Religion

What is actually religion and why are humans drawn to it?

First of all I would like to deal with a statement: "Religion is the source of violance!"
Yes, there has been faugth many wars were religion has been the source, but in my opinion is this a proof of either wrong religion or the wrong understanding of the religion is the source pushing some people to violent behaviour a huge difference than religion in general. 

Lets dig into what religion really is; The word religion comes from the latin word "Religio" and means "to reconnect" and explains alot about humans' situation in this world; there are something missing and the missing link for all humans are our connection with God.

Human beings have tried to understand the mystery about God in many centuries and we have evidence for humans worshipping of what we call "holy" for many years.
So what is Holy and how do we explain this fenomen? It's not easy to define things we can not hear, smell, touch or even see with our own eyes, but it's exactly what holy is; it's something we can't define with our common sences and the reason is because the opposite would actually do something with our free will and situation.
The holy aspect will soon be illuminated here, but first let us do some history research about religion; humans have been worshipping (this is a proven scientific fact) what we call "Holy" for several milleniums and we explain this activety as an experience and action of beleive which may offer a kind of understanding of our own existance or for getting some benefits in our lives. The benefits is significant for the christianity and it's consept; all christians beleive Jesus offer some releive in this life and at the same time they beleive it will be a hole new form of living in the next life which will last forever (more of this topic later on the site).


When it comes to the definition of the word religion I would like to mention a scientist (among other titles) Mircea Eliade (Rumanian/American). Eliade defined religion as a fenomen whom humans are created for and I want to compare it with Thomas Aquinas' point as a link between materialism and belief were we need to connect and trust our beleif for being able to live better lifes on this planet.
Mircea Eliades work may help us to understand the facts around religion in a better way as he categoriced religion as an actual fenomen, in other words: Its not superstition or what some people may call hype or even a big lie. It is an actual "force" which is the answer to human suffering in this world; the only way to fix our surrefing is to stay in a good relation with God. The force that Eliade pointed out as a form of power is common in every religion and we know this force as "holyness".

Eliade called the oposite of holy "the profane" and is what we today will describe as materialistic. All things and gadgets which gets in the way of the holy element and in many cases takes over humans life and priorities. The materialistics are in a way an enemy to the holy, but in humans life it's also what we need to survive and the element which provides us survival and fysical pleasures. So we can now understand that we are in a constant struggle with ourselves if we don't balance these two elements correctly in our lives. 

Inside the basilica of Saint Peter in Rome,
a holy place which provides good vibes.

A nice meal with my spouce - possible to combine the holy with the materialistic?

When I became a beleiver (from ateist) I started a long task experimenting  with myself to understand if it's possible to "grow in holyness" and at the same time live in this modern world and not withdraw myself from the society. And today 5 years later the answer is still a "yes its possible", and I've learned alot. I will cover how this worked out for me, however I beleive all of us are different and there are many ways to cope with this worlds' struggles and how to find God and connect with him. On the other hand; My travel through negativities and challenges have been on a large scale so I really hope there are something in my theory that might help you make the connection, and to grow in your relationship with God. 

The 5 big ones and philosophy - what do they all have in common?

Religion and philosophy try to answer two questions (among others); "what's wrong with this world" and "how can humanity be saved?"
I don't see another solution than the christian faith and in the consept I present on this website, I know that's a bold statement, but please bear with me and try open your heart while reading and while performing the upcomming tasks, hopefully you'll see it the same way in a while (that is if you're not already convinced).

Some scientists will probably disagree with me and some will agree, and that's just how life is. We will always meet people who have different views and espesially when it comes to the topic of religion, but before we dig into the differences, lets present what I will presume most of all scientists will agree on as the similarities in the 5 big ones: Islam - Judaism - Christianity - Buddhism - Hinduism.

All of these religions have similarities; Islam, Judaism and Christianity are monotheistic (there are only one God) were there are one allmigthy creator of the world and the universe. He is the one we are suppose to obey and he is a God who see us (our actions and thoughts) and the three religions even share the thought of he judge us after what he sees. The same goes with the belief in he is humans' source of good moral and ethics. So as you see there are many similarities in these three big religions.
When it comes to buddhism and hinduism they have several gods, but they have "Brahma" as their allmigthy creator which are similar to the one creator we have mentioned in the other religions. Brahma are not everlasting, but are suppose to live in 311 040 000 000 000 years, but my point in all this is as follows; In all of the five big religions we find a view on God as the source of good moral and ethics, this is not up for debate at all and in my point of view this is very important because:
There are something holy trying to communicate with humans and the message is similiar in all religions: "Be good". 

Philosofers and what they considered as the source of wisdom.

Not everyone are religious and therefore they migth search elsewere for figuring out how this world works out for us humans. In this case I would like to empasize that even philosofers like Descartes and Sokrates (well known in academic circles) in my opinion stands out like great sources that we have a God, a creator which provides moral and ethics and actually everything good in this world. Descartes also pointed out that there are evil spirits whom work hard for making us not beleive "the one truth". Sokrates were communicating with (what he called the oracle) God in his own mindset and God called him out on a mission: "Make people sure that I am the source of wisdom".
Aristoteles stood out as a beleiver in human ethics as "it's one source of being" and that wisdom was given to those whom "fulfilled all the virtues".
As we can see, there are many philosofers who beleived in God and we know that science and religion worked as "partners" all the way until the late 18 century.
We also know that christianity stood out as the reason for education, nurcing and for massproducing books. This is a fact and what we know as truth, but we see in these days that there are growing a "new kind" of truth and we're heading in a dangerous direction. 

In my point of view are all the similarities in religions and philosofi a sign of God reaching out to humans through our minds (as in: our thoughts) and the differences we see in religion and philosofi comes from humans different ways of responding to the correspondance from God.

When we look into philosophy (meaning: love of wisdom) there are in my point of view similarities to religion and espesially when we take Sokrates and his way of thinking about himselves and his own skills. His famous quote "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing" points out the importance of being humble in this life. And why is this important? The answer is; God is the source of wisdom and the one who hands out the true and the most important kind of wisdom: Wisdom about his own excistance, his agenda and how humans are to cope with this. 

This means there are two kinds of knowledge we need to relate to in this life; The kind of wisdom God hands out which is:

Both are of interest, but if you wanna get in contact with God and stay there you need to get your priorities in order and understand that love conquers objects.
So, if you really want to know God let's see how he's like. Next page will cover whom he is and how he's like.