Ancient Religiosity and Modern Atheism

Environment has an effect on every living organism in varying degrees. Yet the study of human social evolution has demonstrated conclusively that human beings have always been relatively free from the effect of their environment as compared to other creations. This is as true for ancient times as it is for today. This is important because many people think that the ancient reverence came out of fear of what could impact lives and even end them. Modern anthropologists have increasingly come to the belief that ancient humans were keen observers of nature and natural phenomenon. It was not that they only perceived nature mystically, entangled with it, challenged by it, as many would want to believe. It was not its incomprehensibility, but their spirituality that they held nature in great esteem. It is not ignorance on their part that explains their spirituality, it is their humble nature and acute observing capabilities, that they bent in front of nature.

With the rise of knowledge, man has continuously challenged the very existence of creator. Since the denial of God has accompanied increase in “knowledge”, it seems to a lot of people that religion and spirituality among the ancients emerged out of lack of knowledge and comprehension. Being afraid of the wrath of nature isn’t enough to explain their faith and prayers, for humans have been relatively freer from the impact of their surroundings. This rise of atheism does not owe everything to the rise of knowledge, it has more to do with the rise of arrogance owing to what pretends to be knowledge. Ignorance causes man to act arrogantly and this ignorance in the modern world masquerades as knowledge. With humans thinking that they are explaining virtually everything that exists, or claiming to carry the capability to know everything, the need for a super natural intelligence has been removed, they would say. This egoistic attitude, not knowledge has led to a question mark on the creator.

Modern man exclaims in the same breath as his father elsewhere did “God is dead”. He however forgets the enormity of the murder. For the murderers of murderers there remains nothing to comfort himself by. There remains no water for him to clean his self. He invents new festivals of atonement, and new sacred games but the greatness of this deed of “murdering” God too great for them. He tries himself to become god simply to appear worthy of it and he fails. He sees everything that he creates withers away in front of his eyes. In the absence of one Permanent, that there always has been, everything remains momentarily. He chases and returns pale and thin for everything seems fleeting. He is in pain and always resentful and sad, instead of bending his knee in front of one God he bows to gods that keep on changing. His frustration and the impermanence, hence the un-satisfactoriness of the world, makes him hopeless and in this hopelessness he further denies his creator.

When the sense of the spiritual is gone, modern man witnesses the absolute worthlessness of the world, his own self and every act of his. The purpose of his life stands annihilated and his new religion – nihilism – erects itself on the grave of the last remains of his life. In contrast are the human traditions of those that have lived from the earliest times to the paleolithic times to our own. History and anthropology prove beyond any doubt that humans species has always possessed a thriving spiritual culture as opposed to just being an atheistic, tool making, hunting and procreating species. Humans have never limited themselves to these mundane activities, they have performed sacrifices, buried their dead with special ceremonies and have done all sorts of things which can only be associated with religion and spirituality. The spiritual awakening of the ancients is visible in their paintings and engravings in the cave walls in which they dwelt and in many other relevant things out of the scope of this article.

The modern man who wishes to thrive has to create vehicles that take him back to the cave instead of Mars. The escape velocity of which takes him away from the sadness and dark Godless modern world. He has to turn humans into multi-planetary species for the survival of humans depends upon it. He has to run from the material planet to the spiritual planet, and develop vehicles who could take him there. He has to create for himself a parallel planet, unaffected by all the chaos around. He has to become a ghost in the machine. He has to be the mind separated from the body, he has to become spirit separated from the matter. He has to explore the realm beyond the mundane. He has to become metaphysics in the world of physics. He has to develop ancient religiosity in place of modern atheism.

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