We turn now to consider some of the difficulties of this World relating to matters of Religion and Spirituality. Of course all through history there have always been problems associated with Religion. What makes the present situation unique are the unprecedented conditions which have come about through the equally unprecedented rise of Scientific Rationalism over the past few centuries, accompanied by emergence of the modern technological age. Taken together with the Coming One World Order and the environmental/ecological problems of this World, then these are circumstances in which the religions of this world find themselves. So we'll be talking about the spiritual problems that have arisen from this overall context.
Secularization
The rise of Scientific Rationalism and the emergence of the modern technological age have in turn instigated a process that sociologists call Secularization. This is characterized by a falling away from Religion and an increased tendency towards Atheism and Agnosticism, i.e. an increase in the number of people who no longer believe in God or else don't know one way or the other. So in various parts of the World we have seen a decrease in the numbers of people who would consider themselves religious in any sense of the word. The rise of Scientific Rationalism can be seen as a challenge to traditionally held assumptions about life, the world, existence and even morality. This has lead to a state of affairs sometimes referred to as the Postmodern Condition, which is characterized by a sense of uncertainty, nihilism or meaninglessness, doubt in traditional values and also a certain feeling of malaise. The age of reason and the advancement of science has led to the abandonment of many of the beliefs and tacit assumptions that made life meaningful and gave a sense of purpose to a lot of people. Some of these beliefs, especially in the religious context, also gave people a sense of security and a certain comfort. At the same time, while these existing beliefs became discarded, nothing satisfactory came along to replace them. Science gave us a cold and sterile clockwork universe and the loving creator God was replaced by Darwin's Theory of Evolution working through the process of Natural Selection with nature all red in tooth and claw. Ourselves the chance outcome of a long series of cumulative changes brought about through random mutations in our genetic material. The scientific world view is one devoid of purpose, ultimate meaning and one with no room for traditional ideas about God.
Spiritual Longing and the 'God shaped hole'
It was the French Existentialist philosopher Sartre who coined the term 'The God shaped hole'. It describes an essential aspect of our being that demands some sort of relationship and understanding of the eternal and transcendent. It cannot be satisfied with worldly success, material possessions or Scientific Rationalism. When this need isn't met then we are left with a feeling of incompleteness, unease and lack of fulfillment. Religion was famously described as the 'opium of the people' by Karl Marx, but it is also perhaps a very necessary opium or balm for easing some of the pain, anxiety and suffering of the human condition.
In recent times, study after study has demonstrated the power that Religion has to help people cope with stress and adversity. Many psychiatrists and psychologists have come to accept that having a religious belief is one of the best predictors for people making a full recovery from clinical depression. Furthermore it is recognized that being actively involved in a religious faith is also an important factor that helps prevent people from becoming clinically depressed in the first place. The celebrated psycho-analyst Carl Gustav Jung once said that the primary cause at the heart of many of his patients' mental problems was a lack of a religious outlook. The World Health Organization estimated a few years back that in a world of 6.7 billion people, perhaps 1.2 billion or so were suffering from a diagnosable psychiatric problem at any one time. Most of these will be stress and anxiety related. Could this be partly symptomatic of the process of Secularization and the malaise of the post modern condition? In years to come when the people of the world are faced with the accumulating problems of this planet then surely the need to fill the 'God shaped hole' will become more and more apparent.
The Scientific World View and Problems with it
Along with the process of Secularization described earlier there are problems associated with the Scientific World View that is closely associated with it and which has largely put in motion the process of Secularization in the first place. So we now discuss certain beliefs that have become strongly associated with the Scientific World View but which are not necessarily implied by Science. For instance most Scientists take the position that the Universe is purposeless and devoid of ultimate meaning. Apart from leading to Existential Nihilism which is the view that life as without meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Worse still it can give rise to Moral Nihilism where morality is seen as mere human construct and therefore completely arbitrary and mutable. But when these commonly held views are coupled with a narrow and limited perspective on the Theory of Evolution that is dominant in the World today then this can generate or exacerbate problems in the Social, Economic and Political realms of human existence. This dominant view of Evolution sees the emergence of life and its gradual transitioning over time into new forms and species, as a complete random and purposeless process; and where the only dynamic at work is the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and the idea of ‘Selfish Genes’.
It can easily be shown how this misguided, one sided way of interpreting the process of Evolution, will almost inevitably lead to a lot of adverse effects on the affairs of human beings. There is the real danger that the widespread adoption of the idea of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and ‘Selfish Genes’ as the belief about the real nature of things, may encourage selfish behaviour and even promote conflict. The doctrine of Selfish Genes is merely a conjectured facet of the broader theory of evolution which is itself incomplete, and one which completely ignores the complementary role played by the process of cooperation and symbiosis. When the selfish genes idea and the notion of ‘The Survival of the Fittest’ is mistaken to be all there is to the process of Evolution and as immutable truths about life then some unhealthy ideas can emerge as a natural consequence.
For instance, in the field of Evolutionary Psychology, which tends to adhere to the Selfish Genes point of view, altruism has been explained as merely existing to serve the function of helping one’s own genes to survive. So the idea goes, when we feel an inclination to help somebody then this is because that other person would in a lot of circumstances, possess many of the same genes that we do and when we’re helping that person we’re also promoting our some of our own genes. So therefore altruism makes more sense if we help those who are more genetically similar to ourselves over those people who are less so. i.e. if we believe this then we should of course favour ourselves first, then members of our immediate family, then our clan and then our race in that order. Of course this is the perfect scientific rationale for selfishness, nepotism, racism and corruption.
It is informative to note that Nazis were influenced by ideas about Eugenics or ‘racial hygiene’ which derived directly from a narrow Materialistic interpretation of Evolution and Darwinism. Unless this viewpoint is balanced by evolutionary perspectives that emphasize co-operation and mutual codependency, then this one sided way of looking at things will most certainly lead to more greed, selfishness and corruption in the Social, Economic as well as Political realms.
Religious Fundamentalism
Another of the spiritual problems of the modern age I'd like to discuss now is something of an opposing response to the process of secularization brought about by the rise of Scientific Rationalism. We are talking about the rise of Religious Fundamentalism particularly in Christianity in the West and in Islam in the Middle East. If the New Age and the rise of various cults is characterized by a search for alternatives then Religious Fundamentalism may be seen as a retrenchment and an attempt to maintain the status quo, indeed to preserve the past. If the discoveries of
Science and the onset of the age of reason forced a reassessment of Religion, its ideas, institutions, rituals and beliefs; then Religious Fundamentalism is a total denial that there is anything amiss with existing assumptions and long held articles of faith. It is reaffirmation of traditional dogma and an unwillingness to question existing tenets as a resistance to the progression of modernity and the steady advancement of human understanding.
Indeed Religious Fundamentalism goes much further than merely insisting on the preservation of existing religious doctrines. In many cases Religious Fundamentalism asserts a literal reading of scripture as the absolute truth without any room for flexibility of interpretation. So for instance a Fundamentalist Christian will more often than not believe in the idea that the world was literally created in 6 days and that there was literally a Garden of Eden where lived Adam and Eve and from whom every human being alive today is descended. It is a view of religious scripture which does not recognize the usage of allegory or metaphor in the conveying spiritual and metaphysical ideas, and certainly not in the respective texts of the Fundamentalists i.e. Bible, Koran etc. This Literalism is also combined with a belief in the infallibility of canonical religious writings. The Religious Fundamentalist sees books like the Bible or Koran as the direct words of God without any recognition of human mediation and therefore unaffected by human imperfection. This Literalism, the literal interpretation of religious scripture as the infallible word of God, because of its denial of allegorical or hidden meanings, is therefore also a denial of the higher truths contained within the World's religions. Instead, put in the place of higher truths are the fantasies and fairy tales which were really invented to suggest indirectly these transcendent truths about ourselves and God. This situation is akin to an unwavering fixation on the finger instead of the object towards which the finger is pointing. In this way the Religious Fundamentalist may be ever hearing but never understanding and ever seeing but never perceiving.
It has been suggested that the rise of Religious Fundamentalism derives from a need in people for certainty in reaction to the metaphysical doubts, moral uncertainties and questions raised by the rise of Scientific Rationalism. So instead of a questioning of faith and revision of dogma in the response to scientific discoveries and a rational analysis of religion, we find in Religious Fundamentalism a strict adherence to what are believed to be certain and infallible views derived from religious scripture. Religious Fundamentalism is therefore characterized by a complete rejection of any revisionism. In fact quite the opposite, we see a desire to return to the 'Fundamentals' of a religion, those ideas, customs and moral perceptions which are deemed by the Religious Fundamentalists to form the original basis of their religion as they see it. What is more, sometimes in its extreme form, Religious Fundamentalism manifests itself as a backward retrogression, which seeks to turn back time and to practice a certain religion as it is imagined to have been practiced at around the time of the original founder. So a case in point is the fundamentalist movement in Islam called Wahabi'ism. This highly puritanical sect in its tenets and codes of behaviour, tries to recreate Islam as it was at the time of Muhammad, rejecting all innovations and later additions to the faith. The irony here is that to a large degree, the teachings of Muhammad were progressive and forward looking as it is generally the case for all the great spiritual teachers. Seen in this light Religious Fundamentalism can therefore be the very antithesis of what is one of the purposes of religion, i.e. the advancement of humankind towards perfection. Also, where true religion is characterized by tolerance, compassion and peace, all too often Religious Fundamentalism is characterized by intolerance, enmity and conflict. And so it is that Religious Fundamentalism, while giving some of its adherents a sense of certainty, purpose and reassurance, at the same time can work against the ideals of progress, harmony and integration.
The New age and Occult
With the abandonment of many of the traditional religious beliefs held by a great many of the people it is natural, considering the spiritual needs humans have, that new ideas should emerge to take their place. The past few centuries have witnessed a rapid proliferation in the number of new religious movements, sects and cults. The weakening hold that traditional religious institutions have had over people as a direct result of the challenge of Scientific Rationalism, has led to opportunities for new world views and beliefs to flourish. While from the time of the Enlightenment onwards, many have opted for an Atheistic Secular Humanist outlook, at the same time many others have rejected this world view absent of spirit and devoid of God. Instead this longing for an alternative spirituality has led to the popularity of the New Age, the Occult and other spiritual movements in the form of fringe cults. There is diversity here that is myriad and would comprise things like Theosophy, Mormonism, Scientology, Moonies, Witchcraft, Wicca, UFO cults, Satanism to Magic, Fairies and Crystals energies. While benefit may be derived by some of the adherents of these sorts of beliefs, at the same time all that glitters isn’t gold. While religion and the spiritual outlook has always involved a degree of suspension of disbelief, and an openness to unexplained mysteries taken on faith, some of the ideas making the rounds on the New Age circuit or the world of Cults, lend credence to statement by the writer G.K. Chesterton who famously said that, ‘When a man stops believing in God then he doesn’t believe in nothing, he believes in anything’.
Also, a flaw in the whole New Age enterprise is that due to its rampant commercialism and fixation on material gain, there is a tendency for the prophets of the New Age to tell people what they want to hear rather than what they need to know, in order to sell more books, workshops and merchandise. All too often New Age gurus are less interested in freeing the Spirit, rather more focused on liberating the contents of peoples wallets.
Taken together these spiritual problems of the present age, i.e the falling away from religion into Atheism, the emergence of Religious Fundamentalism and the degeneration of spirituality into certain aspects of the New Age and the world of Cults, can be seen as a general decline in World Religion. The age of reason and the rise of Secular Humanism has brought with it an age of spiritual darkness, as characterized by the process of Secularization, the rise of Religious Fundamentalism, Cults and fringe Sects; along with the superficiality, not to mention the crass commercialism of the New Age.