WHY IS THERE STILL RELIGION TODAY?

Today, I focus on something spiritual.  However, I first introduce you to the latest newcomer, the BA2.75 subvariant, called Centaurus, and will this week analyze how this strain could affect the future of our Pandemic.

One more newsworthy piece, for, on the heels of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Ed Markey and four other members of the U.S. Congress, visited Taiwan to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and industrialists to discuss tensions in the Taiwan Strait and follow-up on semiconductor investments.  The delegation had previously met with new South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol.  Clearly, the Ukraine War has solidified the White House position for maintaining Taiwan independence.  Next, you will see U.S, warships in that strait, plus a few high profile trade talks.

Any anthropologist would recognize that religion played a key roll in the development of early human societies.  What has long surprised me is how all the major religions have not only survived, but seem to be thriving in this growing educated society.  Of particular noteworthiness is how the general populace of the USA has maintained a high level of belief in God and the Afterlife, against all scientific logic.  While polls differ, and the numbers are declining, 80% of Americans believe in God and an afterlife.

My vision of the beginning ignores the light and God.  Our ancestors were apes, and they even today band together for survival.  Early forms of Homo sapiens evolved 5-7 million years ago through something like a chimpanzee (we do share 99% of the same genes), and small groups of near humans rose to a next level of development, blending altruism and self-sacrifice, but recognizing that some Supreme Being watching over you might well have been useful to keep subjects in check.  In those early days, I can imagine the individuals cowed by fear and influenced by fables and possible miracles.  Helped that after death, if you were good, you would go to Heaven.  Bad, and on to Hell.  Depending on location and circumstances, religions came and some disappeared.  The most successful went on to become what we have today.

Mind you, way before Jesus and Buddha, there was Iranian prophet Zoroaster, perhaps 3500 years ago.  During the Bronze Age of Iran, he had a vision of one supreme God.  It took a millennium, but Zoroastrianism became the first monotheistic faith, reigning supreme over the Persian Empire for a millennium.  Yet, 1500 years later, Zoroastrianism is dying, down to maybe 100,000 adherents.  So not all religions continue grow.

So while some religions have come and gone, the major ones today are doing well, with almost as many Hindus as Christians projected by 2060.

So in this mostly educated world, why has religion continued to thrive?  To many, religion provides security.  Those countries with the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability.  A good example is Europe, particularly Scandinavia, but even Japan, Israel and other parts of the Orient and Oceania.  Then there is the U.S., which is an obvious outlier.

Certainly, there is something to the human mind that goes beyond mere security and survival.  According to Big God author Ara Norenzayan:

Additionally, non-believers often lean on what could be interpreted as religious proxies – sports teams, yoga, professional institutions, Mother Nature and more – to guide their values in life. As a testament to this, witchcraft is gaining popularity in the US, and paganism seems to be the fastest growing religion in the UK.

Thus, it is possible that there are psychological, neurological, historical, cultural and logistical reasons that religion will never go away.  Religion has successfully perpetuated itself.  Then, too, maybe there is a God.

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