didn’t have an eternal reference point; but, eventually as the members of the tribe died and new ones are born, the important knowledge and narrative would be lost if there was no method of deep knowledge preservation.

Section d: The Generations

While it may be enough for individual faily lineages to have a narrative, it would be essential that a common narrative/story/belief is held by the different families to ‘hold/unite them together’.

Think of your own family, you most likely know your lineage up till your grandparent or great-grandparents, but before that, your knowledge most likely becomes sketchy save for a great act by a fore-bearer or some other reason.



A lot of information is lost over generations, and lessons and knowledge of a tribe are bound to be lost unless the knowledge can be incorporated into an eternally pegged knowledge in the forms of narratives, stories and folklore.And even then, changes in cultures and beliefs are inevitable in any living nation/entity.

The tribe/group would need to create eternal narratives and/or erect permanent structures to tie/link their generations to one another.

The society as the macrocosm of the life of an individual; of continual change. Being an becoming. Holding on and letting go

Link: Pg 65 of “The Language of Creation” by Matthieu Pageau highlights these ideas

Without an eternal ideal a group would lack a direction/perspective to aim towards. All directions would be equal and need to be ventured. It would not be easily possible for knowledge to stack upon itself and develop into more complex ideas.



If the idea of the eternal ideal is lost, it is possible that a slip back into nihilism (aimlessness/meaninglessness) may occur

Section e: To be, or not to be

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. ‘1984’ – George Orwell

We could re-write this statement for what man has been trying to do with religion.

He who affects the present, has affect the past; he who has affects the past, has affected the future.

‘The now’ is the eternal ever-present of all your – ‘be‘.

All your ‘be’-ing and all your ‘be’-coming.

Religions recognise this and so have been man’s attempts at using limited knowledge to create and pass knowledge and explanations that stretch beyond the limits of one’s personal life and present existence.

He imagines a possible cause/history of things and uses that knowledge to explain the present and projecting/manipulating a possible better future for himself.

Ancient Greek Sacrifice

Religions are attempts at changing one’s experience of reality (either by changing their attitudes/behaviours/expectations or by ritual/prayer/sacrifice to change the ‘outer world’.

But why follow religions in the first place? Because of the benefits of following them… even the strict ones!







F.

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