Religions’ desperate search for causes

Why? Why? Why? From an early age, we're all obsessed with finding the reason for things. I remember being driven almost crazy by my daughter when she entered her "why" phase.

"Why are you filling up the bathtub?"
"To give you a bath."
"Why?"
"Because you're dirty."
"Why?"
"Because you played outside all day."
"Why?"
"Because your friends came over."
"Why?"
"Because they didn't recognize what an irritating little girl you can be when you keep asking why when someone is trying to wash your hair." (OK, I didn't actually say that; but I'd think it).

Today I got to a chapter about causes in the book that I've been reading, and enjoying a lot: The Mystical Mind. Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg, the authors, talked about the brain's causal operator.

Basically this is the neurological function that makes little girls ask "Why?" It also spurs grown-ups to pursue philosophy, science, and – notably – religion.

We humans have an inherent urge to seek causes for what's happening around us. If the mind can't determine the cause of something from sense data and logical inference, the causal operator keeps on chugging away regardless.

Until it comes up with a satisfying myth or other explanation for what can't be explained. What happens when we die? No one knows for sure. But this nagging question won't go away once a self-aware human brain raises it.

So religions do a booming business in providing mythical answers. They generally don't make much sense. However, our desperate search for why's causes us to cling to just about any answer that's emotionally satisfying.

Why is my life so screwed up?
Don't worry, Jesus has a plan for you.
Oh, thank you. Now I feel better.

Many other words can be substituted for "Jesus." God. Allah. The guru. Destiny. The Tao. Providence. Karma.

Whichever, they all point to a pleasing alternative to chaotic unpredictable unknowingness. Somebody or some force is in charge of things, including what happens to us.

We may not know what's going to pop into or out of our life at any given moment. But the belief that all this popping has a plan behind it is deeply reassuring. Hence, the popularity of religions.

The religion I know best is of the Eastern variety, Sant Mat (in the guise of Radha Soami Satsang Beas).

I was initiated into this mystical-meditational form of spirituality in 1971, after my wild and crazy Flower Power '60s years. Suddenly I went from flowing freely with whatever happened into a worldview where everything had a place, and there was a place for everything.

Morality. Diet. Worship. Theology. I no longer had to struggle to figure out what to do or what to believe. All the answers were in the books, magazines, tapes, and videos that I filled my brain with.

My causal operator was being fed just what it wanted: answers, reasons, causes.

Consider karma. This is a marvelous explanation for everything and anything, though in truth it doesn't explain much at all – about the big questions of life, at least. "Instant karma" is a decent explanation for the course a ball struck on a pool table takes.

That's because you can see the cause and effect. However, saying "that was your karma" when someone has an auto accident really doesn't add to an understanding of the situation.

Still, it can give the person a feeling that life makes sense on another level. Not the level of everyday experience, where the general rule is stuff happens, but on a mythical plane of reality where life's events are being planned just so.

There's nothing wrong with desperately seeking causes. Without that urge, science and philosophy wouldn't exist. However, religion shortcuts the seeking.

And that's bad. We end up satisfied with explanations that really aren't satisfying. But they're available, so we hang on to them for dear life.

Like the song said, sort of, "If you can't be with the cause you love, love the cause you're with."

Well, that's fine, so long as we realize what we're settling for: a second-rate date with religious mythologies.

Comments

[william]

“Consider karma. This is a marvelous explanation for everything and anything, though in truth it doesn't explain much at all – about the big questions of life, at least.”

Your right I don’t think karma explains much and used by religion as a fear factor (punishment) to control a society unless of course one sees the link between oneness, manifestation, innocence, ignorance and suffering as it “applies” to the evolution of consciousness to pure awareness.

I see karma all around us in the world. If a country is selfish, imperialistic, promotes wars for profits, upholds making huge profits from the sick and needy, teaches that greed is good, and believes in a economic system of haves and have nots; that county creates problems for itself of magnitude proportions.

One of my favorite authors gunnels said it best: "A nation that spends more year after year on military offense (and I mean offense) than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death". (Gunnels)

Gunnels spent his life seeking answers to the big questions and he got so close to discovering the origin of ignorance. He was one thought away from that discovery with his words “all of creation is relative”. To suggest as I think your authors have stated that the physical brain is totally responsible for this seeking and not consciousness (the hard problem) is the power of a materialistic paradigm at its best. In the nineties I read so many books on the brain being the center of consciousness but none could solve the hard problem of consciousness.

As far as religion I spent years doing research on religion. It is a necessary foundational search but one must not stop there. A seeker most move beyond religious beliefs and seek out those that sought evidence that supports such questions is there life after death and the meaning of life and karma.

There are very few seekers in the world most people that pretend to be seekers will not read anything outside their existing paradigms.

Religion is a necessary phase of an evolution of consciousness. Religion would not exist if not supported by those that need simple answers to complex questions that interesting enough have simple truths. Illogical religious beliefs almost made an atheist out of me until the day came to decide to seek my own answers to the mysteries of life and what we humans call death. Those on the other side almost to a persona state that we are “more dead” than they are.

Interesting Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity has many illogical beliefs but also has many statements contained within them of profound wisdom. Separating the two is the challenge.

My favorite illogical belief is the Christian pastor that will stand up during their Sunday sermon and state “every word in this bible is truth” and at that moment I would like to have the courage to stand up and state to everyone and the pastor “well lets get busy and do some killing because there is a mall right across the street and about 800 people are working on the Sabbath and that book you are holding up states that those people that work on the Sabbath shall be put to death. These illogical beliefs and the condemnation I would receive from the congregation are the power of paradigms.

Bet the response I would get in that church would be a lot more severe than I often get on this blog when I challenge someone’s cherished beliefs.

[Robert Paul Howard]

Dear william,

Further, as defined by Ex. 20:8-11, the Sabbath was/is on what we call Saturday (from Friday night sundown to Saturday sundown). Very few Christian sects actually "rembemer" the (Biblical) "Sabbath" - let alone keeping it "holy." (As if anyone cares.)

Robert Paul Howard

[Robert Paul Howard]

To all:

Unlike such "sages" as who "never look back," admit error, or correct their typos, I acknowledge my typographical error for "remember" in my last note. I don't, however, feel alone for having made the error. (I am, however, rather more alone in acknowledging such an error.)

Robert Paul Howard

[william]

Robert: my point was many want to think they have the "truth" even if their truth means they believe in a book that advocates killing others and their god has make them chosen people and even told them to kill entire cities of men, women, and children. People will kill others and even send off their children to die defending their “truths”. The ego is so deceptive it will even send other children off to die to satisfy its lust for greed and power but not its own self or its children. The Vietnam and Iraqi war are classic examples of this phenomenon.

My observation has been once we buy into any system of beliefs whether it be Tao, Buddhism, Hinduism, Advaita, or whatever then our beliefs become thee beliefs and anyone that even offers a different view of reality the ego goes into an attack mode even to the point of forgetting such things as compassion and love.

The best expression and concept I have found for this mental condition is paradigm paralysis.

The ego wants to be known for knowing and at this stage of our evolutionary journey we all to some degree identify much more with our ego than our spirit. Also the ego wants to think it is special and will say things to make it feel special like not many will do or admit what I did and etc.

Most of the posts on this blog and others including mine demonstrate this phenomena of the ego in action.

[Edward]

Ultimately most important to be satisfied seeking? Little satisfactions, much seeking?

In the Bodhidharma "Bloodstream Sermon:" "Unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause and effect is nonsense. Buddhas don't practice nonsense."

In the Courtney Love song "Gutless:" "I don't really miss God..."

One of them was a little girl.

[Robert Paul Howard]

Dear william,

I understood your "point." I also underwrote it by further pointing out that many - probably most - who use the Bible (or any other "holy" book/document) for their authoritative basis often don't correctly understand what the words in that document actually were stating. The confusion over which day properly is the Biblical "Sabbath" shows this.

I do, nevertheless, quite agree with your statement that: "Most of the posts on this blog and others including mine demonstrate this phenomena of the ego in action." It is quite apparent to me that egotism runs rampant on this blog - particularly among some who proclaim that the ego does not even exist.

Robert Paul Howard

Robert thanks for the comments. I don’t know for sure what made it available to me to see others and often my own ego in action but it could have been three years attending a course in miracles study group.

Also I showed the video "the business in paradigms" over 200 times in my weeklong transformational seminars. It was about the 80th showing of this video that I think I got it as it applies to me and my paradigms.

It can be a painful experience to view ones own paradigms and begin to see how our personal paradigms affect our view of the world.

Here is a link of a guy that seems to have done a lot of research on the bible and I am sure would be considered a heretic by most pastors. http://bible-truths.com/

I feel when we use one book such as the bible to find all of our truths this i think can be very constrictive and limit our view of reality. My research approach has been to use a cross validation approach and study as many spiritual disciplines as possible. One of those has been spiritualism, which has turned out to be a fascinating 6 years.

For the most part very few in the world knows very little about spiritualism and its communication with the other side. The spiritualists made two major mistakes: one they failed to have a central control to ferret out fraud and mediums of limited abilities and the other tried to make a religion out of their communication with the other side.

[william]

whoops previous comments posted by william