While some of the thoughts here are complete, some are not yet finished. Maybe someday I will put up links to references that will help you to make up your own mind about the things I have to say here. It is likely that this page will offend many. My intention is to speak what I see as the truth, if that offends you, then you are probably among many in a crowd. I have to consider all those that have gone before me, spoken the truth the way they have seen it, and offended many in the crowd. Then I realize that while I may be wrong, I am probably in good company.

It occurs to me that we are making up a good portion of our lives, and most of us don't even realize it. The fact that we have that ability is what makes us unique in the animal kingdom. (Not that we are the only unique animals on Earth.) We do not rely completely on instinct for our survival; we have the ability to make up new ways to better our lives, to enrich our worlds, to entertain ourselves. Instinct doesn't tell us to listen to music, the way it tells the deer to listen for the lion. Instinct doesn't tell us to use saws, hammers, wood, and glass to build a house, the way it tells a bird to use grass and twigs to build a nest. Though instinct may tell us to run from a lion, or to find shelter, we make up how we do those things.

Many thousands of years ago, when people first started living in communities, our social structure was much different. Times of chaos were at hand when the science of government was not organized, so humans brought politics into being. Those structures, while probably not intended at first, helped people get along better. People then changed the political forms to make them work, according to what their beliefs were. We now see monarchies, socialist countries, democracies, etc. We, as humans, had the capacity to make up our own system of government.

In the animal kingdom, we see political structures. Herd and pack animals work together for the good of the group. They organize themselves according to their place in the assemblage, and this helps them survive. They however, do not have the ability to make up a new system, as they are controlled strictly by their instincts.

So we make something up, and attach some importance to it. We then spend a great deal of our time trying to convince other people that the thing we have just made up should be as important to them as it is to us. We have endless debates about who is right and who is wrong regarding any given subject, and fail to realize that in the end, it really doesn't matter. It's all made up anyway.

So we come to a biggie, religion. Now, the way I see it, religion, like all of our other social structures, is made up. (I feel the hate mail coming already.) We, again, attach some importance to our belief system, then spend our time and energy trying to convince everyone else that we are right, and they are wrong. An old example of this would be Christianity, and a new example Wicca.

Christianity came to be quite a while back, and has made a lot of changes over the many centuries that it has been around. The original bible was written in Greek and Hebrew, and has since been translated, more times than any other manuscript in history. Now, I would suggest that anything that had been through that many translations would be suspect. The proof of that however, can be found if one wishes to look for it. One only need know who had the translation done, and the motives of that person, to understand just how suspect it truly is. There is no question that Christianity has changed over the years, and is not the same religion it once was. Has God then changed? Perhaps people have just started seeing things differently, and changing the religion to fit their needs... you know, finding new ways to make it up.

Wicca on the other hand, has only actually been around for less than a century. Wicca is based on, what is believed to be pre-Christian European belief systems. But since those who practiced other forms of spirituality openly, when Christianity moved in, were either converted or killed, and since a good portion of those practitioners couldn't read or write, there is no real way to prove the origins of the Wiccan religion. On top of that, there are several different 'traditions' within the Wiccan religion, and a good portion of those traditions can be directly traced to their (in most cases, still living) creators; to those that made the tradition up.

I am not picking on Christianity or Wicca, they are only examples. If you were to trace the origins of any religion, you would find that somewhere, somehow, that religion was in fact, made up by humans. How else would it get here? Divine inspiration? Well, when we see the likes of Jim Jones, and David Koresh, who both claimed divine inspiration, it could tend to make us question that possibility. Suppose we do consider that prospect, is it not still the interpretation of a human, who has human experiences and human ideas? The fact of the matter is, until we actually die, and look into the face of that which some call God, we will not KNOW. All we really have here, is faith.

Now, since we are all making it up anyway, what is the big deal? Why is it so important, to people, to have others believe the same way that they do? The answer lies in our basic need to belong. Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that after our physiological needs, and our safety concerns have been taken care of, our need for love, and belonging comes into play. This could, indeed, explain our quest for religion. Religions being groups of people that hold the same beliefs on some spiritual level. Since spirituality is so intimate, those relationships then also become intimate on some level, thus giving us a sense of love and belonging. Isn't religion great that way?

In a broad sense, I see religion as a necessity. That is not to say that every person needs religion to feel love and belonging, but I also realize that religion does give that comfort to some that would not have it otherwise. It also helps people to feel better about the reasons they are on this earth in the first place, helps them feel better about the fact that they will die one day, and offers what I call "pabulum for the soul." That is to say, it offers an amount of spirituality that can sustain a spiritual creature, without that creature having to put too much thought into it. Not everyone has all day to contemplate, and figure out for them selves, where they will go when they die. Most people are just not that interested, and take a great deal of comfort in the fact that there are clergy-people out there, gurus if you will, to do that thinking for them.

In the end, all I am really trying to say is that the only hard reality in religion or spirituality is the importance we attach to that belief system... the faith we have. While that too is made up, at least it is something we make up about ourselves, and not about God (in whatever form one chooses to see an omnipitant being). That being the case, it confuses me why anyone would get so uptight about someone elses belief. If it isn't yours, don't embrase it. If it is yours, talk about it if you want to, but why should it matter to you if someone else believes it. Unless of course, you are only interested in debate.