Will Religion Save The World?

SOLOMON ADE-AJAYI MICHAEL

It should be very welcoming to say that religion is very attractive and inviting with its omnifarious promising of alleviation of human apparent feebleness, failure and doom, both on the planet earth and in the afterlife; especially in our age of increasing human needs and modernization. Maybe the word “lucrative” would be applicable in the sense of the religious activities evident all around us. That said, in relation to our understanding of the scope of religion as a tool to foster moral rectitude in the human society due to its gentle proclamation to receiving guideline from the divine in the favour of human concerns, and the undeniable reality of degeneracy in human society, raises a question of whether religion is really what we understand of it or its functions are misconceived already. In fact, religion occupies such a feminine position that it infers to be the mother of all human philosophies around predestination and the realization of such predetermined destiny. So, will religion save the world?  

By the history of religion itself, we can trace its origin to the very start of the existence of humanity. Much as there is no universally agreed definition for religion, there is the basic understanding of its content and concept from which every description of it must be based. Forming from the basic thoughts around religion, it is the practice of worshipping a supernatural being or some gods, believed to control powers and human destiny, in the aim to pay them due obeisance and to secure their protection. Moreover, a school of thought affirms that every human mind, somehow searches for a superior (supreme) being than themselves; they wonder around the well-structured, beautiful, and thrilling universe, regardless and irregardless of some pathetic events therein our world, behind which there must be a creator (a “super” being). If this is true, it could be said, therefore, that religious consciousness is innate and intuitive, not minding whether a person is of the primitive or modern age. 

Considering the Christian religion, her Scriptures trace religion ab initio to the first man and woman (Adam and Eve), who knew God (the Almighty) personally (Gen. 1-3), and at just the third generation of the human history according to the Christian Scriptures, the corporate worshiping of God had started; the Almighty God was worshipped by name (by Adam’s grandchildren) (Gen. 4:26). This says that religion started as early as human existence.

In my opinion, which I now want you to see: if we go by the Biblical account of creation and the concept of God, in the survey of when religion started, shouldn’t we see that from Genesis chapter one to early chapter four, it was God who revealed Himself to Human first, and not the reverse. Even in chapter three, it was God who called out to the man and his wife to see where they were and how they fared. It was at the fourth chapter of Genesis that men started to call out to God in response to God’s revelation of Himself first to them. Does this sound threatening to our understanding of religion or something?

By the above simple survey of the start of religion within the Christian understanding, can we then say that religion should rather be God searching for and revealing Himself to human first, and human’s eventual response to God’s revelation of Himself? Or can we say that religion starts when men started to call upon the name of God in corporate worship? Religion, that is, the believing in and worshiping of some gods or the Supreme Being we say can either be personal or corporate. However, the focus of this piece is not to survey when religion started or which the best and first is. Having an idea of what religion is, knowing how lucrative it has grown to be over the ages, and the enticing relief it promises humanity (the world), will it save our fallen world?

Let me refresh your memory to say that there are approximately 4,300 religions across the world, with each proclaiming itself the legitimate and best, regardless of which is the dominant. Some of them claim that they are a route to the Supreme Being while some claim that the major object of their worship is directly the Supreme Being and not passing through a third-party. Noteworthy is the point that the mode of worship of almost every religion is different from another, yet all claim to worship the Supreme Being (God, the Almighty; as there is no higher being conceived) who has revealed to them how to be worshipped. 

I think the core message of religion revolves around some three convictions, first, to worship in obeisance the “super being” who is the major object of any religion; second, to secure the protection of the “super being” in any case, admitting human frailty and limitations; and thirdly, to generate some code of conducts to influence positive and normal human conducts, since the human nature is complex. You will agree with me that this tripartite element of religion is beautiful and should be acceptable to any human mind and society. 
However, has religion done well to the human society than evil? Can we truly say that religion is saving the world and/or will eventually save it?

Despite the great promises of religion to its adherents, one cannot deny the evidence of decay in moral standard and unimaginable monstrous atrocities daily committed by human to themselves, to animals and the environment specifically; worse enough, these moral deviations are fast increasing. You and I know that some of the adherents of various religions even profane the shrine where the name of their “object” is labeled for worship. Religion is daily gaining popularity as much as the human society daily grow in the fear of danger. Has religion lost the focus? Is religion the best solution or we should expect some divine phenomenon to come? Should religion be a solution in the first place? How long do we wait for religion to safe us after its thousands upon thousands years of existence? Is Karl Marx right that religion is an opium of the people; a vail that covers the reality from the consciousness of the “poor” masses?

Has religion failed us to the harmful presence of philosophies such as Communism, Racism, Atheism, Materialism, Scientism, Monopolism, Occultism, Behaviourism, Anarchism, Freudianism, Pantheism, Social Darwinism, Amoralism, Imperialism, Nazism, Humanism, and the like? Are these philosophies really harmful? If all religions are merged together as a unified system; having the same understanding, form, code and goal, will it be more effective, and then save our world, since arguably they all look up to the Supreme Being? Is religion rightly so to be commercialized (so to say) under the guise of selling solutions to the adherents and in the effort to maintain her tools? Will religion wait forever to help us solve the evil practices of Abortion, Promiscuity, Pornography, Chauvinism, Drug Culture, Slavery, Genocide, Witchcraft, Criminality, Homosexuality, Cannibalism, Euthanasia, Pollution, Satanism, Bestiality, New-Agism, Banditry, and the like? Clearly, these menaces are partly offshoot of Individualism!

By no means am I saying NO to religion; never, but I question (not doubting) its efficacy to deliver her promises to heal the world of decadence; or what is the relevance of religion when it cannot cure immorality. An active and worthwhile religion does not reward her adherents only in the afterlife, since religion is a phenomenon, which operates in the earthly culture, for the inhabitants of the planet earth, and must be communicated in a clear language that is relevant to the human mind. In my own opinion, much as religiosity is relatively inherent in every human, I do not think most of the religious leaders even understand the content, intent, and scope of religion, and this is evident in the confusion we see today in the system. 

Or maybe religion has been hijacked by the most heinous of human. Maybe also, religion should start from God revealing Himself first to any human before human’s response to the divine revelation, rather than human searching for an unknown God. I think when human launches out to search for “a god”, it is nothing outside of selfish intention – to save, to serve and to service oneself; it becomes a business mostly designed and dominated by human mind – depending of the exposure of such mind. We must understand the intention of the Supreme Being (the Creator of the Universe) in the creation of both the universe and the Human, as the most glorified among other creatures. How can a “god” to be revered ask me to kill my neighbour, brother or child? How can I treat my neighbour or others inhumanly in the name of religion? If we all adjust our allegiance to loving and respecting both God and Humanity, I believe that God does not ask any further religion than that. And, any religion that is void of these two elements – love and respect for God and humanity, cannot save the world.

We must believe in God and everything that works for Humanity under God.

– Solomon Ade-Ajayi Michael (Ade Mike) writes from Lagos.