Does Man Make Religion?
Gracie poses an interesting question over at .:unD0n3:. from her sociology course: Does Man make Religion or does Religion Make Man?The premise here seems to be that man makes religion as a social thing with the implication (by Karl Marx no less) that a truly enlightened person can dispense with religion because they have realized that they don’t need it.
My first reaction to this is that a system of rituals and conventions has no meaning in and of itself but rather needs to be imbued with a sense of greater truth in order to have relevance. The rituals without the truth still has an echo of it’s former meaning but increasingly it is succumbing to the trap of placing something else at the heart of life where God is supposed to be and nothing good can come of that. The worst of all people is the person who is deluded into thinking that the rituals and practices have eternal meaning when only a relationship with the person behind them can give you that. This is why “religion” is such a dirty word around PCC.
If man has to create religion in order for society to function then what are we lacking that we need to do so? Is it that we are just not enlightened enough to see that we can survive without it or is it that all of us are longing for a restored relationship with our creator? Why if humanity is the ultimate expression of the animal kingdom as some would have us believe do we need to create something above ourselves to believe in when no animal does so? Isn’t it that our nature is both physical and spiritual and that we need to come back into relationship with the almighty to fulfill the marvelous creation that each of us is?
Pity the person who denies God for they have an empty existence burying the pain of separation from the love of God all the time insisting that they are free of it when in actual fact deep down their spirit is in agony over their estrangement. It is not for nothing that Jesus says to us:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
