Exploring World Religions: Cults, Morality, and Conflict

Diversity of world religions

There are 6.5 billion people in the world, of whom two-thirds believe in religion, and one-third believe in atheism. All the world religions starting from zero to more than a hundred took 20000 years. From the society in what is now to the earliest Nigeria to the smallest religion country the Vatican, religions have been diverse.  Meanwhile, they have similar characteristic or symbols based on their own culture.  “Abraham” is the same patriarch for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, even if he has different stories. To explore world religions, the perspective I have will determine my opinions.  On the other hand, there is something invariable.  The benefit is the eternal motivation for most religions.

All religions came from cults.  The term “cult” has usually been using as a social group with unusual religion.  I recognize the word “unusual” that was defined by all the major religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.  However, if I track the time line to the point before all those major religions had great amount followers, all the believer of a certain religions is “unusual” for normal people.  Compared with the common secular morality of normal people, the characteristic of belief morality stresses its transcendence and sanctity.  The transcendence of belief promotes people from the material world to the spiritual world, from the real world to the ideal world, and makes people pursue a value unrelated to the secular benefit.  “Cult” and other major religions, they both bring their followers desirable things and derive desirable things for themselves.  In contrast to the similarity of same intention, the conflict always happens.

In ancient Greek religion, the father of Zeus is Kronos. According to Barbara G. Walker, “Titan god who castrated his father Uranus and was in turn deposed by his own son Zeus. Knowing the danger his children posed, Cronus tried to prevent it by swallowing them all” (Walker 187). In this mythology, Kronos ate all his son to keep him stay dominant position by sacrificing his son. He abused his power. Whereas in the perspective of Uganda culture, the sacrifice of child is expedient for people to bring the change of their misfortune or desires. Child sacrifice is accepted by the people in Uganda. When everyone in the country desire wealth or influenced by the witchdoctor, Child is only a powerful tool. In this situation, can I say Kronos tried to maintain his status the time lord? Could he put his personal will at first? The old god in Greek mythology and people in Uganda did the right thing under their individual scenario.

Origins of religions in cults

The war between men's rights and women's rights, like the war between parents and children, has been passed down from various religions.  Women's status is still a sensitive topic until now, but it can be traced back to different countries and different times. The Burning Times is a Canadian documentary film presenting the woman witch-hunts in Europe in a few hundred years ago. It also reflects the contemporary social problems and contradictions within society. Nevertheless, the bloodbath for witches had interpreted the interpreted the original purpose of the church.   Howbeit the church couldn't manipulate people by empty words, fear was used by them as the most effective way to maintain authority. In the meantime, the bloody massacre and pornography met the needs of human nature at that period of time.

As the vital point, In 1326, the church authorized the inquisition to go beyond the investigation of heresy. Now they were encouraged to look for people who engage in witchcraft. The theory of demonology was created and established the connection between the witch and the Christian Satan. Since the innocent country woman had been marked as “witch” or had been found with “witchcrafts”, they lost their property and freedom. The following step were torture or execution which was in public.

Another documentary film The Journey of Men reveals the origin of the war between men and women from a scientific perspective.  The film starts traces the y chromosome and leads me to the earliest human on the earth.  After Bushmen leave Africa, the journey began.  People immigration was driven by water, food, and the climate change, whether they are going along the coast or on the land. Even though the races are relative due to the mutation, their body structure, skin color and language make a huge difference. What does not change is that every small group will appear a dispute over the distribution of interests. This is the hint for my beginning question. Differences of each group brought about the different sense of worth.

Taking the first group of people who leave Africa as an example, in the film, whoever is more suitable for hunting, who has mastered the most basic elements of survival, has the right to speak and has a dominant position even if the language at that time was just clicking. Another small group of Asians moved from north into Siberia and the Arctic circle. They tried to minimize the contact with cold weather to keep body warm and energy. Through the efforts of generations, they became noticeably short, with thick trunk, short fingers and small arms.  In the harsh natural environment, the conditions for them to raise offspring are also extremely severe. To improve the survival rate of infants, they relied on collective power to raise their offspring. Therefore, if I really want to adopt, the host family will let me adopt the child.  This detail really confirms that women's status is lower than men's in this group. However, from their point of view, ethnic heritage is above women's rights.

According to the written text Horace Miner "Body Ritual among the Nacirema", Most cultures show a specific structure or style. A single value or model that perceives the world often leaves its mark on several institutions in society.  For example, "male chauvinism" in Spanish culture, "inherit problem" in my china culture, and "female pollution" in some highland cultures of New Guinea, including all other countries that have same attitude about “gender” examples are beyond count. From the evolutionary point of view, these people are simply better adapted to the living environment. All they did were just the most primitive instinct of living creatures.

When I try to explore the commonness of different religions from different perspectives, I often think that if I explore these religions from a completely different field again, there is no difference here. If I look at the development of humanity from the field of quantum mechanics, is it a random development? If leaders in a specific group do not have the brutal ideas or positive decisions at that time, will it have a qualitative change in the later impact? So, is everything that has happened not worth that careful consideration anymore?  When a particular interest has no significance, will things develop the same?