Expelling the Demons of the Opiate
Into the Mind and Ego
Valenzuela's Veritas: The Evolution of Revolution, Part III: Expelling the Demons of the Opiate
Afraid of loneliness and fearful of the world around them, early humans developed beliefs that would better control the ever-insecure human thought process. In order to understand what was then unknown early man developed entities, known as gods, and stories, myths and fables that explained, in very primitive ways, the world they inhabited. The fear of primitive thought was controlled by stories of how man had been created, helping to restore the human ego's questions on origin and reason for existence. Gods were created, based on the imagination and observation of nature, to help explain the unexplained and the paradigms of fear the natural world conveyed.
By introducing the concept of gods, early humans were able to find meaning in their world. They were at once able to differentiate themselves from animals and the natural world surrounding them. Questions that arose were answered easily enough through stories and myths created out of human ingenuity and imagination, and soon nature itself became a series of gods, as did anything not understood that needed explaining, such as the sun, moon, rain, wind, water, fire, the seasons, soil, harvest and the animal world. The concept of being alone in the world was erased as stories of creation and of metaphysical entities made man the foundation of existence, placing us at the throne of Earth and helping, in many ways, to squash the incessant fears early man had of the world it inhabited. Thus, questions were answered, the ego was satisfied, and the idea of religion was born.
The world enveloping early man was mesmerizing, an unfathomable amalgam of perplexing complexity and balance, and in time, as we began dominating the natural world, as our confidence and powers grew, as our dominion over all things living increased, religion became the dominant force affecting our lives and futures. As primitive as early religion was, though some say modern ones still are, it retained the idea that humanity was one with nature. With a wide variety of gods, each representing one or several realms of the natural world, humans were made to respect the world around them. In those days, humankind was still part of nature, and so had to live according to its balances and its rules.
Another reason for the introduction of religion into human societies was the reality of death, and of the profound refusal of the human mind to accept a finality to life. In the human condition exists the foundation seeking ever-lasting life, of not wanting to contemplate that after one's last breath finality to life sets in. Our ego refuses to postulate such a thought, for the human mind insists on a continuance to life through a journey through the metaphysical where it is believed we will continue existing, though outside the body. We cannot accept that no afterlife exists, for this would mean that after living the human insistence of life ceases to exist, making us vanish from all existence.
Based on fear of death, belief in life after living on Earth, or of reincarnation, resurrection or rebirth, assures the fragile and insecure human mind that there is nothing to fear once one's present life on Earth ceases to exist. It is this thought process that has for hundreds of thousands of years led to rituals of death and of burial. Death has been and continues to be seen as a continuation, not an end. In this clever way, the human ego grants us the illusion that life has meaning and purpose, for if we die a new life awaits in the afterlife. In denial of emptiness after death, religion makes the insecure human mind conceptualize death. It is in these beliefs that the human mind is assured that death is not to be feared for the continuance of one's life will exist into perpetuity.
In our refusal to accept an end to life religion has thus survived, for religious dogma, in all regions of the planet, in all societies, guarantees life after death in some way, shape or form. Religion has for millennia gripped the fear humanity has of never again existing after death and has created elaborate stories and fables assuring us of that will be well, that in the afterlife we can trust. Thus the continuance of one's life, even after knowing what happens to flesh and blood after death, becomes an elaborate exploitation of human fear of death, thereby assuring us that if we follow such beliefs and religious thought, our place beyond the rotting carcass, the feeding maggots and putrid smell of death is a foregone conclusion.