The Development of Thought

We all occasionaly consider what separates us from other animals and there are those that would point towards small percents and the great length of time we have had to evolve. Others would point to language, our ability to use tools, the development of agriculture perhaps simply luck.

Yet, yet in the argument over religion the origin of man the passion that inflames both sides we fail to see the obvious. A zoologist would say perhaps as religion exists in every corner of the world in every culture some belief system to hold us together is necessary. I don't believe in god i think Islam is largely failing its people at the moment but it binds them together.

Marx tried to replace religion with another belief system but it failed, we sometimes have coffee with people that are searching for something, people always say searching for something don't they, yet really life is very simple at the basic level but the simplicity of life isn't enough to motivate people, to bind them together. They need more, they need to feel special, they struggle to accept you are just a naked ape, put here to breed the next generation. There is no fate, there is no god, there is nothing you are simply alone on this planet with the faculties you have been given and you will be dust when you die. If you get crippled in a car crash there will be no divine retribution against the criminal but society will try and punish him. If he escapes the law beyond his guilt he has escaped.

So the fundamental question in a world with no god is how do we bind people together, how do we draw them closer and motivate them? We may all mock the flyover states in the US yet their religion binds them together it gives them a fervour, a passion that has strength. You may dislike how it is directed and their ideas but one should not ignore the strength it gives them.

Unfortunately it is the case with Islam as well and anyone that frequents the streets of the UK on a Saturday night can see that a godless society with no restraint, no values, no code feels a little lost. I have talked to very sexy girls, yet one can feel they are lost. A sophisticated Atheist argument about learning is beyond them, they need a simple morale code that can be followed and by the elite removing religion, for many worthy reasons, has left them in a void and many do not have the intellect or the desire to fill it with learning and philosophy.

What should we do then? How to give someone who lacks the motivation to learn or the intellect the morale compass and meaning they desire and require. We need to adopt a strong civil code that has to be taught in our schools and unfortunately that means the end of relgious schools as it has to be universal, it has to come with clear punishment and we have to have community activities that everyone participates in such as national service. Minority views will have to, on occasions, be eschewed for the larger civil code. In some instances things may even need to be prohibited IE the burkha.

What should it contain i do not know. We have to choose though, we either all follow a relgious code or a strong civil code needs developing.I don't see any other way and religion has always existed, it may not be the truth, but man has needed it for a reason. That reason was to service a need. If there is no universal code in a country or a code the majority follow then bloodshed always, but always follows. The most difficult and perhaps most important balance we have always struggled with between conformity or uniformity and diversity.