The Ultimate Purpose of True Religion
Do I have to be baptized? Must I pray towards Mecca 5 times per day? Is Jesus the ressurected Son of God? Or perhaps just a prophet? Is the earth really only 10,000 years old? Why is my religion at odds with science? What exactly are my beliefs?
One thing we know for sure is that throughout history, people have always looked to the heavens and asked, "What does it all mean"? As long as humans have been able to write, that which they have written is regarding their religious beliefs. From the Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Mesopotamian epics of creation and of Gilgamesh, human writing has always had much to say about the god(s).
It makes sense how primitive societies in an attempt to explain or cope with the unknown would have passed along metaphorical myths. But what about modern society? How are we to view the more fantastical, miraculous parts of religion today? Do we accept it on blind faith? Do we dig deeper and try to explain it analytically? Or do we abandon it all together?
Like most people I was raised in a semi-religious home. We were not extremeists, but we went to church, prayed before meals and refrained from certain activities based on our religious beliefs. But like most people at a certain point in my life I had to ask myself, "Do I really believe this"? And as I attempted to figure it all out, my analytical mind jumped from one question to another, weaving in and out of beliefs. I first attempted a strict adherence to a literal view of the Christian Bible. Once that appeared overly dogmatic, I trimmed down my religion into a core set of beliefs. But other faiths challenged my own, so I also took failed attempts at Judaism, Buddhism and even Atheism. And finally came to the point where it seemed like the more I learned, the less I understood.
However, throughout this journey (which I am now convinced is a life long one) a few of the books I read stood out from the rest. They were books like Karen Armstrong's "A History of God" and Bruce Feiler's "Where God was Born", that attempted to draw a commonality and central purpose amongst the world's religions. I denied this for awhile due to my own exclusive views of my own religion. After all according to the Bible Jesus himself said, "No one comes to the Father, except through me". But eventually I had to face the possibilities that "through me" could have meant Jesus' message not himself, or that this scripture all together could have dubiously been added from it's original. But one message (which I now believe is the central message of any true religion) no matter what angle I looked at it could not be denied, manipulated or incorrectly interpretted. That was the message of compassion.
In the Christian Bible, Jesus spent his entire adult life tearing down the religious dogma of his day, and replacing it with a heart-felt, brotherly love. He constantly defended the poor and helpless even at the expense of his own Jewish religion. In Matthew 22:37-40, he told religious leaders that loving God and loving your neighbor are the 2 greatest commandments of all. And then later in Matthew 25:40, he very elloquently explained that even loving God in itself means showing compassion for your fellow man, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". Without compassion there is no Christianity and there also is little left of Buddhism. Without it the God of the Torah has no people, and Gilgamesh himself would have never survived the flood.
But what happens when Compassion is not the central message of religion? Well... Tens of thousands were killed in the Christian crusades of the 12th century. Terrorists killed 2,740 innocent people in the September 11 attack. Politics abuse it, businesses profit off of it and wars are started in it's name. Unfortunately, religious history has too many examples of violence and abuse when compassion is not at the center piece.
When it is central however, the message of compassion makes sense on every level. It was the core of what Jesus did and taught. Ghandi sacrificed his life for it. The ancient Buddhist scriptures are littered with it. Hospitals and homeless shelters are built because of it. But also, intellectualy it provides a pure, meaningful lesson for a set of writings that otherwise are quite hard for the analytical mind to understand. Logically, what reason would an omnipotent, supreme being have for desiring for his human creations to just possess an intellectual set of off the wall beliefs? But taking care of your fellow man... Well, logically that seems exactly like what a compassionate God (literal or metaphorical) would desire.