As long as humans have existed, there seems to have been gods alongside them. But what exactly is a god?
The concept of god varies across different religions and belief systems. For some, god is a supreme being that created the universe and all that exists within it. For others, god is a divine force that flows through everything and is responsible for the order and balance of the universe. Still, for others, god is a personal being that guides and directs the lives of individuals.
I, on the other hand, do not have a specific definition of god. I believe that this word is beyond human comprehension and cannot be fully understood or defined. I believe that god is a mystery that can only be experienced and understood through personal spiritual exploration.
While the specific characteristics and abilities of gods vary across religions and belief systems, the concept of a powerful supernatural being who influences the world and human life is a common thread across many cultures and societies.
When were gods born?
We will start with a chosen theory as to how the gods began, as every religion has their own reasons as to how their gods revealed themselves to the peoples.
Animism
Early humans made a distinction between our physical world and our consciousness. Because after we die, we are no longer here, we began to question these experiences. As we didn't know the answers, this lead to us creating burial grounds, to preserve and care for our dead, as their spirits may still reside in or near to them. The people would have found spirits in everything that moved. Other people clearly have them, they look and think and act like you. The animals, deer, insects, birds, all would have had spirits, they moved like you did.
There were spirits in everything, and the highest of these spirits became gods. The moon, would move across the beautiful night sky and light up the ground beneath you as you stalked prey. An array of stars behind it would shine and glimmer in the sky, which would migrate through the year. Vast patterns of the milky way would have been seen as no light pollution would have existed. The warm sun would rise and give birth to new days. Gifting life in the spring, and giving off hot luxurious summers. There is only one sun. Only one moon. It doesn't stand to wonder why they were held in such high regard by us, and still are.
This happened in many small tribes scattered over the globe, which evolved their own rituals, and their own names, stories, and histories. Not just of the sun and the moon. The sky itself became gods. The ground beneath us. The water we drink and bathe in, the storms and rain that fall down. All had names, all had stories.
Well why were they forgotten?
Each culture would go through all sorts of different hardships, suffering and succeeding in certain areas, assigning gods to what seemed appropriate to them. If they lived in a dry region with not much rain, they might praise rainfall, or flooding seasons. If they lived in harsh, cold, warring cultures, they might seek praise in death defending your land from another faction, seeking to burn your only shelter to the ground. So stories and legends started to form, perhaps from real people, fighting alongside these supposed gods. Perhaps they were gods incarnate, and would be treated as such. Sacrificing animals and people in their name. The ritual and celebration would thrive in booming glory, much as it still is now, albeit it in different forms. With fanfare and cheers to their gods, humans would pray for themselves, and others unfortunate.
As culture evolved, humans became smarter, but remained just as curious. This would be the rise of the idea of "The god of the gaps". In many cultures, unseen gods were now being formed, to explain the creation of lesser gods. We had lore and history of these beings long before humanity ever existed, seeming to come from nowhere. Were people just making up stories, and others just going along with it? If so, who were these people?
The fact remains is that this is where the embellishment of detail becomes clearly active in all religions. An unseen spirit poses a lot of questions, but not one as humans we haven't clearly found answers to. Our spirits, are unseen. When we die, our spirit or consciousness 'moves on'. Our brain shuts down, but our mind is gone. If there is agreement that our sense of self is not a part of our tangible being, then we can trust that there is possibility that ours, and other unseen spirit forces could theoretically be active after death or outside of our senses. However, there is no evidence of this in our physical universe we experience through our given senses.
To talk about our senses, lets imagine we are blind from birth. We have no experience of sight. There is no evidence to us that light or photons exist to us other than what we have been told by others. Despite you going to Harvard and studying physics, you have to trust the word that light exists. Regardless of scientific text books and evidence, you will never experience it.
Should you trust the word and evidence of the masses?
Now lets take away all your other 4 senses. Touch, sound, smell, and taste. Scary, right? Maybe a bit lonely. That's because we don't just have 5 senses. We have a sense of proprioception, we can tell where our body parts are in relation to each other. You still know you're sitting down, or laying down. Lets take that away.
Probably starting to feel a bit weird now. Like you're floating above the ground? But the gravity is still there, you can feel it using your sense of balance, or equilibrioception. Now that's gone it'll start to get really weird. Trippy even, as your mind has no external input, there is no reality outside of your mind. All that goes by is the time, which we will soon get to. However after a while you will start to feel hungry, or thirsty, or need the toilet. Lets take away all of your bodily needs.
Wow. That's freeing and relieving I bet. There are 3 senses you appear to have left, and these are the biggies. Language, time, and consciousness. There is no telling what will happen to your mind once any of these senses go, so I will leave the explanation there, but just pose a few questions now that all of your senses are gone.
To you, what truly exists? And to others around you, what truly exists? And who is right?
This is to help justify the point of the theist's and agnostic's argument, in that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Now, back to the history behind it all. The unseen gods are created to explain the unanswerable question, what made us, what made the other gods. Thus, a monotheistic creationism was born. This occurred in many cultures across the world. With vastly different origins of the creation of the universe, and meanings of life as we know it, questions would still be posed as time went on, and answers would come.
Early Judaism proclaimed 'Yahweh' as the creator of the cosmos, and the one true god of all the world. Some spiritual practices denied a creator, and amassed their own followings, using teachings of humanity.
In my opinion, all of these legends and myths were written by people, and are thus considered teachings of humanity. Regardless of my points of view, religion spread into vastly different concepts of life. Prophets and incarnations of gods would begin to show up throughout the world, spreading their word, with many different morals and teachings, passing down the stories of these lessons to their students, who spread the message to more and more. Growing into what we have today. Some religions fading out into textbooks, and some disappearing forever.
Prophets and Incarnation
In some religions, gods and goddesses were believed to reveal themselves to humans through visions, dreams, or other supernatural experiences. These revelations often resulted in the creation of new religions or the addition of new deities to existing pantheons.
Many instances have been recorded throughout many cultures, about prophets being born, messengers from the gods, or sometimes even incarnations of these gods themselves.
A prophet is an individual that is claimed to speak on behalf of a divine being. They have appeared in a vast number of cultures throughout the years. Some prophets from religions include: Moses, Muhammad, Abraham, Merlin, and arguably Jesus. etc.
Germanic, and Norse cultures would seek out seers/seeress', who are said to foretell the future, occasionally speaking for the gods.
Ancient Greece, in the Temple of the god Apollo, a woman would sit high at the back of a room, and make predictions about the future. Pythia, or the Oracle of Delphi.
There is a suggestion in some text books that the Oracle would constantly be inhaling noxious fumes, which would drift up through the natural vents around her. This would send her into a frenzied narcotic effect, which may explain her heightened state. We will get into the use of narcotics and psychedelics in the aspect of religion soon however.
There have been many instances of a god incarnating itself in a human, or animal form, and appearing to humanity. These would include, the avatars of Vishnu. Also this would appear a lot in Ancient Greek and Norse traditions.
Many religions like the Ancient Greeks, and Germanic sects, believed that their gods had the power to come down from their realm and interact with humanity. Many times, this resulted in them mating with mortal humans, and creating demigods. The many Avatars of Hindu, Norse, and Grecian gods stand out in this regard.
The Psychedelic God
Anyone who has taken psychedelic substances can attest to the affect it can have on your senses. Now if you can imagine being an early human, starving for food as you cross the tundra, when you come across some fungi. Nothing that you, or your small family has ever come across before. Perhaps there is some mistrust in your early mind. The bright colours seem to put an unease in you and your companions. However, you've tried some types of mushrooms before, and they didn't harm you. You don't want to risk it, so you keep them with you and move along. After some more nights of travelling, you decide to finally give in and eat them.
As you start to drift off, you notice some bright colours as you close your eyes. Worrying your mind, you wake yourself up and go for a walk to survey the landscape.
As you're looking at the night sky, small cracks begin to form between the stars, dancing about, as you move your eyes. Then you spot the moon. The astonishment it brings you is indescribable. A vast full moon fills up the sky, rays of light beaming off of it. The clarity of your vision seems so clear right now that you can make out individual craters on the surface. Looking down and around at the landscape, you see how the night isn't actually dark. The moonlight shines across everything. As far as your eye can see, a deep misty shade of blue runs over the land.
Spotting dark silhouettes in the distance, your mind notices immediately that there are some deer afar. You can see the moonlit shine on their backs as they drink the water out of a fresh pond, sparkling like jewels as the ripples scatter the moonlight. You stare, and stare. Sitting down to take in the splendour. Feeling the endorphins rush through your system. And a deep warmth comes over you. Looking back up to the moon, you think intensely about how much you are thankful for what it does for you, and your kind. Closing your eyes again, you drift off.
After a while, you wake. Or you thought you were asleep. Wait, what's going on? You stand up as you realise, bright vibrant colours are now filling the landscape. Before, there was a dim blue haze over the land. Now, bright vibrancy coats your vision. You can still make most things out. The ground, the sky, the trees. Wait. The trees are swaying behind the moonlight. Almost like they are dancing, like you do around the fire sometimes. Almost giving praise to it. Looking back up at the moon, is when you hear a deep humming which almost knocks you backwards. Again, you sit down facing the moon. Completely aware, but yet confused at the whole experience, apparent thunder reaches out across the night which shudders fear into you unimaginably. Fearing for your life now, you start to hear a voice in your native language speak to you.
There is endless evidence to support the "Stoned Ape Theory". However, this fails to explain what the beings we have made contact with are. Or even if they even exist.
Suggestions have been made that the "burning bush" that was mentioned in holy texts, could be one of psychedelic nature, and this can explain the prophet witnessing a higher power.
Syncretism
Syncretism is the merging of different religious or cultural traditions. In many cases, gods and goddesses from different cultures were merged or combined to create new deities that incorporated elements of both cultures. This often happens when cultures come into contact with one another, and different traditions and practices are exchanged and adopted.
In many cases, this can result in the creation of entirely new religions or spiritual practices, as people incorporate elements from each tradition into a cohesive whole.
In the context of animism, syncretism played a significant role in the development of many religious traditions around the world. As people came into contact with one another through trade, migration, and conquest, they brought with them their own beliefs and practices. Over time, these beliefs and practices began to blend together, resulting in the emergence of new religious traditions that incorporated elements from multiple cultures.
For example, the ancient Greeks had a rich pantheon of gods and goddesses, each with their own stories and mythology. However, as they came into contact with other cultures, such as the Egyptians and the Persians, they began to incorporate elements from those traditions into their own. This resulted in the creation of new gods and goddesses, such as Serapis, a blend of the Egyptian gods Osiris and Apis, and Mithras, a deity from the Persian tradition who was worshipped by Roman soldiers.
In other parts of the world, such as in Central and South America, syncretism resulted in the emergence of new religious traditions that blended elements from indigenous animist beliefs with Christianity. This was a result of the Spanish conquest of the region, which brought with it Catholicism and forced indigenous people to convert. However, rather than abandoning their traditional beliefs entirely, many people instead incorporated Christian beliefs and practices into their own spiritual traditions. This resulted in the creation of new syncretic religions, such as Santeria and Candomble.
What does this mean for us now?
The way that many cultures see their existence can differ enormously from region to region. Yet we are all the same, made from the same flesh. When one becomes stuck by a certain view, it can become a false argument. As in some cases, they might be arguing about the same thing.
We live in a time where people from different cultural, social, and ideological backgrounds are often unable or unwilling to understand each other's point of view. Instead, we tend to cling to our own beliefs and values, dismissing those who disagree with us as ignorant or misguided.
To overcome this limitation, we need to cultivate an attitude of openness and humility, recognizing that our own perspective is just one among many. We need to be willing to listen to others, to try to understand their experiences and perspectives, even if we don't agree with them. Only then can we hope to build bridges of understanding and find common ground, even in the midst of our differences.
John Godfrey Saxe wrote a poem of an old Hindu and Buddhist fable which I will leave you with. In today's world, where polarization and indifference seem to be the norm, the poem's message is as relevant as ever:
T'was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant Though all of them were blind, That each by observation Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: "God bless me!—but the Elephant Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried: "Ho! What have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me it is mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out his eager hand, And felt about the knee. "What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," quoth he; "'T'is clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: "E'en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope, Than, seizing on the swinging tail That fell within his scope, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong!
So, oft in theologic wars The disputants, I ween, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other mean, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen!
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