Religion provides understanding of where we are "at"

Religious Views, By ART CARNEY

The World of Wonder page (Frontiersman 7/23/02) featuring the Italian Renaissance reminded me of a recent PBS presentation that explained how the Dark Ages may have resulted from a giant volcanic eruption in Asia that caused several years of "nuclear winter" during the 4th century.

Assuming it occurred, the eruption decimated the world's population and caused many civilizations to fail, but there is an additional explanation for the fall of Rome that was inconceivable prior to our modern political concept of keeping a separation between church and state, and while many people believe the policy of separation is only some sort of a liberal antireligious sentiment, there is a very good reason for it.

In 312 AD, religion and politics were almost one and the same thing, so when the Emperor of Rome was converted to Christianity he made it the state religion, which was the natural thing to do at the time.

However, Roman culture was based on the influence of its Greek predecessors, and replacing the Greek influence with Christian beliefs caused a lot of confusion in the basic outlook and attitude of Rome's general population.

In a sense, Emperor Constantine changed horses in the middle of the stream, which altered the cultural perspective and made the normal outlook on life seem unfamiliar or faulty, resulting in a loss of identity to the majority of citizens. In place of the Gods they had grown up with and knew, a new Divine concept was put forth that did not make sense to non-Christian Romans.

Usually, catastrophic cultural changes come from outside the group and there is almost no choice but to accept the new conditions that are imposed, however, when the change is sudden and from within, people are at a loss as to how to cope with it.

In addition to the confusion of experiencing a basic change in perspective, Constantine was no doubt being given spiritual advice concerning the benefits of pursuing "God's will" and the advantages of having faith -- neither of which are geared toward the governance of an Earthly empire. Compared to the cultural upheaval caused by the replacement of traditional Gods, beliefs and attitudes, it seems that a world wide crop failure would be like child's play to an undivided Roman Empire that was left to its own devices.

Sadly, it took seven or eight hundred years of floundering in confusion before people began to come out of the Medieval mind-set to take a fresh look at themselves and their place in the scheme of things.

While I am neither an historian nor a scholar, this account of the fall of Rome and the subsequent Dark Ages seems credible to me when I compare it with the rise to power of the religious fundamentalists in Iran during the 1970s, and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in the 1990s, and while there were no sinister motives in any of these events, there were serious consequences. In all three instances, the controlling religious minority group had the "highest good" in mind for the entire population of their nation, however, what is considered to be "good" by some, is not necessarily good for all.

Humanity learns slow but it learns well, and in the years since the Renaissance, we have discovered that in a society where individual rights are upheld, people cultivate their own individual preferences and aspirations in accordance with their own knowledge, experience, values and predisposition.

Simply put, individuals can "be themselves" and find their own "highest good" within the limits that are imposed by the laws of physics, the cultural setting, and the confines of personal limitations. It amounts to doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

Many of the mysteries of nature that were "solved" by religious beliefs in the past have now been explained by science, but there will always be a cultural need for religion. Religion is the means by which we develop a necessary and personal relationship with the powers and principles of the universe.

Religion provides our understanding of where we are "at." Human beings are "required" by their rational mind, to "make sense of things" -- even if it's wrong. In truth though, it is the ongoing use of an honest and practical mind that is the primary means of having a good life and living up to our highest potential.

Art Carney is a Wasilla resident and frequent contributor to the Religion page.