The Melkridge Book

of RELIGION

01.  RELIGION

  Religion, like , MUSIC and POETRY and MATHEMATICS, is something that human beings have discovered and developed since we arrived. In spite of all the wicked and cruel things that have been done, and still are being done in the name of RELIGION, it has, on the whole, been a very useful discovery. Properly understood, it should continue to be a great help to all of us as we struggle with our own lives and as we try to keep the Planet in one piece. But what actually is Religion ?

    It is an attempt to answer four questions that each of us must have asked at some time or other.

·                    How did we get Here ?

·                    How did Here get Here ?

·                    What happens to us when we leave Here ?

·                    How ought we to behave while we  are Here ?

    Now we know that SCIENCE provides more convincing answers to the first three questions than Religion has been able to offer. The fourth question, the trickiest question, is the one that Religion can still help to answer. Over many thousands of years Religion  has gradually edged towards the THEORY of the GOOD LIFE which asks each of us to behave towards others as we would like others to behave towards us.

    The long story of Religion is still unfolding but it had a beginning and it may soon have an ending. We will begin at the beginning , soon after we began to arrive !

02.  In the BEGINNING

    We can only imagine what the earliest human beings believed about themselves and about the mysterious world of which they were a part. For most of the 2 million years or so of human history is really pre-history – no record survives. No stones and bones for the archaeologist, no writing for the historian. 

    We might suppose that EARLY PEOPLE wondered what caused things to be as they are. We do have the evidence of very primitive, STONE AGE peoples, who remained undiscovered, in remote corners of the World until well into the 20th C. These people were (and perhaps still are) convinced that invisible forces, spirits, account for everything in the NATURAL WORLD – the weather, the wildlife, the rocks , the  rivers and the seas and the plants and the trees. The marvellous cave paintings our relatively recent (only 15,000 years ago) ANCESTORS left behind in Southern France and Spain also suggest that Early People reckoned that the things that could be seen were not the whole picture. Beliefs of this kind are called ANIMISM (from the Latin word for 'spirit').

    Spirits are not quite Gods; but as long as Mankind stayed on the move, Hunting and Gathering, the Gods stayed hidden beyond the imagination of the tired hunter. Then, here and there across the Earth, no more than 12,000 years ago anywhere, with a few seeds and  mud bricks, HUNTER-GATHERERS became FARMERS. House-dwelling, crop-growing, animal-keeping farmers make possible everything that has happened since. With FARMING, History begins.

03.  PRIESTS, GODS and KINGS

  Wherever 'FARMING' replaced 'HUNTER-GATHERERING', life became  more complicated. Small SETTLEMENTS became permanent VILLAGES. Some villages grew into TOWNS. Some towns  grew into CITIES (big towns). By and by, groups of towns and cities (and the country around them) fell under the control of 'Super Chieftains'(KINGS) . Farmers and Kings alike needed expert advice on lots of things. Fortunately a 'class of experts' emerged as CIVILISATION (that is, living in villages, town and cities, depending on farming and trade and keeping records of what people got up to) took root. These  'experts' were PRIESTS (sometimes priestesses). They claimed to know the ways of the GODS (and goddesses) who caused the World to be made and kept everything ticking over in what had been created. This extraordinary knowledge had been obtained over many generations of staring up at HEAVEN (actually the sky at night) and keeping  careful record of the passage of TIME. By their efforts, the SEASONS were measured and the vital CALENDAR of the farming year established. The minds of these stargazers  must have been busy during the daytime too for they gradually worked out exactly which human RITUALS were needed to keep on the right side of the gods. PRAYERS and HYMNS not to mention SACRIFICES (usually of animals but occasionally of people) were absolutely vital if the land, its people and its rulers were to flourish. When the Gods were angry, bad things happened. Crops failed, famines followed. Wars were lost, rulers were overthrown – people were even known to switch Gods !

04.  SHRINES and TEMPLES

   Priests and priestesses explained the wonderful ways of the god(s) to ordinary people; but the ordinary people needed something more visible to keep them in touch with their god(s). In most religions this need was (and is) met by a network of  ‘contact  points’ . These places were (and are) SHRINES and TEMPLES. Temples had walls and roofs and sometimes god(s) actually lived there (or called by regularly). Shrines were usually roofless and they were set up in places where god(s) or someone with the help of god(s) had done something very special.

    Shrines and temples became places of prayer, offerings, sacrifices, and worship. PRAYERS are the way of asking god(s) for things and thanking god(s)  for things. OFERINGS and SACRIFICES were gifts to god(s) from grateful believers. WORSHIP is the endless process of thanking and praising god(s). No-one doubted that this was what god(s) needed, wanted and expected.

    Temples, though not always shrines, were permanently staffed by ‘officials’ (religious ‘experts’ and their assistants) for these places were HOLY places. ‘Holy’ meaning filled with the presence of  god(s).  Access to the various areas (and some areas were much ‘holier’ than others) of temples was tightly controlled. Seldom was it possible for ordinary people to come and go as they pleased. What went on in temples was  organized into a plan or RITUAL. Every piece of 'ritual' had to be done properly and in its right place and order or else god(s) would not be pleased.

05.  PROPHETS and MESSENGERS

    The GODS and SPIRITS and the RELIGIONS they inspire are very different from one another. Most religions have priests, shrines , temples , ritual, prayers and worship, and, as we will see later, SCRIPTURES.  Occasionally religions get a ‘top-up’ of ideas when someone comes along with an important new message, or a firm reminder of an old message, from the god(s). These MESSENGERS are called PROPHETS for they usually claim to be able to see into the future. Prophets are like super-priests, and the religion they belong to is never quite the same after they have gone.

    Of course messengers and prophets are not always listened at once, or even at all. If the message/reminder is unwelcome, the messenger can be given a hostile reception. Worthy messengers might even be killed. Only later, when times were hard, did people look back on the HE/SHE-TOLD-YOU-SO-MOMENT and wish they had paid attention.

    There was sometimes a very long wait between ‘messengers’ and during that time, people of a particular religion sometimes convinced themselves (with the help of their priests) that a very special person would, eventually come along to sort out all their problems and give them a fresh start.  The ‘very special person’ might very well  be someone who had called earlier but had not been well-received. Or else the long-awaited ‘VSP’ would be some popular hero of the past who was just the kind of person to deal with all the pressing problems of the present.

06. SO MANY GODS

    There have been so many gods. Most that have ever been have come and gone and are long forgotten. Most of those that are still remembered are long retired. The few that are still working are the great ‘survivors’. But why are some gods still around while most are

 not ? Whatever happened to ZEUS and THOR ? Three main creative (and destructive) forces explain why gods have come but mostly gone.

    Firstly, gods thrive on success. As RULERS rose and fell they frequently  brought, then took, their gods with them. In each part of the World, over many centuries  LOCAL GODS were gradually, replaced by more powerful REGIONAL GODS.

    Secondly, as time went by, gods faced stiffer ‘CREDIBILITY TESTS’ . As human beings gained more KNOWLEDGE of the World they lived on, some of the Stories they had lived by and the Gods they had appealed to, began to seem less believable. Newer and more sophisticated gods, seemed more convincing.

    Finally, for almost 3000 years there has been a definite trend towards FEWER and BETTER GODS - and fewer could mean just one god. MONOTHEISM, the idea that there is only one god, is now the general view in our 21st Century World. Even so, some Religions in modern times have remained POLYTHEISTIC – having many gods. While those religions content with ONE GOD do not yet have a common view on what the One God is like or what exactly He (or She) wants of us.

07.  SCRIPTURES

    SCRIPTURES  (‘The Writings’) rarely inspire new religions (ISLAM is an exception). Instead, these collections of SACRED TEXTS give a shape and a past to existing religions, helping to  ensure that they have a future. In the midst of all the diversity and difference of so many different religions, SCRIPTURES have important things in common.

     They begin as STORIES of the unfolding relationships between God and People, Heaven and Earth, passed down by word of mouth (the ORAL TRADITION), over many generations. For example, the HEBREW BIBLE was written (by SCRIBES whose hand, so claimed, was guided by God) centuries after the ‘History’ it describes.

    These stories  are linked to HISTORY and often stood, unchallenged, as History until subjected to the careful scrutiny of modern SCIENTIFIC (evidence-based) HISTORY and ARCHAEOLOGY. Many stories, of course, were never meant to be history, but rather their purpose was ‘to advise, to encourage and to warn’ the FAITHFUL

    Finally, scripture deals with the BIG ISSUE of  how we ought to behave towards each other. As of a source of MORAL TEACHING, ancient scriptures  still, directly and indirectly,   influence our modern-day responses to the same  Big Issue.

    Within Religions, decisions must be made on what  makes a ‘writing’ a ‘scripture’. CHRISTIANITY – a religion which emerged 2000 years ago with strong links to an older scripture-driven religion, JUDAISM – took several centuries to decide which writings should be ‘in’ and which ‘out’ of its ‘Authorized Version’ - its CANON.

08. GREEKS BEARING GIFTS

    We guess that RELIGION began as an attempt to explain and make sense of a bewildering world. The ‘answer’ it came up with was very simple. Gods of one sort or another lay behind (often within) everything. Then, quite recently*, well about 2500 years ago, a new kind of explanation began to appear. The new approach to the Big Questions began in Greece and was the work of men that came to be called PHILOSOPHERS. These pioneers of Clear and Careful Thinking were GREEKS but , in the area that we have come to call SCIENCE, the Greeks often developed ideas first proposed by non-Greeks.

    A tiny sample of the kind of questions to which these thoughtful Greeks sought answers will give you an idea of how far-reaching their new approach was.

·                    What is the Earth made of ?

·                    How big is the Earth ?

·                    What is the smallest lump of anything you can have ?

·                    What is goodness ?

·                    What is the best kind of government ?

·                    What is justice ?

    Those Clever Greeks were not challenging the Gods but they were challenging the idea that ‘the Gods’ were the answer to every question.

Hardly had it begun , well after a few centuries, the ‘Clear and Careful Thinking Project’ closed down for a thousand years. When it started up again, (no longer confined to Greeks) the World was to be transformed.(for the better).                                                      [* Remember, human beings have been around for about 2 000,000 years]

09.  The MESSAGE

   The trend ‘towards fewer and better gods’ which may have begun about 3,000 years ago had two lasting results.

    Firstly, a handful of religious systems (‘RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS’ is a better description than ‘Religion’ because each basic idea had many variations) gathered strength across the whole land mass of EURASIA.  Then, 3,000 years ago, of course, many other religions survived and thrived alongside the ‘BIG FIVE’  but they are long lost to us now.

    Secondly, as these systems developed it became clear that what  GOD(S)  REALLY WANTED was NOT what they were being given –  RITUAL, SACRIFICES and WORSHIP. What really mattered was how well each of us behaved. And behaving well meant being TRUTHFUL, JUST, MERCIFUL, KIND, FORGIVING and TOLERANT. Not until very recent times (the last three centuries) have the ‘Big Five’ known much about each other. All the more remarkable then that about 2,500 years ago, CONFUCIANISM and DAOISM in ‘China’, HINDUISM and BUDDHISM in ‘India’ and JEREMIAH, a prophet speaking on behalf of JAHWEH , the God of the Israelites (then a small, barely known tribe of Middle-Eastern nomads) , was each, separately, edging towards the same vital religious MESSAGE.

    And to the ‘big five’ message finders, we might add the ‘Clear and Careful Thinking’ Greeks, principally SOCRATES and his ‘spokesperson’ PLATO , who, at around the same time as the others, and without the help of god(s), were drawing their own (very similar) conclusions about living well.

10.  The WAYS of the EAST

China and India were 'CIVILIZED' and  had produced three religious systems, HINDUISM,  BUDDHISM  and  TAOISM before much progress had been made in the the ‘Middle East’ and 'Europe'.

   HINDUISM, or ‘Sanatana Dharma’ (= ‘the eternal law’) may have been the first of these to emerge. It began in India and hardly spread beyond there. It had no single founder and no single god. It grew through messages and wisdom of its numerous  SCRIPTURES. Its followers are POLYTHEISTIC – worshipping  many gods.

   BUDDHISM began in India too, about 2500 years ago. It didn’t have a god. It had a founding teacher -  Siddartha Gautama, who became known as the BUDDHA (= the ‘awakened one’). Buddhism did spread beyond India taking on varied forms as it did so. So people  now speak of different ‘schools’ of Buddhism.

   TAOISM is Chinese. ‘Tao’ means ‘path’ or ‘way’. It does not focus upon god(s) although the spirits of departed ancestors are important. It is a ‘philosophical’ system rather than a religion and it is directly concerned with the correct way to live. This focus is given great force by the teachings of the great Chinese philosopher, CONFUCIUS (who lived 2500 years ago). Taoism and the Confucianism that often expressed it, has remained an exclusively Chinese way of looking at things.

   These eastern ‘ways’ seem very different from the 'book-based' religions that have taken root in the ‘west’. Yet the basic 'MESSAGE' is the same.

11. The PEOPLES of the BOOK(S)

   Around 3000 years ago, an unimportant, nomadic, middle-eastern people, the JEWS, believed that their god ('JAHWEH') meant them to settle the lands we now know as ISRAEL and PALESTINE. The lands were in the shadow of powerful, empires – ASSYRIA, BABYLON and EGYPT and later PERSIA, Alexander’s GREECE and finally, the mightiest of all , ROME, and the JEWS were frequent victims of the struggles among their powerful neighbours. Still, they generally kept faith with JAHWEH and they kept a written record of their  ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’. Over many centuries, scores of writers (mostly unknown to us) assembled the remembered stories of their GOD , his PROPHETS,  RULERS and PEOPLE into what we know as the HEBREW BIBLE. This book is at the heart of the living religion known as JUDAISM.

    About 2000 years ago, the life, teaching and death of a remarkable Jewish wise man and teacher, JESUS of NAZARETH, led to a fresh 'SCRIPTURE', the NEW TESTAMENT. Together the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament inspired a new religion , CHRISTIANITY.   

   ISLAM, the third living religion to emerge (1400 years ago) from the MIDDLE EAST  depends heavily upon its ‘Book’ which was written as the result of a direct collaboration between a  GOD, known as ALLAH  and the Prophet MOHAMMED . The Holy KORAN is not like the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament (though it links with characters in both) but its aim is the same – to encourage people to live according to the 'MESSAGE'.

12.  The JESUS MOVEMENT

 Little is known of JESUS of NAZARETH (c. 4 to 6 C.E. to  c.36 C.E.) until the last few years of his life when he became a wandering TEACHER (a RABBI) of good and sensible ideas about how people ought to live. He gathered  a following, including 12 chosen DISCIPLES. For several decades after his DEATH  at the hands of the Roman authorities and his claimed  RESURRECTION,  his teaching was preserved by word of mouth. The remembered teaching of Jesus and the example of his life, inspired a tiny 'JESUS MOVEMENT' – quite unlike  other sects within JUDAISM.

   Some Jewish followers of Jesus  believed he was the long-expected, heaven-sent MESSIAH (  for which the Greek word is CHRISTOS ) who would restore the battered fortunes of the Jews. In fact things got a lot worse for the Jews in the century after the death of Jesus. Three failed JEWISH REVOLTS against their Roman rulers brought terrible reprisals.  In spite of all this, even perhaps  because of it,  the 'Jesus Movement', its members now called 'CHRISTIANS'. survived and attracted new followers, non-Jews as well as Jews.

   PAUL of TARSUS, once a persecutor of Christians, helped 'spread the word' throughout the Eastern Mediterranean in the course of two remarkable MISSIONARY journeys. His adventures (and opinions) plus the GOSPEL stories of Jesus' life and teachings which began to appear at the end of the 1st Century C.E. provided the essential 'Scriptures', we know as the 'NEW TESTAMENT', for the new Jesus-based religion, CHRISTIANITY.

13.  HOLY WAR

   The 'BIG FIVE' religious systems, and many smaller variants, were well established  by the Year 1000 (in the Christian calendar). Confined to different regions of the Earth, they had not yet (as some of them were later to do) begun to confront each other. Quite the opposite in fact . These systems seemed to carry a common  MESSAGE of PEACE and GOODWILL to all men. Sadly, in the last 1000 years this message has  frequently been lost, as religious TOLERATION has frequently been replaced by violence and BIGOTRY.

    Given the good intentions of the founders of each religion, it is shocking  how often religious beliefs have been used to justify persecution and war. Christianity has a particularly dismal record in this respect. Our word CRUSADE is a shameful relic of the pointless wars between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages.

   Astonishingly it is more common for fighting to break out within religions rather than between them. Again Christianity has 'lead the way' with numerous 'WARS of RELIGION' in the 16th and 17th Centuries in which different kinds of Christians ('CATHOLICS' and 'PROTESTANTS') were encouraged to kill one another. During these murderous conflicts, each 'side' firmly believed that their side was God's side – and the winning side convinced itself that God's hand lay behind its victory.

    Things have been a little better since the 1700, but the signs are, as we shall see, that religious toleration is going to have a hard time in the 21st C.

14.  GOD and GOVERNMENT

   In the Ancient World rulers expected God(s) to help them rule. When things went wrong, (brave) priests would tell their ruler that the 'current difficulties' were a sign of Heavenly displeasure. Occasionally communities drew the LAWS of the land directly from the SCRIPTURES – these communities were (and are) called THEOCRACIES, for God, ('theos' in Greek) was the real ruler. Generally rulers made their own laws but relying on PRIESTLY ADVISERS for spiritual (and not so spiritual) guidance.

   By the Middle Ages [c. 700 CE  to 1500 CE], in Europe especially, the power and influence of  the 'priestly advisers', (the CHURCH) was often great enough to challenge ruler-power.  Lively struggles between 'CHURCH' and 'STATE' took place. The 'State' (rulers) usually came out on top. By the end of the Middle Ages, GOVERNMENT, almost everywhere, had become, firmly Earthbound.     

   Today, Government is more Earthbound than ever, for three reasons. Firstly government is much more complicated than it used to be. The Gods did their best work when things were a lot simpler. They would find it hard to handle the modern stuff. Secondly, in any one country, there may be several religious communities (and a large non-religious community) so there would be a problem knowing which God, if any, to contact. Finally, more and more countries are DEMOCRACIES – the adult people in these countries choose their LAW-MAKERS and must live with the result. The role of the 'priestly adviser' in democracies is now taken by clever CIVIL SERVANTS and 'TECHNOCRATS'.

15.  The AGE of FAITH

    Religion began as attempt to explain CREATION. Soon it offered  MORAL RULES by which we ought to live. There have been (and still are) many religions. Most are centred on GOD(S) who expect to be worshipped and obeyed. Some focus on a wise man or two and a WAY (his or their way) to be followed. Almost all religions have SCRIPTURES to provide vital instruction and inspiration. Finally, all successful religions (notably the 'Big Five' which are still going strong in our own century) shape the SOCIETIES in which their BELIEVERS live. People become identified with and by their religion.

    Whether most people, in most places, believed everything they were told we can never know. We do know that religions had to contend with 'alternate versions', HERESIES as they were called. 'Heretics' (followers of heresies) often met a grisly end and the hands of the 'authorities'. Until very recent times, we don't know how much actual UNBELIEF there was – not all that much perhaps.

    Perhaps the most striking evidence of the confidence our not-too-distant forbears had in their God(s) and Ways, were the wonderful buildings they built, at huge expense, to honour them. For example, the great MEDIEVAL stone CATHEDRALS of the Christian religion were built by desperately poor people who lived in ramshackle, thatched cottages with mud floors. These buildings, it is claimed, are witness to an AGE of FAITH, untroubled by the DOUBTS that we have been learning to live with over the last two hundred years.

16. DOUBT

   Religious beliefs are hard to shake. They can survive the fact that there is not one but many religions. They can cope with small doubts about this or that claim that the scriptures or the priests might make; but NATURAL DISASTERS have always presented a challenge. The  priestly response, that these events show that god(s) are angry with wicked people, doesn't quite explain why the god(s) should be so angry with good people too. The earthquake which destroyed the Portuguese city of Lisbon in 1755, killing perhaps as many as 100,000 people, shook the faith of many European Christians; and terrible events elsewhere on the planet must surely shake  the confidence of believers in the other faith systems.

   RELIGIOUS DOUBT, and the widespread UNBELIEF it has led to in modern times, has been driven along by much more than the occasional regional catastrophe. First there has been the slow acting disappointment of FAILED PROPHECIES – things not turning out 'as promised'. Then, as the scriptures have been more carefully read by many more people (no longer only priests), there have been regular discoveries of SCRIPTURAL CONTRADICTIONS. Finally, the claims of religion are sometimes at odds with the demonstrations of SCIENCE.

   In our own day, Science and Religion don't get along very well. This has not always been the case and need not be the case in the future. Problems however do arise where Religion has gone on trying to answer those three questions [see page 1] best left to Science.

17. A FRESH LOOK at the HEAVENS

   Religion began under starry skies. On cloudless nights, no light from the Earth could dim the light from the stars. Surely 'Up There' held the key to the explanation of 'Down Here' ?  Stargazing was a priestly duty in many religions. Modern ASTRONOMY is still indebted to ancient sky watchers who believed that the Earth was the centre of Creation and the Sky was not that far away.  Some Clever Greeks had an inkling that the Earth might not quite be the heart of the matter and the objects in the shining dots in the night sky and the sun that lit the day might not be so close after all.

   The amazing truth, that we all live on a fast spinning rock circling at even greater speed a nearby star,  was revealed quite recently – well, about 500 years ago – and it came as a great shock. If we were not at the heart of Creation,   as our Scriptures taught, where exactly were we and who exactly were we ?     

   Neither COPERNICUS nor GALILEO, who came up with the HELIOCENTRIC   Theory, whereby the Earth circled (orbited) the Sun (= helios in Greek), had anything fresh to say about who we are but they left us in no doubt where we are.

And over the centuries since their discoveries we have learned that the UNIVERSE (the 'Up There), where all the rock-spinning and Sun-circling takes place is unimaginably big; by comparison, we rock dwellers seem very small and unimportant.

18. LIFE ON EARTH

   Just as we were coming to terms with the shock of the new view of the heavens and the place of our 'home rock' in the great scheme of things, a fresh surprise was in store. Grave doubt was cast on the message of many scriptures, that our rock was specially made for us and we were specially made for it. Evidence mounted that the Earth was far older than anyone could have imagined and that life upon it (including ourselves) was bewilderingly complex.

   Between 1700 and 1900, two new sciences took shape. The first of these, GEOLOGY, began to explain how the Earth was formed and what it is made of and how old it might be. In the 20th Century new discoveries  fixed a date for the Earth's creation and offered a more exact description of it's (continuing) formation. EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY was the second science and it proposed that life had begun on Earth a very long time ago and in a microscopically small way. Thereafter all the species (different forms of life) that have come (and gone – dinosaurs for example) developed very, very slowly by NATURAL SELECTION ('survival of the best-adapted') the process identified and described by the most famous evolutionary biologist, CHARLES DARWIN.

   The great strengths of the new scientific view of CREATION that has emerged in the past three centuries are that it is evidence-based and it can answer so many of the 'how'  (though not the 'why') questions that the scriptures leave unanswered.

19. SCRIPTURE RE-EXAMINED

   Sacred texts, scriptures, are special. Often no-one quite knows who wrote them. Whoever the authors may have been, scripture-users presume they must have been inspired by God(s). During the last couple of centuries, the view of scriptures as messages sent from Heaven and/or from someone very special, has been examined more closely.

   Modern scholars of scriptures have used many different methods of inquiry (including, in modern times, detailed computer analysis of the word-patterns in the texts)  in their efforts to answer three questions about each text:

Firstly, when was a scripture written ?

Secondly, how does a scripture fit in with what is known of the history of when and where the scripture is claimed to have been written ?

Thirdly, who actually wrote the scripture ?

   Answers to the first question generally bring forward in time the date of writing, regardless of what has previously been believed. Answers to the second question often show a poor match between scripture and history. Efforts to answer the third question have been more successful at demonstrating who could not have written this or that, than in singling out particular authors. Frequently scholars (and the rest of us) must be content with a general description of what the author must have been like rather than a pinpoint identification of who he or she was.

   None of these discoveries (and there will be more) make the Scriptures less interesting and useful; but they must affect the way we read them and learn from them.

20. NOT QUITE DIGGING UP THE EVIDENCE

   Efforts to use science, scientific method and ARCHAEOLOGY to 'prove' the truth of the stories told in ancient scriptures, have had mixed results. The most distant stories have remained lost in MYTH – though scholars have gained some insight into how myths are created. Moving on from 'lost' myths, archaeology in the last century or more, has been able to build up a picture of how life was lived among some of the communities which produced particular scriptures. It has generally been much more difficult to dig up the evidence to specific  events described in the scriptures.

   One set of scriptures, the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament which is attached to the (much) earlier work, has prompted huge archaeological projects aimed at providing a firm physical and historical foundation for the collection of stories, usually taken as a HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, that comprise these books.  Many investigations have been carried on unscientifically, with the results being presumed before the digging began; and thereafter, wholesale fraud, forgery and dishonesty in the publication of 'results.  Fortunately, alongside the 'dirty digging, there have been many more genuine investigations which have yielded extraordinary discoveries.

   As far as the Hebrew and Christian scriptures are concerned archaeologists, EPIGRAPHERS (experts in deciphering inscriptions) and teams of other scientists have been able to find evidence to support a good deal of the Bible record from about 900 BCE. However some major events described in the bible, notably the Egyptian Captivity and the EXODUS have left not a trace.

21. HOME ALONE ?

   Religions that rely on God(s) – not those that are content with 'Ways'  - have always had a problem with an EXPANDING UNIVERSE. The problem is that as we learn that Out There is bigger than we can ever imagine, so much bigger than Down Here, we begin to wonder why the God(s) bothered about us at all. We are so puny on the cosmic scale. For a time we might convince ourselves that we are really very important and that God's concern for us is quite understandable. Then we look around, we look back, we look at ourselves and the 'human beings as VIPs' theory has to be ditched.

   And all the time we are getting smaller and smaller. It's now becoming clear that in all the vastness of Space there  will be other planets where life will have taken hold. Will our God(s) work overtime in strange and distant places ? Or will many new and unimagined Gods be toiling away in the light of other Sun-like stars. Or perhaps life elsewhere may have skipped the idea of God(s) altogether or moved on from them as we are tending to do. Disturbing thoughts . . .

. . . but meanwhile we are still Down Here and though we may be getting smaller and smaller, we haven't disappeared. We still have problems to solve and duties to perform, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those yet to arrive. A lot of world-mending needs doing !

22. GODLINESS

   In around 2 million years of human existence, a lot of Gods have come and gone. Only a few have stayed around. After giving it a great deal of  thought, many modern humans have begun to think that God may, after all have been Man's idea rather than the other way round. Nearly a thousand years ago, a Christian thinker, Anselm of Canterbury, who had no doubt who had done the Creating, wondered if he could prove God's existence by imagining what God must be like. He quickly concluded that, in reality, God must be better than anything/one we puny humans could imagine. Puny humans, in Anselm's view (a view shared with countless other religious thinkers) should be inspired by God's unimaginable goodness to become as good as we possibly can ourselves.

   And striving after goodness, or GODLINESS as it came to be described by the 17th Century  Quaker (Quakers were and are a Christian sect), William Penn, need not be inhumanly difficult. “True Godliness” wrote Penn, “does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavours to mend it”.

   Even when each of us tries very hard to behave well -  to be truthful, just, merciful, kind, forgiving and tolerant – we will often fall short of the best we could and should do; but that is no reason not to try. Practice may not always make perfect but it edges us away from the worst towards the best.

23. HELL ON EARTH

   Not all religions have promised life after death to their followers. Those that have done (and do) generally offer eternal life in a very nice place for those who behave well first time round and eternal torment in in a very nasty place for those who don't.

   In reality, pain and torment is as much part of life as of death, for good people and bad people alike. Our world can be a harsh world. There are natural disasters which we can (sometimes) prepare for and (most times) respond to but we cannot prevent. There is disease and pain beyond (our present) powers to treat. And then there are all the awful things that people do to each other, violence, and war and avoidable famine. God-driven religion cannot be blamed for what our restless Earth and our microscopic fellow Earth-dwellers do to us. And when it comes to man-made calamities, religion can inspire people to provide solutions – but not always.

   There is a terrible danger that religion can divide people from one another. Religion can (and too often does) promote suspicion of different believers and unbelievers, which all too easily slides into cruelty and violence. Religion  can drive people into believing foolish things which are not true and which stand in the way of improving the lives of all of us. Thus religion-gone-wrong offers the grim prospect of a Hell on Earth for many people (for all of us if religion-gone-wrong spreads and prospers) whatever happens when we die.

24. HEAVEN ON EARTH

   In a short time, with or without help, humankind has achieved a lot but much is left to do. We need to imagine how good life could and should be for everyone, then work to make our best and kindest imaginings real. We can't  expect to make a perfect world but following three 'commandments' will help us build continuous improvements into our lifetimes and the lifetimes of the people who haven't arrived yet:

   1: Live by the MESSAGE OF RELIGION – behave towards others as you hope others will behave towards you. This rules out  fighting against your neighbour, allowing your neighbour to starve  and die for lack of food and medicine and denying your neighbour  the right to take part in the government of the World you both belong to. Your neighbours, by the way, are everyone who isn't you including the 'yet to arrive'.

    2: RESPECT THE EARTH AND ALL THE LIFE UPON IT - the Earth can do without us but we can't do without the Earth. Helping to  clean up our planet and trying to fix the things we have broken are tasks that neighbours must tackle together.

   3: LIFE MATTERS – a wonderful and intricate world is there to be understood where we can, and marvelled at even when we can't. Beautiful things of our own creation are at hand for our delight, when we take a rest from world mending. And each of us has a lifetime to make and nourish so many friendships.

CRHSVII/MMXII

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