Religion and worshipping I

In some languages (e.g. Dutch) there are two different words for “religion”: religion (Dutch: “religie”) as an internationally recognised word, and “worshipping God” (Dutch: godsdienst). In this contribution to my blog I want to elaborate this difference, thus making clear the significance of religion for people as human beings. We will discover that religion is a deep-rooted psychological need of most normal humans (I exclude mentally damaged people, and also extremely “religious” people) First of all, what does religion really mean?

According to Christian churches (I heard it many times) “religion” is derived from the Latin word “religare” which would mean: “restoring the connection” (“ligare” means “binding”, and “re-” is a suffix that means a repeat). This would be the connection between God and men, which has been broken by sin and evil. But I looked it up in my Latin dictionary and found that “religio” originally means “serious concern, serious objection”. Only later it got the meaning of religion which it has in English, namely “a more or less coherent set of ideas, symbols and stories intended to give meaning to the existence of mankind in his social and natural world, and which is sustained by a more or less official set of rituals, rules and norms of behaviour reinforced by officials appointed by the adherents of one particular set of ideas, symbols and stories, and/or by their representatives (priests, vicars, imams, etc.) or education role tenants (parents, teachers)”. (definition by me).

The abovementioned meaning which Christian interpreters attach to the word “religion” is coloured by Christian religion itself, which pre-supposes a separation between an almighty and all-good God and men, a separation that can be restored by practicing faith in an honest and integer way. Christians, Muslims and Jews (Jews to a far less extent) see their religions as the only way to completely fulfil the human need to give meaning to their existence in this world.They see religion as “worshipping God” (godsdienst). If you don’t worship God you are a heathen, a “non-believer”, an “atheist”. Muslims and Christians have got a divine assignment to strive for the convertion of these non-believers, or at least let them know that they don’t belong to the “right” group, which is the group of believers they themselves belong to, by hindering their “wrong” rituals, symbols and ceremonies, by discriminating them in social en economic life etc. Examples: forbidding women to wear Muslim clothing in Western countries, official and open discrimination of non-Muslims in most Muslim countries. Looking back into history, and a few Muslim countries today, one sees even punishment to death of behaviour which is considered as offensive to the officially recognised worship or rules.

To be religious, in my view, it isn’t needed to belong to such a religious worshipping group, which call themselves “church”, “brotherhood” etc. I experienced this when I, as a Roman Catholic, repeatedly had to cite the “Twelve Articles of Faith” during the Holy Mass. I noticed that most of these articles I didn’t believe in, and yet I continued being moved by religious feelings during the Mass. I knew that these articles had been written down and issued like a kind of law, during the reign period of the first Christian emperor Constantine. I also noticed that I had a strong conviction that the examples (not the miracles but the teachings and actings) of Jesus Christ, as described in the Gospels, were the most important and perfect description of how a human had to live. Not in order to gain eternal life in heaven (I don’t believe in life after death), but to acquire a less imperfect world than we had up to now.

On top of that, I felt I had read more books and articles about early Christianity than my fellow-worshippers gathered in the Holy Mass, maybe except for the celebrating priest. Gradually I got convinced that the gospels were “only” myths and that nothing told to us in the Gospels, was real history. Even the historical existence of Jesus is severely doubtful. Nowhere in what historical document whatsoever, his important and world-shaking deeds, wonders or preachings, nor his death at the cross, are reported. Only the “Christians” are mentioned, and in two places (Tacitus, Flavius Josephus) something of the stories they believe in. There are scholars who are almost 100% sure, based on meticulous study and research, that “Christ” (the Christ Paul is preaching) was a mythical figure, seated in heaven and as a martyr punished to death, who had to be brought to life as a human person, preaching to real humans, in order to spread Christianity as a worshipping church over the world, and this was accomplished in the gospels. There were many, many gospels, an only four of them have been selected as the official gospels at a meeting of Christian bishops, centuries after Christ would have lived. Also the gospels themselves have been written decades after life and death of Jesus. The letters of Paul, included in the Christian Bible, have been written long before any gospel had been written, which explains that Paul nowhere refers to wonders or events in the gospels, except to what it’s all about, namely his death as a divine martyr, and his presence in heaven from where he will return to judge the living and the death.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe states in his “Dichtung und Wahrheit” (Poetical fabrication and Truth), that a beginning religion is a wonderful phenomenon. He takes the religion of Zoroaster, practiced in Persia, as an example. The misery, he says, starts when “official” religious leaders take over the power in determining what behaviour is according to the rules, and what behaviour isn’t. They state the laws and rules of the details of ceremonies, rites etc., in modern words: the religion becomes an official worshipping group, with rules and regulations. Zoroaster was a very poetical founder of his religion, and we may doubt if he himself wanted such an organisation as Goethe saw. Goethe found the core of the matter, namely worshipping light and purity, and the existence of two equal and counterbalancing forces in nature namely Good and Evil, especially valuable, but why this circus of detailed and obliged rites and ceremonies? I think Goethe hit the core of the matter. The rules and ceremonies, one and only prescribed interpretation of a Holy Book, the power exerted by many priests, imams, shamans, bishops, ayatollahs, muftis etc. lead only to drifting away from the core of the matter. Did Jesus order the building of enormous church in Rome in all its pump and circumstance? Yes, did Jesus even order his followers to constantly praise and glorify God whom he called his father? He only taught to us one simple prayer.

I will continue next time, otherwise this blog item will be too long.