After a few days on this blog, I realize one fact already. I will be writing for myself, at least for the most part. On Facebook, as sorry as that platform is in many respects, I easily gathered followers … 30,000 the first time around and 7,000 in a short time on my 2nd tour of duty. It was flattering but the format didn’t lend itself to reflective thought nor did they comrehend basic communication skills like humor and irony. My God, were they dumb … those running FB, not my followers.

I doubt I will ever get more than a handfull of readers here, though some have suggested SubStack as a better platform except I tried that earlier and found it bewildering. So, shall I continue? To write or not to write, that will be the question. I might even if there is no audience. After all that is why I write books, for myself. The number who read them is minsicule compared to the effort and cost that goes into them. In the end, though, the process is its own reward. Only time will tell with respect to my short career, to date, as a blogger.

However, it is Sunday. On Facebook, I usually donned my religious robes and identity myself as Pastor Tom or Father Jim. As such, I would dispense homegrown comment and thought on spiritual matters. After all, I spent over a year studying for the Priesthood in my misspent youth. Doesn’t that make me an expert?

This is a vast topic so let us start by touching on some core meanings or concepts. Look at the next insert:

This is a very truncated overview of the evolution of spiritual thought. I say spiritual but this really is more about religious movements. When I say truncated, I mean really truncated. Beliefs in things beyond our own beings likely started when our primitive ancestors realized they were pretty helpless in the face of life’s uncertainties and, in the beginning, life was very uncertain indeed. Early forms of Animism posited a sense of awe into the things early homo-sapiens confronted, and feared or needed, on a daily basis. That turned out to be just about everything. Many of our founding fathers embraced a form of Deism that, to my mind, was a highly sophisticated form of Animism in that Providence’s presence was seen everywhere and nowhere.

As humans evolved, they needed more structure and certainly more rules to govern ever more complex interactions and populations bound together by urban density. Where does this moral authority to enforce consensual behavior come from … most likely something or someone very powerful and outside of ourselves. Things get complicated quickly, though. I saw one etsimate that people around the globe today worship some 3,000 distinct versions of God, though the notion of distinct might not hold up to scrutiny. There are that many more, probably, just within the Hindu tradition.

So, what we see is a glacial evolution in the concept of a controlling Providence, mostly in the direction of settling on a single omniscient and omipresent entity whose attribures continue to be debated. Monotheism seems to have prevailed in the very human contest to define the divine.

Thinking closely on this evolution, we might well ask … is God a human creation to satisfy the needs for survival of the species, or at least our own affinity groups? As society evolved toward hierarchical and top heavy governance systems, pluralism amongst those residing in the Heavens seemed at odds with the order and control extent rulers wished to see on earth. Even Constantine realized the single Chrisitian God was preferable to the many Roman ones though too late to save an empire already fraying at the edges.

In addition, there is a possible evolutionary process within given religious traditions. Take a gander at the next insert:

One might consider this the life-cycle of a formal religion. In general, you evolve from early passions and belief toward boundaries that separate you from others and then on to an increasing number of internal rules and methods for enforcing conformity. This is not unique to religious institutions but found in most organizational forms … what I sometimes like to think of as the ossification of institutional passion and the slow sclerosis of belief systems or sense of mission. In that process, the means for profiting from positions of authority grow, and the lure of profits based on unquestioning loyalty of devotees is tempting. Think about Joel Osteen, the tele-evangelist with his huge mansions and several Lear Jets. That is some distance away from an itinerent Jewish Rabbi of sorts with a few scraggly followers preaching love and sacrifice as he wandered about Judea.

If religion is, in fact, a man-made phenomenon, but possessing a strong sense of moral authority, the possibilities of abuse are extraordinary. With boundaries that separate the in-crowd from others, the potential for conflict rises exponentially. No one has been more bloodthirsty throughout history than those defending their God. We thus come to another core concept that has been called ‘Monotheistic Absolutism.’ All spiritual traditions can lead to violence but the emergance of monotheism raised the stakes. When there were many gods, it was a bit easier to switch allegiance or pick the one’s closest to your innate dispositions. When there is one God, other’s must be false … almost by definition. It comes down to “my god is better than your god.”

I will return to these themes, and many related ones, in future blogs … should there be any. But let me leave this one with a thought or two to keep you thinking. Let us look at the vast universe that the Hubble and Webb telescopes have revealed to us. There are untold trillions of stars our there in billions upon billions of galaxies that are stretched across distances that boggle our minds. If you want some sense of awe, look at the world out there. Seeking meaning in some ancient writings that probably were created by a committee looking for advantages given early political disputes about truth and power is not the way to go and surely a poor guide to comprehending the mysteries of which we are an integral part.

If we are ever to get some appreciation of an entity or understanding that simulates what we mean by God, it likely will be at the end of some evolutionary journey which our species playes an essential role. But we must look beyond our petty disputes and see the bigger picture. Someday, those who follow us may get a glimpse of that meaning which ties the infinitely vast and endlessly exciting cosmos together. They might well glimpse the rhetorical face of God. That possibility excites me.

However, that will only be possible if we don’t destroy ouselves at the beginning of the journey.

By the way, I write a lot about these themes through my characters in my book that should be released shortly …. ‘Refractive Reflections.’