Last
December while driving to see my parents in Arizona for
the Christmas Holidays I was listening to NPR (National
Public Radio). They were speaking about the controversy
happening within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints concerning the research of a Mormon Doctrine Researcher,
Tom Meeney.
It seemed that he decided to do DNA research about the churches
position and belief that the South American Indian culture
was genetically related to the lost tribe of Israel that
came to America and that the Book of Mormon stories are
written about.
What he discovered threw into question the truth of that
belief. What fascinated me was that this conflict within
the Mormon society was also calling into question the validity
of all religious doctrines throughout history. We have the
scientific ability now to do such detailed work into the
basic principals and beliefs in religions that we have carried
as truths or as faiths for thousands of years.
Instead of getting upset at the conversations happening
on the air. I found myself becoming excited at the possibility
of the expansion of awareness within the consciousness of
societies and religious cultures.
We have all looked at the power of Myths in television,
films and books. If we look honestly at our selves we must
realize that in each telling of the story the stories can
change somewhat based on the person telling the story, what
they want to highlight and what impacts them personally.
That is the power of good Myth. You read understanding into
it based on how much awareness you have at that particular
time. Everyone can see the same story somewhat differently.
We naturally shade and color aspects based on our own experiences
and awareness's.
It seems natural to apply this human characteristic to the
process of religion and faith. Times in history can challenge
us to stay motivated in our faith and beliefs. In times
of crisis it is imperative to have hope, faith and trust.
If you don't you can die. So our minds search for truth
to hold on to so we can have hope and continue on in the
face of great adversity.
I have always found it interesting to correlate history
with the knowledge of religious proclamations and decrees.
Lets go back thousands of years. If you look at the history
of the Jewish faith living in the Middle East thousands
of years ago we now know and understand that there is a
bacteria that thrives there that can attack the meat of
pork. When a person eats that infected meat, the bacterium
destroys the small intestine of the person and they die.
In the old days, we did not have supermarkets or refrigerators.
Eating of a whole pig would have been something a group
would do as a celebration, such as a wedding or the birth
of a child. So not one person would eat the infected meat,
the whole group would. It seems logical that some wise person
would put two and two together and see that the people who
died all ate the same thing. If it happened more than once
it is likely that someone would associate the deaths to
the pig. It is not a far step from there to want to find
a way to have everyone stop eating pigs. But to do that
in a society struggling to survive might create chaos and
more hardship. The logical step is for the most powerful,
wise, spiritual person to have a vision and tell the people
that God had spoken to them and decreed that pork is not
to be eaten, and that pork is an unclean animal.
To get a whole society to stop eating something it would
take a religious decree. Just think if chocolate was decreed
dangerous now. I know it would be really hard for me to
stop eating it.
But for the religious leaders, the survival of the people
is at stake. They don't know what exactly is killing the
people but they do have good deductive skills and use them.
I don't rule out that it isn't God speaking to them to help
the people survive. But I don't think God just speaks to
us just in moments of divine decree. I believe that messages
come in many forms and many ways. After all God is limitless
so why can he not tell us in any way possible to get the
message across.
Over time people stop dying because they are not eating
pork. The people are saved and this decree continues on
for centuries as a religious myth.
In truth this religious myth was a miracle. Possibly thousands/millions
of people were saved as well as a culture and a religion.
Yet now in modern times we know what causes that illness
and we know that thoroughly cooking pork kills this bacteria,
plus better cold storage stops its growth.
So then the belief comes back into question. But now it
is a religious revelation for more than one group and it
has worked for thousands of years. Human beings become attached
to being right and wanting to do the right thing. It is
one of our good qualities when it is in balance with the
rest of the soul.
Religions are a reflection of our highest souls potential.
They are the models for a functional social order, teach
us how to work together as a group, and teach us how to
care about others. All good myths do the same thing.
If we look at our society now, religion has been somewhat
in decline culturally. But movie mania has increased. Just
look at the Star Trek Conventions. This phenomenon is taking
the place of religion for some people. There are those who
want to be Klingons, Betazoids, and other fictional characters
because they somehow relate to the values and beliefs of
these characters. There are those attracted to Hobbits and
Elves and the mythology of the Lord of the Rings, because
they relate to the pain and suffering of those characters.
These characters do have value and do teach good behaviors
and have strength of character.
Stories and Myths have been used for centuries to help people
seek higher spiritual values, they have helped us get through
times of great hardship and suffering by giving us hope
and showing us the way through the difficult passageways
of life. Stories can anchor our reality and help us believe
in ourselves.
Lets take a look at the nature of human sexuality, history,
disease and doctrine.
Once again, human history is filled with terrible times
of diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. These venereal
diseases were capable of destroying whole societies. It
was a potential crisis in the making. The survival of the
human race could be at stake. It is a simple process of
deduction that if one person only has one other partner
sexually then the diseases cannot spread and cause death
and destruction.
Death in ancient cultures was sometimes translated as God
passing judgment on someone or on some behavior so it is
not a far step to have a religious decree stating the appropriate
form of sexual behavior for a cultured society.
Also if you look at history in the ancient world, it was
a dangerous place. Women alone without protection were at
huge risk. They were not safe from being raped or killed
if they did not have a man to protect them. Women in ancient
societies did not have the financial freedom that the modern
women have. They needed a man to protect them and their
children. If the mother was not safe than the children would
not survive. Once again the society could perish if there
was not some law or rule of marriage.
This is where it gets interesting. Certain cultures adopted
standards towards monogamy and others adopted standards
towards polygamy. They each had different, valid, reasons.
Marriage provided a form of protection for women and their
children. It provided safety so those children could grow
up and survive.
Some religions chose polygamy for the survival of the children.
Again let us look at history. It has only been in the last
one hundred years or so that married women were able to
live a long time. What I mean by that is that is that in
ancient cultures it was quite common for women to die within
the first eleven years of marriage. That is because of death
in childbirth, kidney infections, bladder infections, uterine
infections, as well as the common problems such as flu and
pneumonia.
Eleven years is not enough time to totally raise a child
and so now the man is left to raise the children. Men in
ancient cultures were in the fields working or out hunting.
They could not afford to stay home and raise the child.
One of the alternatives was to have more than one wife.
Then the children could all be raised and safe, the men
could do the job they needed to in order for the family
to survive.
Culturally there is a relationship between hardship and
polygamy. The harsher the conditions the more likely polygamy
would thrive. Look at the harems in the Middle Eastern deserts
as well as they hardships of the Mormon pioneers.
The other factor is finances and wealth. The more wealth
a man had historically, the more likely he was to have multiple
wives and children. On one level, he simply could afford
them. On another level it gave the more dominant powerful
ma
Both sides of this argument (monogamy/ polygamy) each created
their own religious decree and mythology, to validate their
particular position and to allow the survival of the children.
Now in the modern society there is the blending between
the two. We are presently looking at what happens to the
children when there is no father present. It creates hardship
and difficulty not only for the child but also for the society
that must take over where the father has not been responsible.
It creates children that have a harder time blending within
the social system. Again, the survival of the society is
at stake
The women are at less risk in modern society on a financial
level. Which is a good step but the children are the future
of our choices and mistakes.
Religion is holding less of a hold on our youngsters and
they are seeking to find their own mythology through the
movies and television, as well as through science and information.
This is forcing us to look beyond our need to be right in
the form of religion and see that children need a mythology
to model and relate to. Modern children are so well informed
that they also need all the truth. Otherwise they will continue
to reject the old religious metaphors and seek out their
own truth. But children do need guidance and society is
needed to teach and inspire the young.
To do that we need to be able to look honestly at the myths
we have created in our life and society to explain our reality
and see them as a work in progress. We must be able to bring
history to life and see religions as the wisest and brightest
thoughts of that time. We must be able to honor our ancestors
for doing a great job at a time of great fear and uncertainty.
We must take their knowledge and integrate it with the new
information coming in during this age of information. We
must find the balance between truth and faith.
I believe they can compliment each other. They do not have
to be in conflict. We only grow by telling ourselves the
truth about our history, where we have been, where we have
made mistakes, what we have learned because of those mistakes,
and why we needed to believe a particular thing at a particular
time in our life.
We are at the edge of a breakthrough of our consciousness
and our spiritual evolution. Opening truth does not need
to destroy faith. It can strengthen the soul and improve
the systems and society we are continuously creating.
The great spiritual truths are all the same. What ever form
someone relates to aligns with his or her understanding
and awareness at that moment. It is a constantly growing
and evolving magical process. I hope you enjoy yours.
