Life's Journeys

When I began studying religion and mythology about 20 years ago, it quickly became apparent that there were certain repeating patterns and themes in life as perceived by the human mind. Certain numbers seemed to show up often (Three is perhaps the most prominent one), as did things like creation myths, various versions of the hero myth, myths to assuage the fear of death by proposing an afterlife, and even how to find your "purpose" in life.

The interpretation of this repetition of certain themes varies, along with the myths. The psychologist Carl Jung suggested that there were universal archetypes that were the explanation for certain repeating types of characters. Others maintain that myths traveled the world and were copied by oral tradition, giving a similarity between cultures. I suspect that the truth is a combination of those factors.

Certainly, since we are all fairly recently descended from the same line of hominids, we are going to share certain mental perceptions. Of course, there are differences in the worldview of desert people versus forest dwellers, lowland tribes versus mountain folk, etc., but the interpretations of many of the world's features are going through the same ancient human mental filters. So it is not surprising that different cultures find similar themes when considering life's mysteries, be they a result of pondering the stars or looking for guidance from larger-than-life hero figures or what-have-you.

One of the themes that caught my attention, largely because the late great mythologist Joseph Campbell liked to point it out, was that, if you paid attention, life would show you the way. People who fear the unknown ease that fear by plugging some anthropomorphic figure into the equation, e.g., that some unseen supernatural being is providing guidance. That's not necessary for me.

I am not afraid to say that I don't know something, nor am I afraid to follow the intuition and reason inherent in my hominid mind. I work my ass off to study the world around me, to doubt everything until I am sure it's right, to constantly question my own perceptions and decisions, to make myself ready for the new adventures life throws at me. That has proven to be a good life strategy for me, even though it means relinquishing some control now and then.

I have learned that following what I know to be true sets me up for "success" (SEE NOTE 1) in whatever I do. Likewise, I have found that when I try to force something that doesn't feel right, the end result is pretty crappy (at which point I usually scold myself for not trusting my intuition, education, and reason).

Lately I have felt a change coming on. I have kind of been resisting it, but it has been getting pretty forceful. Yeah, it's the evil religious fundamentalist thing. It seems like everywhere I turn, I am getting slapped with the harsh reality of the evils of religion. I have tried not to blog too much on it, but it has been dragging me along by the ankles, kicking and screaming.

It seems that no matter what I do, it pops up. I have been working at any given place or time for the last several years with at least one Christian fundamentalist who says remarkably false, idiotic, evil, anti-reason, anti-compassion, anti-common sense, anti-Constitution (and therefore, anti-American) stuff... and seems to actually believe it! One of the homeowners whose home renovation project I have been inspecting recently gave me a book -- because we often talk about history, but not religion, over tea -- on the life of Hitler, a man who believed he was doing his Christian duty, and following the work of Martin Luther, by killing off Jews and other unsavory types. Even in the book I am reading on the history of geometry (because I want to learn more about math so I can dive further into physics), a major event is the hideous torturing and killing of Hypatia of Alexandria by a Christian mob and the subsequent destruction of more than 200,000 library scrolls, some of which were the only existing examples of Babylonian and Greek advanced mathematics. That loss of important scientific information was a precursor to the Dark Ages. Thank you for the Dark Ages, Jesus. Can I get an amen?

Today, I finally got the hint. I had WNYC on the radio at lunchtime, and the guest was Jeff Sharlet, author of an article titled "Jesus Killed Mohammed" in the May issue of Harper's, about the ongoing conspiracy to Christianize the United States military. This is a subject that I blogged about on MySpace a few weeks ago.

And then I got home and there was a letter from Jesus. Well, it wasn't signed by Jesus, but it was definitely from his staff. Jesus would have known that my name was not "Resident -- To A Friend," right? Maybe he's outsourcing to cheaper labor or something. Anyway, this letter... actually it is more of a series of pamphlet-type things (Christianty discourages education and literacy, sometimes to its own disadvantage) with highlighting, underlining, odd graphics (including a big house, big car, and piles of money), testemonials, "prophetic words," biblical quotes, and lots of capital letters and bold type. According to the testemonials, this church (www.saintmatthewschurches.com) has brought people houses, husbands, cash, a life free of drugs, and much more. A quote from Deuterotomy 8:18 explains that "...Remember the Lord thy God: For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth..." (SEE NOTE 2)

Apparently, Jesus wants me to have a "Golden Prosperity Faith Cross," and for free. He's a nice guy, that Jesus (If you catch him on the right day). Apparently, Jesus' dad loves me and wants me to be wealthy. Now, I'm not much of a money guy (you think he'd know that), but I just might send in the card to get my free cross (which I WILL wear, as long as it doesn't damage my Buddhist medallion).

So, it appears -- if I may mix metaphors -- that God has chosen me to confront the evils of religious fundamentalism. I guess I need to stop fighting it, and just roll with it. I did not want to spend too much time writing and thinking about things that are holding America and humanity back (SEE NOTE 3), but maybe this is how I am going to make all that money that Jesus is promising. Who am I to question it?

XXX

NOTE 1: "Success" means different things to different people. To many people, I realize, success has a dollar sign assigned to it. Not for me. To me, it means productivity, progress, discovery and a useful outcome. Upon writing that, it occurs to me that that is pretty close to being the result of the archetypal hero's journey. Darn you, Joe Campbell, get out of my head! ;-)

NOTE 2: This obviously isn't the part of Deuterotomy that caused Joseph Campbell to call it the most violent mythology ever created by man.

NOTE 3: I much prefer to take positive angles (showing the things that can help move us forward to a better world, like compassion, science, literacy, numeracy, charity, etc) than to look at the negatives, but sometimes the negatives are too big of a hurdle to ignore and allow to spread.