In asking about the purpose of religion, it is necessary to ask first if religion is not simply a product of our own search for purpose?

The answer to the primary question depends on whether we perceive religion as having a divine origin or if we see it as the origin of divine thinking.

Either way, religion comes to us through human agents, so we have to begin by looking at what it is to be human.

It is in our nature to form ideas about the world based upon our observations and experiences—and we all do it.

In the world, and in our selves, we find things that are difficult to comprehend or explain. Sometimes these mysteries are profound and wonderful, and sometimes these mysteries are profane and terrifying.

For any given time or culture there have been people who struggled to explain or define these mysteries, and the value and importance of those definitions and explanations comes from the usefulness of the perspective they create.

At the heart of every religion lies a common miracle, the human mind.

An apprehension of that miracle, the containment of the world and the self within the mind, certainly plays a key part in the most basic “religious” experience or epiphany.

In many respects, even if it is not clearly recognized or presented as such, religion struggles to account for the containment of the mind in the body and in the world.

The result is the belief in a special context for existence:

The spirit.

This is on one hand a very important thing, because it demands recognition of the existence of the mind itself, which is essential to the experience of life—if not necessarily in order for life to exist—but which cannot be accounted for as part of the physical universe.

It also proposes that the mind could be more than the light from a light bulb, a mere epiphenomenon of the brain.

It gives us the concept of the soul.

The existence of the soul is something that can only be contemplated from the position of an individual mind.

That is, the mind considers its own existence and the prospect of that existence terminating at death or continuing in another context after death.

This is a question that cannot be answered experimentally.

One cannot know if there is a continuity of consciousness and individuality after death unless one dies and experiences it.

Even if someone dies and is revived, or miraculously resurrected, it is reasonable to question whether one has actually died or simply come very close to death.

The beliefs and traditions of indigenous people were developed by people who lived in—and saw themselves as part of—the natural world.

They were very conscious of their dependence upon the land, plants, animals and elements in order to survive.

In order to thrive, they had to be very attentive to the winds and tides, the sun and rain, the moon and the seasons, because these things defined the conditions for prosperity.

In exchange for taking what they needed from the world, indigenous people endowed the world with human attributes, intelligence, emotion, character, pride and wisdom, and recognized those traits in animals.

This sense of common ground encouraged indigenous people to extend their concept of community to include the world around them and made their relationships with the world important.

By seeing and recognizing the connections between all things in the universe, indigenous people established themselves as part of the natural order, rather than existing under it or imposing themselves as unqualified masters.

They could be honest and sincere in the manner they chose to live, and that allowed them to develop true common sense.

More importantly, it allowed them to extend their sense of the sacred and spiritual beyond their personal selves.

The abstract aspects of consciousness—thought, understanding, awareness, purpose, and identity—the intangible aspects of people that the apprehension of the spirit is based upon—could be extended to the universe in all of its diversity and revealed that all things in creation are important.

It gave all things a divine quality and completed the circle of life by making birth and death doorways to another realm of existence that was home to those not yet born and those passed away.

Most important, it made it possible for human beings to relate to all parts of existence as human beings.

It made being human (a good human) important: Good character, responsibility, respectability and self-sacrifice became the coin of the universe.

It is hard to say, however, if that is the purpose of religion, or if that is just a consequence of early religions’ influence.

In time, with the growth of human understanding and knowledge, a secular explanation for things that happen emerged to challenge the teachings of a faith.

Religion is bounded by these two facts, or rather between these two circumstances, ignorance and knowledge.

People have this amazing capacity to be blissfully ignorant and critically knowledgeable of the world at the same time.

At the time of its creation, every religion in history has embodied this human characteristic by addressing the unknown from the perspective of the known.

The mystical aspect, the apprehension of the soul and deeper truth, and the practical aspect, the teachings of morality and purpose, are concentrated into a system designed to unite a community.

Ironically, religion has also served to divide humanity.

Religion, however it is inspired, whatever form it takes, is practiced as a human institution. One of the consequences of institutionalizing religion is the creation of authority.

The more important the doctrine of a religion becomes, the more dangerous knowledge that challenges that doctrine becomes.

Since doctrine begins as a sincere attempt to explain things, the fact that an explanation was needed proves that things were not well understood in the first place.

Knowledge about the world grows as more time passes and more people study and think about it.

Eventually a clearer understanding emerges, and if knowledge or wisdom gained challenges or contradicts the established doctrine, it undermines the authority of that doctrine, throwing into question other teachings about other things.

Once a religion becomes a means to power, it ceases to be a means of enlightenment and becomes a means of enslavement.

The same thing can happen to a form of government, because government is also often based upon the institutionalization of ideas or ideals.

The thing that creates a society can very easily become the means to command and control that society.

The structure provides for the creation of authority, and those who claim that authority gain privilege and to defend that privilege they defend and abuse their authority. T

he religion, or in the case of a government’s founding ideals, remains true in those who practice it, but it is corrupted by those who try to control it.

Add to this the fact that all of humanity exists in one common physical reality, but religion has provided humanity with many different spiritual realities.

People are willing to defend their faith with their very lives, because their hopes of salvation, immortality and destiny are rooted in the spiritual reality of their religion.

When differences in religious beliefs create conflict between human communities, or are exploited for political or personal gain, religion no longer serves to unite the people into a community.

On the other hand, religious differences have not helped to destroy as many communities as they have helped create.

Religions still serve a purpose in the lives of individuals within their own communities.

Modern knowledge has challenged many religious teachings, but the value of religious teachings is in the wisdom they provide.

More so than in the past, it is up to individuals to determine how religious teachings should be interpreted and applied to their lives.

For the most part, people continue to subscribe to someone else’s interpretation of scripture, often taking it literally in the form it is presented to them.

This suggests that many people turn to religion as a way to abdicate responsibility, when in truth, the true purpose of religion requires people to take responsibility for their own lives and actions.

Originally posted on Helium.