Religions And Their Source/1. Religions' Origins/Endnotes

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1. Read Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934), for many insightful descriptions of how religions have influenced cultures, and how cultures have influenced people’s thoughts.

2. Uncertainty is yet another consequence of the universe’s causality. Since causality necessitates everything being related or connected (directly or indirectly) to everything else, we can never know absolutely all there is to know about all things and all events. Consequently we can never know all there is to be known about even the tiniest object or action.

3. A well written description of some of the many fascinating beliefs and rituals humans have conceived can be read in Man’s Religions. See John B. Noss, Man’s Religions, 5th ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974).

4. Arrow-head-shaped sharpened stones, cutting knives, shaped piercing stones, and stores of red ochre have been found in South African coastal caves, in debris layers that are over 100,000 years old.

5. If such an afterlife did exist, it must certainly be rather crowded by now, for where is the line drawn on admittance? (And what a temporally and culturally wide and interesting mix of inhabitants we would encounter!)

6. See Noss, Man’s Religions.

7. See Noss.

8. Or “Pious to Atom” (see Noss, Man’s Religions, 44-45). Also known as Akhenaton and Akenaten (meaning the God Aten—or Light—is satisfied) see Naguib Mahfouz and Najib Mahfuz, Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, translated by Tagreid Abu-Hassabo, (Doubleday and Company, 2000.)

9. China and Japan as recently as the past century, but also Ancient Egypt and several other cultures long ago, further believed that members of the ruling family were Earthly representatives of their God. This, no doubt, added considerably to the family’s stature and power.

10. The assumption or belief that a god created the universe does not, of itself, also mean that the universe (or anything within it) exists for a reason, or to meet some purpose.
It is entirely possible to believe that the initiating god lives or lived outside of time, or inhabits a universe completely detached from ours—thoughts not at all foreign to some of our religions, nor to some scientists. Such a creator could have fabricated our universe from either of these positions and long since forgotten that he (read He, She, It, or even a multi-faceted Entity for “he”) had done so. The originating god even may have decided long ago that he had nothing else to do, and ceased being.
Alternatively, he could have been acting whimsically at the time, and be quite unconcerned subsequently about what is happening within his creation. (This is one way to resolve the concern of some regarding how a benevolent god could permit the existence of evil, but an unacceptable explanation to many, particularly those who, for reasons of their own, want a judgmental god.) Or, he may be just sitting back, not interfering, observing how events in this universe play out, prior to deciding how to create an improved one. In other words, once we assume the existence of a god, with absolutely no factual knowledge about such an entity, we can attribute to it any properties we wish. Anything can be claimed to be god’s will (as demonstrated by the innumerable, often incongruous, religious declarations sometimes proclaimed on television or the radio), and any action can be justified (as evidenced through statements made by some religious terrorists following their appalling actions).
The whole idea of a god seem rather pointless when viewed in this manner; furthermore this perspective completely misses the concept’s major value: belief in a god-given purpose allows our minds to make moral decisions, and acting upon these decisions delivers meaning to our lives. Any other belief of equal or greater significance would do as much.

11. It is important not to confuse administration and leadership. Administrators simply follow policies, conventions, and rules. They are told what to do, either by these statements or by other people. (Political heads of state, for example, are often more administrators than leaders; many rule by listening to what the majority are saying before acting.) Leaders, almost by definition, do not heed rules or other’s instructions; they have their own internal guidance system and head where it dictates, fashioning the future as they proceed. Indeed, true leaders frequently feel that rules are made for others to follow, not them. (It might also be noted that leaders are invariably more creative than administrators—see “Creativity,” a postscript to Chapter Five.)

12. As monarchs generally live sheltered lives, few kings (or queens) have been leaders, although all possessed power enough to make their ideas bear fruit.

13. The need to improve conditions is just one of many psychological needs that influence individual’s thoughts and deeds. The need for power, the need to achieve, or the need to obtain or express love, are other well-known examples; any one or more of these may well have been the motivating factor that drove the cited individuals to behave as they did.

14. Unless we believe that the universe has always existed, or that it is only a figment of our imagination.

15. See Chapter Seven for a synopsis of this.

16. The importance of being rational in both science and religion is discussed in a postscript to Chapter Four.