Sinanation

Humankind has been through numerous revelations and crises over the centuries. Some helped to solidify its strength over nature and what it came to call “destiny” and some have shattered its very existence as the smartest and thus, the strongest creature on Earth. No matter how much we tried to deny the facts of life, the truth (whether we liked it or not) has always found a way to get through our sneaky intelligence. The truth behind the shape and location of the Earth, the creation of the universe, the plagues, the origin of species, the rights of men and women, the weapons of mass destruction…All of them represent drops of stones in a calm water, leading to big waves that echo the question “who has the control?” in our heads. Who has the control? If not us who has it? At the end of the day that is the only question that matters. We spent centuries trying to figure it out and we will spend many more to come up with the best possible answer. Yet no matter how many different angles we approach the question from, we have to tie its answer to something or someone supernatural. Something or someone better, stronger and smarter than us. That is the point we let religion into our small and completely private worlds. We need it for all the things that we believe are out of our control, out of our extraordinary strength, confidence and intelligence. It is there when earthquakes shatter our cement, it there when a baby is born and it is there when we have no one else to turn to.

Religion or as I put it “believing in something or someone supernatural” gives the humankind the ability to justify anything that can not be interlinked to its ability. It gives us the greatest comfort and will whether we go up or down in our ventures. That is why although religion can not be explained in today’s scientific terms, from Christianity to Islam, it is one of the most common and pouplar concepts in our daily lives. When times are better than we could have ever expected we turn to religion to justify and insure our fortunes. The same goes for the exact opposite. When times are bad we turn to supernatural strength to keep us going and give us hope. In one of the articles I read on Newsweek today, I came across a great evidence to this hypothesis. In the article titled “Lincoln vs. Darwin” the author reveals that even though Abraham Lincoln was believed to be an atheist, he address a speech based on the will of God during the civil war and assured his supporters that God was in control of what was to come.