Editor,
At the current junction in history, I find it surprising that we haven’t transitioned to a point where religion has disappeared from our society.
I am in no way debating the existence of God, or lack thereof, but am focusing on religion.
One of the oldest purposes of religion was to explain the mysteries of nature and help humans understand the power of nature. Religion could also be a medium to contemplate the existence of God and elucidate details about life after death and other concepts related to life. And finally, religion has served as a basis for moral and ethical instruction.
In today’s world, most people would never look to the Bible or the Quran to determine the age of the Earth or the structure of the universe. We don’t need a particular religion to explain the physical world because the explanation is universal.
For many religious people I know, the physical branding and naming of a God is more important than the actual state of understanding the intentions of such a God. If this is the case, then religious teachings are hypocritical. An intellectually superior being — God — doesn’t logically give an image of being obsessed with the physical nature of his/her/its existence.
On the other hand, we could assume that the moral value system that serves as a structure to a spiritual life is the important aspect of all religions. All religions have evolved over time, and almost all religions were a step up from the social setting they sprouted in. Mohammed’s teachings were a step forward in the society he lived in. The same applies to Jesus Christ, Buddha and almost all the religious teachers in history.
All these people saw the evils in society and with their teachings took the society a step up from the state it was in. These teachings then developed into a religion because most of them were based on a higher deity.
Even though they were a step forward during those times, everything has changed and keeps changing. Why are we still adhering to morality of societies that existed thousands of years ago? We see reinterpretation of religious texts happening over time, and these changes in interpretation strive to bring religion up-to-date with the advancement in society.
The ideas of morality keep changing from society to society and across time. But almost everyone would agree that at one level, what is wrong does not change. It’s safe to assume that the basic golden rule would be, “Do unto others as you would like done unto you.” But morality is also relative and depends on the situation and circumstances. Not more than a century ago, women displaying their ankles were considered morally wrong in American society.
But as society changed, we have come to accept that and religions have changed their teachings to mesh with the present society.
Humans are the only species on earth that have reached a point in civilization where have a sense of social justice. Society has evolved a code of values to which most of us adhere. Each of us also has a personal code of ethics. In the present world, all religion does is create divisions that segregate and we have strived to attain a state of equality.
Aren’t we, as humans, intellectually developed enough to implement a moral system of our own without adhering to a particular religion? Even if that can have treacherous results, aren’t we as a society advanced enough to establish a general justice system?
Do we still need religions and their teachers giving us dictations on a morality that can be achieved by common sense?
Christo Jose
UNM student
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