Willem Drees asserts that religions "emerged in confrontation with the power of storms, of the sea and the mountains, thunder and lightning. When confronted with unpredictable events we still use animistic language. We even do so in our dealings with technological products; the car 'does not want' to start and the computer 'does not understand us'. Animistic language seems outdated, a projection; lightning is no longer seen as thrown down upon us by wrathful gods. But still we humans use such figures of speech, though often in more positive versions as talking with trees, discerning 'a plan' in life's events and denying meaningless contingency."

Is religion then simply a product of the brain's innate capacity and dogged determination to find or create meaning, pattern, or continuity in all that it encounters and perceives? Consider the fact that while there is a blind spot on the retina there is (usually) not a blind spot in one's field of vision? The brain (not the "mind"), rather like the rest of nature, abhors a vacuum and does us the courtesy of continuing the pattern perceived despite the lack of sensory input due to the presence of the optic nerve and the concomitant absence of information. Pattern is necessary. And where there is nothing, a pattern will be created over it. A meaning will be imbued. A story will be told.

And so we continue today with the third part of a series on creation narratives and their possible meanings. All of the columns are excerpts from Willem Drees' new book Creation: From Nothing Until Now (Paperback or Library Binding, 128pp; ISBN: 0-4152-5653-4; Routledge; December 2001). Parts 1 & 2 were posted to Metanexus:Views on 2001.12.17 and on 2001..12.18 respectively. In his analysis of the creation of creation narratives, Drees observes that religions

"may have emerged partially in the confrontation with the accidental in our own lives and those of others dear to us. One can think, also in our time, of transitions and crises such as birth and death. Religious language is, among other things, a way of speaking of humans who have to cope with aspects of reality they do not understand or control. Thus, religious practices and beliefs may have been important to our ancestors as ways to maintain social, cosmic, and personal order."

In other words, religion and/or religions are a way to keep the world from falling apart. But is this all they are? To discover Prof. Drees' view on the matter, read on!

Willem B. Drees is professor of philosophy of religion and ethics at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He has an advanced degree in theoretical physics (Utrecht, 1977) and doctorates in theology (Groningen, 1989) and philosophy (Amsterdam, 1994).

--Stacey E. Ake

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Subject: Creation: From Nothing Until Now, Part 3 From: Willem B. Drees Email: <wb@drees.nl>

Religion cement of the tribe response to power of mountains, the storm, the sea, birth and death, power as large as gods. Yesterday ten thousand years ago Abel was killed by his brother, we farmers eat ashamed our bread, the earth cries, forever red? A new age, a prophet warns king and people, a carpenter tells 'a man who fell among robbers, was cared for by an enemy'.

Religions arose in human history. The evidence is indirect. Whereas fossils may reveal an upright posture or a particular brain size, convictions do not leave univocal traces. Graves may provide clues. Ritual burial was already an established practice tens of thousands of years ago, even among the Neanderthals. Perhaps they believed in an afterlife.

Religions need not be seen as merely by-products of human evolution. Rituals and myths may have been essential in the emergence of humans. Genetic and cultural information co-evolved in our evolutionary history. The more culture demands, the more brain capacity becomes an important asset for those endowed with it. Culture is a social phenomenon, present in groups of hominids. Living together must have been a serious challenge. Among the ants the social life of large groups is supported by the genetic relatedness between the individuals involved. Among hominids this has not been the case, at least not in the same extent. How did groups manage to live together? Myths and rituals may have been essential as cement of the tribe. The rituals that make the boy into the warrior and the girl into the bride, affirm everybody's place in and commitment to the group. Myths, stories transfer the values of the group from generation to generation. Without such religious support for social order humans would not have evolved in the way they have.

Religions also emerged in confrontation with the power of storms, of the sea and the mountains, thunder and lightning. When confronted with unpredictable events we still use animistic language. We even do so in our dealings with technological products; the car 'does not want' to start and the computer 'does not understand us'. Animistic language seems outdated, a projection; lightning is no longer seen as thrown down upon us by wrathful gods. But still we humans use such figures of speech, though often in more positive versions as talking with trees, discerning 'a plan' in life's events and denying meaningless contingency.

Religions may have emerged partially in the confrontation with the accidental in our own lives and those of others dear to us. One can think, also in our time, of transitions and crises such as birth and death. Religious language is, among other things, a way of speaking of humans who have to cope with aspects of reality they do not understand or control. Thus, religious practices and beliefs may have been important to our ancestors as ways to maintain social, cosmic, and personal order.

Agriculture began about ten thousand years ago. Humans crowded together in small areas such as fertile plains along rivers. This gave more opportunity for small elites to control the harvest; societies became more hierarchical. There will have been conflicts between sedentary farmers and nomads with their cattle. In the Hebrew bible, the Old Testament, we see traces of such conflicts. The nomadic sons of Jacob travel for food to agricultural Egypt. One of the most vivid stories of the clash between nomads and farmers is the one about Cain and Abel. Abel herds sheep; Cain is at first working the land. These brothers stood in each others way; the nomad was killed. The transition between nomad and farmer is still fluid in those centuries. Cain wanders and becomes the forefather of shepherds, wandering musicians and blacksmiths. Thus to fratricide they ascribed in Israel the emergence of a semi-nomadic tribe, the Kenites. Out of these the father-in-law of Moses, Jethro, would come.

The transition to agriculture resulted in the cohabitation of larger groups. It allowed for the emergence of cities, since farmers produced more than needed for their own families. These new technologies were not merely resulting in an economic transition; value systems had to change as well. Such new circumstances will have resulted in stress; stress which was resolved in modified rituals. The place and responsibilities of each one in the social structure had to be indicated and internalized. That is also one of the functions of the commandments of the Old Testament, including commandments which in general terms are still ours (such as 'the Ten Commandments') as well as commandments which we lay aside as rules from a time and world which is now gone.

All those millennia religions seem not to have been oriented towards change or redemption, but towards the maintenance of personal, social and cosmic order. The priests and the powerful were on the same side. In the context of their religion people interpreted their lives, with its fortunes and misfortunes. The social order seemed obvious and unchangeable. In the context of the community one affirmed one's own position in life and accepted one's death.

Some centuries before the beginning of our era a new attitude emerged, and with it new types of religion. Karl Jaspers, who introduced this view of cultural history, spoke of the Axial Age. He thereby presented this period as a turning point in cultural history. This period, between 800 and 200 BCE, has been significant in different regions on our globe. In Greece there were great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In Israel prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea were active. In Persia there was Zoroaster, in India Gautama (Buddha) and Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, and in China Confucius and Lao Tze (Taoism). The world religions arose aside of the tribal religions.

It is risky to emphasize common aspects of developments in all these regions; differences in cultural traditions are significant. However, in various ways one of the fruits of the changes in these centuries was a greater sense of individual responsibility. The continuation of the tribe or community with its fixed positions and role expectations was no longer primary, but rather the focus was on the individual and what he or she could become. Besides, the social and cosmic order is no longer affirmed. Instead, our current earthly existence is felt lacking. In the religious myths our lives are confronted with something different, something better. In Hinduism this is redemption out of the cycles of earthly existence, in Buddhism it is Nirvana and Enlightenment. Among Jews the expectation of a Kingdom of God develops; in Christianity this longing returns also with a more individual focus as expectations about redemption and eternal life.

In consequence, whereas earlier religions affirmed one's place in the course of events, the world religions also nourished prophetic protest. The prophets in Israel weren't fortune-tellers divining the future. Rather they were individuals who came forward to speak to the king and the people about their doings and dealings. Prophetic texts have something ominous; they announce judgment on those who do not live rightly. But they also spoke of hope when the people lost confidence. The prophetic religiosity that has emerged in history out of the tribal religious traditions integrates criticism and longing. Faith is no longer mainly about powers that we do not understand or control. Faith becomes also the confrontation with situations in reality that we do not want to accept. To articulate this critical dimension, there is a dualistic element in religious images, a contrast between what is and what should be, whether articulated in the pair of earth and heaven, or as the city of men and the city of God, or as the present and the Kingdom, nature and grace, or in one of many other ways.

A few centuries later, someone asked Jesus what was the most important commandment. Jesus returned the question: 'What do you yourself think?' Upon which the one who asked answered: 'To love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself'. Then he asked Jesus whom he had to count as his neighbors. How far does this extend? Then Jesus told a story of 'one of us' who had been attacked while on the road. A priest passed by. One of us, but he did nothing. An assistant of the temple passed by. One of us, but he too did not help. And a man from Samaria came by. Not one of us; the Samaritans weren't our friends. But this stranger halted, he took care of the wounded man and brought him to an inn. When he had to leave, this Samaritan even left some money so that the innkeeper would continue caring for the man.

Jesus told stories. Stories about Jesus are told. Those stories have found their way into faith in miracles and have resulted in complicated theological constructions, for instance about the relationship between Jesus and God. In my opinion, more important than such speculative interpretations of Jesus are the parables, the Sermon on the Mount and the other stories. I believe that we primarily should seek to share the faith of Jesus, rather than faith in Jesus. In the attention given to those who were excluded, in the invitation to those who did not expect a future, as for instance the 'lost son', the prophetic protest and longing speaks to us. Boundaries are abandoned; the stranger takes care of the beaten.

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Published   2001.12.27