Humanity as Victims of Beliefs

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Beliefs are ideas that an individual or a people harbor as being incontrovertibly true. Beliefs can stem from either definitive area of certainty such as mathematical principles and probabilities or from matters of blind unquestioning faith as found in religious beliefs or those that stem from cultural and societal norms and what has been inculcated in the individual through formal and/or informal education and mentoring.

A potential belief sits with the individual until it is accepted as truth and adopted as part of the belief system. Once an individual accepts a belief as a truth, they are willing to defend, it becomes part of their belief system. From History we have learned that people are ever willing to pay the supreme price for their beliefs, especially in matters that concern the concept of God. Meanwhile, God is feminine in Eastern Thought, masculine in Abrahamic Religions, a plurality in Annunaki tradition and amorphous in African Religion. And each group believes their position is the indisputable truth.

This piece takes a cursory view of religious belief systems across the spectrum of world major religions and how they affect human thought, attitudinal disposition and behavior, especially in interpersonal and group relationships.

In the polytheism of Hinduism and Buddhism, a multiplicity of exquisitely sculptured humongous graven images are placed in lofty positions and venerated and worshipped as gods. The Chinese believe that dragons are strongly associated with the sources and sustainers of life viz: water and weather in popular religion. Dragons are believed to be rulers of moving bodies of water, such as waterfalls, rivers, or seas. The Dragon god is the dispenser of rain as well as the zoomorphic representation of Yang, the masculine power of regeneration. Hence, in Chinese mythology, the progenitor of the Chinese is the Dragon from which egg the Chinese emerged. Resultantly, the Dragon occupies a pivotal and symbolic place in the national life and belief system of the Chinese.

In Galatians (6:7), the literature of Judeo-Christian theology holds that you reap what you sow and in Revelations (22:12), it says that at death you are rewarded according to your works and deeds. Somehow, the Christian has been led to believe that irrespective of his transgressions, the blood of Jesus will wipe his filthy slate clean, if only he confesses and professes his belief in Jesus. This is referred to vicarious remission of sins and has been adjudged by various writers as senseless and ludicrous.

Incidentally, the Christian creed pedestalised Jesus beyond humanly attainable spiritual height thereby condemning the adherents of the Christian faith to victims of belief; this is a major counterproductive tragedy of the Christian creed. Meanwhile, Jesus it was who said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John, 14:2). Again, in Mark (10:18), Jesus said: “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God”. These statements completely de-pedestalise Jesus. Imbibed in the essence of their spirituality, the statements serve as pivotal instruments of motivation for the adherent to strive for spiritual growth towards attaining atonement (at-one-ment) with the Divine; fundamentally, this is the process of being begotten. It has been argued that Jesus was NOT the only begotten son of God. On the contrary, every individual in humanity is willy-nilly going through the process of being begotten. At best, Jesus was a begotten son of God.

On his part, the Muslim believes that he will wine and dine with Allah, if he gruesomely spills the blood of his fellow human beings in the Holy name of Allah. A picture that recently made the rounds in the social media shows a Muslim male in suicide jacket with a block tied to his groin ostensibly to protect his genitalia for subsequent erotic use on the other side of the divide. On arrival on the other side, he will realise that Allah is the same peace-loving God as the monotheist God of Judaism and Christianity; that Allah abhors bloodletting under any guise.

The point remains that Jesus did not come to earth to demonstrate the powers of God; in the encasement of flesh and blood named and called Jesus, son of Mary, he didn’t have the capacity to do that. Rather, he came to demonstrate to humanity what is inhumed in every human being, irrespective of color, creed, gender, station or location. And he gave humanity a universalistic template for seeking and finding the face of God.

In a manner of speaking, God (whoever or whatever She, He, They or It may be) has no time for you and I. Absolutely NOT; He doesn’t. And this I believe, fervently. He has given man all there is to give; air, water, land, an elastic super sensitive brain that has potentials that are beyond man’s imagination and a body that can heal itself, reproduce to maintain humanity on earth and live up to nine hundred years and more. Having given man all that is needed to attain godhood and effectively dominate the earth environment, He enacted immutable universal laws and put the system on autopilot: as you sow, so shall ye reap (Gal 6:7), and at the final tolling of the iron bell you receive according to your works (Rev 22:12). It’s all hinged on works and deeds; it is universalistic and has nothing whatsoever to do with faith. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15).
Egweri faaaoh!

Osai, professor of development studies at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt can be reached on [email protected].