Uncategorized

How War Has Created The Need For God, Religion and Ideological Madness

Over many eons, primitive Homo sapiens gradually became smarter and smarter. And because Man had become so clever, neither fox, nor wolf, nor coyote, nor tiger, nor bear could catch him. Of course, every now and then a man would get eaten by a bear or a lion, but in general, this early Man had become much too smart and resourceful for this fate. And so it happened that after many hundreds of thousands of years, the only thing Man really had to fear were the men living in his neighboring village. And by the law of averages, the bigger the village, the greater the danger.


In World War 1 and 2 alone, some 100 million persons died. In the 20th century alone, it estimated some 160 million perished. And to be certain, these are not only deaths attributable to battle, but also through ancillary causes like famine and disease that war engenders. Extrapolating from these numbers, it is not unreasonable to suggest that as many as 1 person in 10 has died as a direct or indirect consequence of war throughout Man’s long history on this Earth.

Wikipedia: List Of Wars By Death Toll

If we accept the above as more or less fact, then we can see in terms of evolution, what an enormously high selection pressure war would have exerted on Homo sapiens. As we are all familiar with the irrational fear of spiders and snakes (most of them being harmless, thus we say the fear is ‘irrational’), we can imagine what kind of instinct war would engender in us. It would inspire something like xenophobia — the instinct that says ‘be afraid of strangers; do not wander too far away from the group; fear anyone unlike your own tribe.” Because death by war in the last 100,000+ years was such an enormous probability, evolution couldn’t leave it up to plain intellect to ’solve’ this problem — a raw instinct to fear our fellow man needed to evolve. By necessity, the fear of our fellow man became a reflex. And at bottom, this is what instinct is — a reflex of the mind.


Many eons ago, primitive man lived in small family groups only. These families had a father, a mother, a couple brothers and a few sisters. There were uncles, aunts and cousins, and grand parents. There were 10 to 30 people living in these early clans anthropologist have hypothesized. They were bonded together by blood. Mostly, they had descended from the one, strong father who led them — the father that protected them. They all knew and loved this man. And when he died, his son would take his place in their hearts and allegiance. In these small clans, as long as they all worshipped the same father, the same leader, they were one family, one tribe, one indivisible unit.


But the reality for these early people was, a family of 20 persons could easily be wiped out by a family of 50. A clan of 50 could easily be killed by a clan of 200. And a tribe of 200 could easily be slaughtered by a tribe of 1000. But how was it possible for a 1000 people to live together like a family? Could they all love one another? Could they respect one another and cooperate? Did they all know the same strong and protecting father? Were they all born of the same mother? Did everyone know everyone else personally? To all these questions, the obvious answer is no. So to protect themselves against warring neighbors, the group perilously needed to act like one big family. They all needed each other’s cooperation, protection and allegiance. And how they achieved this was simple — by believing in one and the same great spirit father. Anyone that did not believe in the same great spirit father was simply not part of the family. Those non-believers were ostracized, maybe even killed. Because anyone not subscribing to the same ideas, threatened the groups unity. But so long as the fellow who slept in your camp at night believed in the same spirit father, he was your brother.


Armed with this concept of the Invisible Father who loves all of his children, clans were now able to grow into villages. Villages grew into cities, and cities eventually grew into nations. Indeed, man rapidly expanded his civilization over the last 5,000 years. But despite his civilization, modern man still remains the terrible hunter who sometimes hunts his fellow man. It is clear in his cities of millions, man is not safe from the millions of other city dwellers who live on the other side of the ocean. Instead of spears and rock axes, man now wields missiles, and unmanned drones to do his killing. Millions may be slaughtered at the press of a button.


And in order that his group grow bigger and stronger — remember “there is safety in numbers”– man must not only be committed to his own ideologies, but he must spread his ideology. Clearly any person that would reject a man’s ideology, his morals, or his ideas, it is understood that that person would also reject his God. And if a man rejects your God, he is not your brother. And if he is not your brother, the primitive xenophobia that has evolved in all of us says “fear him; stay away; kill him first lest he kill you”. This is the law of the jungle. This is the law upon which every man, at least unconsciously, operates.


So following from this train of thought, we now have a basis for understanding the motive for the drive to perpetually recruit new members into a religious group. A man seeks to ‘recruit’ his fellow man into his own group so that his group should be come more powerful, more safe — a stronghold that will outlast the next group that may attack it. He shuns those that disagree with his ideas, his morals, his God. If you disagree, you have become the enemy. We see this ‘clan’ behavior best illustrated today in politics, sports and, in fact, in any situation where there’s a way to define one group of people as separate and distinct from another. I ask you, why else do we have the constant lunacy of Conservative versus Liberal? Mac user versus Windows user? iPhone user versus Android user? In this modern era, we hear these ideological-driven people sometimes talk about the love of their smart phone operating system as if their life depended on it. And they speak of the proponents of the alternative phone operating system, as if they deserved nothing less than death. (Read some of the blogs around the internet and their comments — this smart phone affiliation is taken up with psychopathic earnest.) Is humiliation and ridicule a fitting punishment for someone whose smart phone bears a fruit instead of a little robot emblem? Yes, it seems emblems and logos are powerful markers of clan affiliation. And because clan affiliation is everything for our survival, we guard our clan’s belief-system with a keenly jealous heart.


So we have killed each other through the millennia. Like natural selection has chosen long, slender beaks for birds that suck nectar from flowers, likewise, natural selection — through the selection pressures of warfare — has engendered the concept of ‘god’ in the psyche of Man. With our love for the “one true father in heaven”, we bind ourselves to our neighbors. And with our constant recruitment of new fellows into the fold, baptized with our ideology, we steadfastly grow our clan. This is the insanity of the Catholic church’s missions to convert foreign peoples to Christianity. This is the mission of the Jehovah’s walking up and down our streets who seek to bring us into their church.

Do these well intentioned people know they are held captive by this blind instinct to recruit because of a psyche shaped by countless centuries of warfare?

Hi, I’m Jeff

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *