We often find ourselves on the verge of giving up. This could be as simple a thing as taking the lawnmower to the shop, admitting we are not the mechanical genius we fancy ourselves, or as complicated as debating the pros and cons of a Kool-aid and phenobarbital cocktail. Something comes along to helps us in our decision making. The universe points us, sometimes shoves us, in the right direction. We don't always want this assistance. Not at first, though we usually appreciate it later. This could be our significant other politely reminding us of our mechanical abilities, giving a detailed, itemized list of our past attempts to rule the mechanized world, all the near tragedies resulting from them. Maybe your phenobarbital connection is out of town. Maybe there is no sugar for the Kool-aid. (who wants their last drink on this earthly realm to have no sugar in it?) Something happens. We decide to take the mower to someone who is qualified to repair it. We decide to live another day of our miserable existence, hoping it will get better.
Sometimes, most times, we think of this as a Sign. A Sign from A Power Greater Than Ourselves. Even many of us who don't consider ourselves religious will use this line of logic. I even do it. I can understand religious adherents subscribing to this way of thinking, it goes along with everything they have been programmed to believe is true, but how do secular thinkers justify it? How can you allege to be against churches and their dogmas, ceremonies, rules, and rites, and borrow religious logic to explain unexpected events, something you degrade religion for doing?
Maybe you could say we are wired that way. We can't help it. That is the way our brains developed, and our natural mode of explanation for things seemingly unexplainable is to credit the act to the intervention of an almighty, all knowing being. This worked especially great when we were fresh out of the cave, trying to figure out the crazy, wide world we were beginning to explore.
Religious scholars have said that religion has always been in us, that it is innate to all humans, comes pre-installed on our hard drives. They say this proves the truth of their religion. They don't explain why God chose to pass out so many different versions of the software, many of them incompatible with the other versions, making information sharing impossible. If they are Christian, they will say we are all Christians, some of us just refuse to acknowledge it. If they are Muslim, they will say they same thing about their path. What ever religion they wave the flag of, they will claim is the One True Way, and we all know it, whether we admit it or not. Many of them also believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old, which makes the innate religion theory easier to accept, providing you are willing to ignore mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Many scientists say the first evidence of religion comes after man was able to conquer a few basic necessities, and settle down a bit. When man was able to produce and store food, acquire warmth, have fire and shelter, he was now in a position to try explaining things. When you are running naked around the Savannah, dodging saber-toothed tigers and other terrifying beasts who are looking to find out the culinary merits of your flesh, you don't have much time for signs and explanations.
Of course, if you think man never went through this evolutionary process, believe man started in a garden in an undisclosed Mideastern oasis, was summarily evicted, took the old lady to a new spot, and settled down to produce 7 billion Walmart shopping, Facebooking, Coke drinking and snorting, Super Sizing, addicted to everything from cat videos to porn videos to refined, white sugar to heroin to smart phones to bowling, fucking ancestors, then you and I will have to agree to disagree. And since this is my turf, that is too bad for you.
So, there is man. He has gotten some shit done. He learned to get along with his neighbors long enough so that they could kill a mastodon, learned how to salt and dry the meat, and has plenty of food stored up. He has fired mastered. He has a sturdy shelter built. He is kicked back next to the fire he built taking a well deserved break. The old lady is off hi)s back since he got her that fur coat, like the one she saw the neighbor lady wearing. The kids are outside, smashing things with rocks. He has everything he needs. He is content. Suddenly, he thinks "What am I doing here? Where did I come from. What is this all for?"
There is the beginning of philosophy. He didn't write it down, because he had no alphabet. He left the glory for the ancient Greeks. Let one of them, some Pre-Socratic, take the title of "World's First Philosopher". He wasn't a vain man. All he wanted was a day without the threat of some awful death, a fire, a piece of dried meat, and some pussy from a pretty cavelady. A simple man, who now had the luxury of being reflective.
As you might be able to guess, I don't think religion and philosophical thinking is innate in man. I think it was added after all our other needs were met, when we could afford to waste time and energy on it. I would like to think it would be the first thing abandoned in a critical situation, which called for clear, rational thinking, but whether or not it is innate, it has now become so much a part of our characters and thought processes that even an Atheist will "Swear to God", though he doesn't know what or whom he is swearing to.
I watched a documentary last night. t was called Kumare. You should check it out. The director is a man of Indian descent (Gandhi not Tonto). He was born and raised in New Jersey, though all his family is from India, and practicing Hindus. He went to college for a Religious Studies degree, then hit a brick wall. He traveled to India to see if a journey to his ancestral homeland would spark something. He wandered through India taking part in various rituals, and studying with several Gurus. Nothing. He said none of them would tell him what he wanted to hear, and that was that the Gurus were no different than anyone else. That we were all our own Gurus, held the key to our own happiness inside of us.
Of course, the answer to why religion doesn't tell you that you are the source of your happiness and well-being, at least not the ones that survive, is obvious to me. There is no money in it.
The man's plan was to pose as Kumare, a Himalayan Guru, gain some followers, show them they held the key to their happiness, and then reveal the punchline. He started out in Phoenix, an excellent choice, with all its amateur, desert mystics and ex crystal meth addicts, both groups predisposed to latch on to some new way, no matter how far-out it is. In terms of the lengths they are willing to go and the insanity they are willing to accept as truth, it is hard to out crazy a meth-head. Not to say they were all junkies, but a couple brought it up, and there were probably a few who remained silent.
Kumare puts his plan into action. He travels to Tuscon, on the invitation to teach some Yoga classes. All his prayers, meditations, and Yoga are made up. Mostly nonsense. Jibberish. People talk about the connection they instantly had with him, the power they feel when he is around. They talk about how his Yoga moves and prayers are superior to the other Gurus they have seen. Kumare gets invitations to organic farms, religious communities, other Ashrams, health food stores, anywhere the New Age Hippyish Yuppy Seekers of the Truth can be found.
Both women and men love Kumare. They invite him into their homes. They want to visit him in India. (Though he does't live there. They can't see through his fake accent.) Pretty, young ladies want to leave their husbands for Kumare, or just have an affair with him. His plan works better than he had hoped.
Kumare gathers up fourteen of his staunchest adherents. He plans a retreat. A week of meditation and prayer, soul-searching, Yoga, bonding, and the revealing of his true self on the last day.
I forgot to mention, he hasn't been totally on his own through this. He has two women who are his assistants and first "Followers" to aid him. One is plain old white, the other is ethnically Indian. Both are American, though the Indian woman uses the same fake accent Kumare uses.
Everything is in place. The retreat is at his home and Ashram in phoenix. The retreat goes off without a hitch, right up to the reveal. He can't do it. These people have reached out and connected with him, and he can't tell them the truth. He does, like he has through the entire process, say that it is all an illusion, that he isn't a Guru, and is not who they think he is. They just believe he is being mystical and metaphoric. They are blind to the truth, even when it is directly told to them.
The retreat ends, everyone goes about their business. Kumare stays in touch with his followers, talks to them on the phone. They miss him and love him.
After some time, a reunion is planned. The fourteen disciples are gathered in phoenix. They are shown a video of Kumare revealing his true self. He is from New Jersey. He is American. He is not a Guru. Then, freshly shaven and hair cut, Kumare walks in. He explains his theory, how he wanted people to see they had a Guru inside of them, and didn't want to hurt anyone. He tells them how close he grew to feel with all of them. A few people walk out. Four of the fourteen disciples refuse to talk to him to this day.
I had two questions. (Well, three, but "I wonder if I could do this?" we will save for another discussion.) One is, "Did it make a difference that he wasn't a "Guru"? Two is, "Why did these people fall for this?" I doubt I have the answer to either, but I have something to say about both.
Basically, nothing had been changed by Kumare's revelation that he wasn't a Hindu Mountain Man. He told everyone from the start that it was all an illusion. He told them he wasn't a Guru. The fact that they chose not to believe him, or chose to believe that he was speaking mysticism, some parable about the unreality of the universe, doesn't change the truth. People choosing to believe the earth is flat does not change the reality that it is round. People got pissed, felt cheated, walked out, all because they were believing a lie, when the truth was told to them. How were they cheated? Kumare told them the only Guru they needed was themselves. His teaching never changed from day one. They weren't led to believe anything. They, themselves, chose what to believe. Why did it matter that he wasn't who he said he was if the teaching worked? They all claimed to feel better, and have better lives. That was the whole goal.
And that leads me to my answer to question two. People have to believe, it seems in something Supernatural. We see how fucked up this world is, and we can't fathom that a possible answer to our serious questions could come from it. Not all of us, but many. Most, really. How could us humans, who have created all the problems, cure them? I suppose the easiest answer is: In reverse. Unmake the problems. Work backwards to the solution. These people believed Kumare was helping them when they thought he had some Other-Wordly guidance. When they found out he didn't, what then? The problems they had were still gone. They would rather bring their problems back than admit another human had solved them.
We need to feel taken care of. Freud or Jung, someone like that, said we created God to replace the father we lost. Or that we needed an Ultimate Father of Humanity. Kind, loving, strict, supporter, giver of life, taker of life, provider, intelligence-- all the things we think of when we think of a father, we think of when we think of God. "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it." Someone who is looking out for us. He has our best interest in mind, but we might not know what that is, because we can't see what He can.
These people loved Kumare when they thought he was a mystic, and some of them hated him when they found out he was a regular guy from New Jersey. But nothing had changed. That is the craziest part. If a doctor, whom you believed went to Harvard, cured your rare disease that no other doctors on the planet knew what to do with, then told you he hadn't went to medical school, but studied on his own, would you want your disease back?
This could go on for days, and will probably get brought up again and again.
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