| The question of God is a difficult one. There is no | | | | Under Constantine , the Trinitarians gained the |
| clear definition and many threads get woven into | | | | support of the Roman Empire . The Trinitarian |
| the search of God. However, it is important to go | | | | with their all male God mythology destroyed the |
| over brief history of mythology of God, the | | | | kinder, gentler Gnostic Christians. What Christians |
| religious influence, and now scientific influence in 21 | | | | have inherited today is the monotheism of the all |
| st century. | | | | male God of the Trinitarians. |
| Here's a brief review about the history of | | | | This is a mythology that is needed for an era |
| mythology of God that may influence our | | | | where people compete for limited resources. This |
| understanding about the new concepts in search | | | | mythology suppresses sexuality and creates |
| of god. | | | | more violence. The suppression of sexuality and |
| Before Judaic Christian era, with the invention of | | | | the increase of violence bestow a survival |
| agriculture in Turkey , human society changed | | | | advantage to people who must compete for |
| from hunter gathers to farmers. During this era, | | | | limited resources. |
| the God was perceived as female Goddess. | | | | The history of Hindu avatars Rama and Krishna is |
| Archeologist Maria Gimbutas studied how this | | | | also based in violence of Mahabharata and |
| culture of the Goddess spread. The farmers | | | | Ramayana. So is the creation of Khalsa, the |
| spread out from Turkey moving east into Asia | | | | fighting force in Sikhism by the last of ten gurus. |
| and west towards the Atlantic . As the farmers | | | | Mahabharata (Mahabharat) is a great story of |
| spread out from Turkey , they displaced the | | | | sibling rivalry, violence and war, of complex |
| hunter gathers that lived on the land first. | | | | interwoven sub-stories, of philosophy, divinity, |
| What is most interesting about the civilization of | | | | adventure, bravery, and betrayal. The characters |
| the Goddess, is the level of violence. Maria | | | | are very well developed and are glorified in great |
| Gimbutas found little evidence of violence in the | | | | works of Indian art and literature that is supposed |
| first towns the early farmers built. The towns did | | | | to have happened in 5,000 BC. Hindu holy |
| not have fortified walls. People were buried in | | | | scripture, " Bhagavad-Gita" is the war time |
| egalitarian cemeteries. Their gravesites did not | | | | counsel of Krishna to his disciple-relative Arjuna |
| contain weapons of war. Their bones did not | | | | during the Mahabharata war. |
| show wounds from weapons of war. This is very | | | | The story of Ramayana is about Rama, the |
| important. It means that war is something | | | | prince of Ayodhya that happened before |
| humans learned. | | | | Mahabharata. Rama was the eldest son of king |
| After the farmers filled up the available farmland, | | | | Dasharatha who had three wives. The youngest |
| things began to change. With all the good farmland | | | | of the wives Kaikeyi tricked the king into making |
| brought under cultivation, people in their towns | | | | her son as the descendent to the throne and |
| begin competing for limited resources. Humans are | | | | made Rama go to the forest in relinquishment. |
| a biological species controlled by evolution. Species | | | | Rama, the good son that he is, follows the word |
| evolve by producing more off spring than the | | | | of the father and goes to the forest for fourteen |
| environment can support. In the competition for | | | | years. His wife Sita and loyal brother Lakshman |
| limited resources only the fittest survive. Humans | | | | follow him. Rawana king of Sri Lanka What follows |
| are no exception. The peaceful interlude was over. | | | | is the great search for Sita and violence and war, |
| Starting in the east and moving west the towns | | | | when the goodness wins with the help of the |
| started to become more fortified. The egalitarian | | | | friends ( Hanuman- the flying monkey) and the |
| cemeteries were replaced by Kurgans. A Kurgan | | | | brother Lakshman. The destruction of Sri Lanka |
| is mound of earth containing a burial site of a | | | | and bringing Sita back to Ayodhya is glorified in |
| ruling male and his family. These burial sites | | | | the great works of Indian arts and literature. |
| contain weapons of war. The bones of people | | | | kidnaps Sita and keeps her arrested in his garden. |
| from this period also show injuries from these | | | | In the late 17 th century Mogul emperor |
| weapons. Kurgan is also the name given to a tribe | | | | Aurungzeb's religious policy was totally against |
| of horsemen who brought this transformation to | | | | non-muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, they had to pay |
| the civilization of the Goddess. The Kurgans did | | | | more taxes than Muslims. On the site of temple |
| not displace the farmers. A study of the bones | | | | he built a mosque at a great cost. All these |
| shows that the same farmers lived in Kurgan | | | | accesses were happening around 1690. The army |
| towns. They were now ruled by the Kurgans. The | | | | of Khalsa was created by tenth Guru of Sikhs in |
| Kurgans transformed the first farmers into a | | | | 1699 to fight against the accesses. These are |
| more violent society. When the environment in | | | | latest of wars and violence of which the youngest |
| which humans lived changed, the mythology now | | | | among religions, the Sikhism is also not spared. |
| changed. Myths about male gods were now added | | | | The Greeks gave us more than the myth of |
| to the story of the female goddess. | | | | Hercules that had similarities to the Christian myth. |
| As we stated above, the driving force of | | | | They also gave us philosophy. Aristotle talked |
| evolution is the survival of the fittest. For a couple | | | | about the first cause, the sufficient cause and the |
| of thousands years this rule was suspended. The | | | | final cause. Plato taught that there was a oneness |
| first farmers could expand out from Turkey to | | | | behind the universe. The Greek philosophers also |
| bring new land under cultivation. They did not | | | | had an influence on religion. The oneness that |
| have to compete for limited resources. During this | | | | Plato talked about got incorporated into |
| time, the worship of the goddess created a | | | | monotheism. Monotheism for us today is the |
| peaceful society. When the best farmland was | | | | oneness behind the universe instead of choosing a |
| brought under cultivation, towns started | | | | male god over a female god. |
| competing for limited resources. Those towns | | | | It is the physicists that will understand the |
| that started worshipping male gods created more | | | | oneness behind the universe and the first cause |
| violent males. The more violent towns survived. | | | | that started the universe. A unified theory that |
| This type of mythology active in a society | | | | can describe the universe has become the holy |
| creates a more or less violent culture. | | | | grail of modern physics. |
| All this happened before the Judaic - Christian | | | | The early Greek philosophers also influenced Islam. |
| period. Karen Armstrong in her book "A History | | | | Karen Armstrong tells us of Islamic scholars who |
| of God" picks up the story with Abraham and the | | | | tried to use reason to find God. These Islamic |
| stories and myths we are familiar with. If you | | | | scholars were called the Fulasufahs. We will look at |
| remember, Abraham has a son late in life and | | | | just one. Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali lived from 1058 |
| then is told by God that he must sacrifice his son | | | | to 1111. He studied all the major sects of Islam |
| on an alter to God. He does not question God but | | | | and "struggled with truth like a terrier" searching |
| takes his son up the mountain to be sacrificed. At | | | | for a kind of indubitable certainty. The more he |
| the last moment, God tells Abraham that he can | | | | searched the more disillusioned he became. How |
| sacrifice a ram instead of Isaac and his son is | | | | could any of their claims be objectively verified? |
| spared. Other episodes where God sacrifices the | | | | The more he studied the more depressed he |
| sons are history of Moses and Egypt . | | | | became. He finally was unable to continue his |
| With the rise of God sacrificing sons, there was | | | | studies. He abandoned his prestigious teaching |
| also a decline of the Goddess. In the face of an | | | | position and went of to join the Sufis. In Sufi |
| external threat, the Jews abandon the Goddess. | | | | dance, he found what he was looking for. A direct |
| Monotheism is a further refinement of the | | | | experience of something he could call God. After |
| mythology of God. God is becoming only a Male | | | | Al-Ghazzali, Islam abandoned its attempt to find |
| God. In order to survive, the Goddess is | | | | God through reason. |
| suppressed. | | | | Some people, in this modern era of science and |
| This also happens later in Islam. At the time of | | | | technology, have a problem with calling this |
| Mohammed, the Arabs worshipped three | | | | God-through-reason-quest the search for God. |
| Goddesses: Allat, al-Uzza, and Manat. Mohammed | | | | God could be redefined into the ground of being |
| urged his followers to abandon these Goddesses | | | | or a oneness behind the universe; but the word |
| and only worship Allah. Islam then goes on to | | | | God is tangled up with the mythology of God the |
| conquer the Middle East, Northern Africa and | | | | Father sacrificing the Son. They want to drop the |
| Spain . Suppressing the Goddess makes a society | | | | word God. Instead of searching for God that is |
| more violent and the more violent societies | | | | tangled up with violence and survival , today we |
| survive. | | | | should search for God of spirituality . We need to |
| Christianity adds further refinements to this myth. | | | | search for what lifts us out of depression and into |
| Paul on the road to Damascus has a revelation. | | | | being in good spirits. It is this search that will lead |
| He comes to see Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of | | | | us into a new era. Birth control and advances in |
| God. Jesus is the Son of God who comes to | | | | agriculture has fundamentally changed our society. |
| earth and lives as a human. He is sacrificed for | | | | We no longer need to compete for limited |
| are sins. He is crucified, dead and buried. He | | | | resources. The rule of survival of the fittest no |
| descends into hell, on the third day he is raised | | | | longer applies. It is the search for spirituality that |
| from the dead and ascends into heaven. | | | | will lead us to a new mythology that will |
| There were two forms of early Christianity | | | | transform our society from the war and strife |
| competing for people's attention in the Rome | | | | we have known through most of recorded |
| Empire: the Gnostic Christians and the Trinitarian | | | | history. |
| Christians. The Gnostic Christians still had a place | | | | We are at the dawn of a new era. A better |
| for the Goddess in their tradition. The Trinitarian | | | | world is within our grasp. We need to find a God |
| Christians believed only in a male God of three | | | | of spirituality that will lead into this new world. |
| parts - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. | | | | |