Another view on religion

This is just an observation and not necessarily my real personal opinion.

I was channel surfing my TV channels this morning and stumbled across a program Named God vs. Satan. It might have been the coffee but I suddenly became aware of a different way to look at the subject. Here it is.

Looking at humans as the one (as far as we know) creature that has established civilization based on education not instinct opens a new lens on religion. There are animals that exhibit high organization and cooperation - ants for instance. These traits are based on instinct and require no training. Humans on the other hand must be trained or educated in the ways of civilization and cooperation. Religion is one of civilization's tools to promote good behaviour within the society. The concept of God in any form is rooted in the need for people to put their personal desires secondary to society's needs. The concept of Satan represents the giving in to base animal behaviour. "Good" people find a balance in their lives where society's needs generally override the animal within them. "Bad" people [at many levels] ignore society in favor of their own desires. Society says "act this way in spite of your desires" while the animal says "do this because you want to".

Satan and the concepts of evil represent the unconstrained animal in us all. Without religion and education in the ways to live in society, the animal in us would never let us mature beyond the level of a 3 or 4 year-old child. Demand and take what we want just because we can - disregard the needs of others.

God and the concepts of good represent the pressure to modify our base behavior in ways that support society and civilization. We have the intelligence to understand good and evil. We have the ability to make the choices in every thing we do. Any time we put our own wants and desires ahead of the requirements of civilization we are responding to the animal side. Without the animal side to provide competition we would never advance. Without the cooperation driven by religion and civilization we would never have evolved as the leading species on this world. As individuals we are weak and defenseless. Cooperation and civilization (promoted by religion) are our strengths. Devolving back to the animal side (evil)leaves us vulnerable to being eaten.

Donald Page