a personal response on Karen Armstrong's Homoreligiosis

 The early civilizations of human life, the Homo sapiens, embarked their young on a sort of initiation ceremony that marked the transformation of an adolescent boy to a man; but it was not a ritual or a practice or words he must memorize, he must face the unknown. He must enter a pitch-black cave and immerse himself into the lonely darkness. To face death is not an easy thing, it may change one’s view on life, maybe make him appreciate that which gives him the comfort of stability and peace. During the initiation, the boy is annihilated from any normal or natural states of mind. When the boy experiences the paintings, he will be altered in a way that will change his mind forever. There is no rule or way of doing so; it is a matter of personal experience and discovery of one’s self. In the discovery, he learns to find value in life and find meaning through understanding. As Armstrong mentions ‘As meaning-seeking creatures, men and women fall very easily into despair we want to find value in life’. Humans have an urge to find a reason for staying alive, and suffering through hard times. This might be a result of evolution, of carrying on the genes for survival for our race. The more humans believe in a meaning of life and therefore fear death, the stronger the population grows.

                As the times change, so do our needs for survival, and therefore also do our ways of getting it. For example, as humans discovered the use of agriculture, less hunting was necessary, and worshiping the animals was not as significant. Rather, people started to worship the sun and the rain, which provided them with crops to survive. Religion, therefore, is derived from mankind getting what they want or need from a higher power. This may consequence in the creation of an archetype. If studied closely, most religious stories contain the existence of an all-powerful being, which created the universe in infinite love, warning them about the dire consequences of disobedience, and providing them with eternal happiness if obeyed. Going back to my original point, this is because humans need reassurance that their long-suffering struggle for survival has not been in vain. Humans use religion as a form of encouragement to do good and thank something for the services the world provides us with.