The Origin of Religion

Reuters photo

By

Siddhartha Rastogi

Al-Qaeda

Al-Umar-Mujahideen (AUM)

Babbar Khalsa International (BKI)

International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF)

Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES)

Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Communist Party of India (Marxist – Leninist) People’s War

These are some of the organizations that have been banned by the Government of India and by some other governments across the globe. Most of these institutions gain strength from their religious fanaticism.

Modus Operandi is fairly simple. Dissatisfied Youth and their families who have been victimized by the state, local government or by area henchmen are mobilized. These men and women are then brainwashed and radicalized to raise arms against the countries or against some section of the society which includes vulnerable women, children and senior citizens.

These bright, lost and confused youth are then used as weapons of mass destruction. They are given to believe they are serving a larger cause of their religious almighty, while being completely indifferent to the fact they are destroying humanity. Power Brokers, Orthodox Warlords derive immense strength from disoriented and strayed teens who are willing to lay their life on their one command in the name of deity and omnipotence. They are ready to kill and be killed at the same time.

Over thousands of years of human evolution, religion has become a great source of power and inspiration which brings cohesiveness to the society.

But the moot question remains:-

Why did religion come into existence?

Why did humans choose to embrace the concept of religion?

Existence of Alpha men and Alpha women – Since the Paleolithic period, humans were used to living in small groups. Humans were constantly under the danger of wild animals and other species which inhabited this planet. Each person who is part of the clan was responsible for certain duties and more importantly, to watch each other’s back during uncertainty and danger. When danger hit the tribe, these alpha men and women took the lead and fought with the danger, without thinking of themselves but the clan first. These men and women had the natural instincts of a leader and, supported by a strong will and determined action, they stood out. These could not be explained by others of the sect and by future offspring. As stories about them kept moving from generations after generation, and then started to be documented in the form of scriptures, their thoughts and ideas took shape of a religion.

In the hope of comprehending the uncomprehendable – For thousands of years, humans couldn’t understand the existence of the sun, moon, gravity, universe, solar system, rains, climatic change, earthquake, and these forces of nature became the guiding principle of religious thought and notions.

As the world population began to grow – People began to scatter to find their own path and interests, it becoming increasingly difficult to bind people and bring them to a common platform for a common cause and hence religion became that binding indivisible platform to align every human towards a single goal to fight the adversary.

Stories as the narrative – Most religious texts across the globe have been written in the form of stories of greatness or on the basis of hope for future. We as human beings only understand stories and our brain accepts that as reality. Thus narratives and scriptures have turned into the form of texts which have been used extensively to propagate and expand the religious beliefs of human beings.

One can see from the above that the main reason religion came into existence was to create peace and harmony amongst humans as their population grew and to make them more secure against anonymous unascertained threats, which in the current world are being used as a power tool to destroy the society and mankind as a whole.

Siddhartha Rastogi

Siddhartha was born to a learned middle class educated family in Semi Urban India. His father was an extremely honest man who because of his honesty had to pay the price in corporate world. Mother is a determined woman who ensured that children are being well taken care off. After a few years of birth, doctors called Siddhartha, a slow child having flat foot. He would fall more than he could walk. Determined mother ensured all therapies for her son to come out strong to fight the world. Siddhartha joined swimming when he was in 6th standard. Seeing other children of his class, he jumped in 10 feet deep pool and learnt swimming on his own, the very same day.

From that day there was no looking back. He topped his city in 12th and went to score highest in his B school exams. During his profession as banker, he became youngest branch manager of a MNC bank managing their biggest wealth branch in the country. There he found love of his life and got married. His love of his life emerged in the form of his daughter who completely changed him for good.

Siddhartha Rastogi is Director for a boutique Investment bank in India.

Siddhartha is a forward looking thinker & writer who has written a book on decision making. 8 Simple steps to effective decision making.

He writes on various social and current issues via his blog and can also be found on twitter.