Religion/History, by Sam Wisotsky

In all of society there is some form of order, some reason that keeps people from going bananas and killing each other, there is some force whether it be governmental or police that keeps people in line. In our modern society the force would be the government and judicial system. But in Karen Armstrong’s book: A history of god, it discusses a time period much farther back in time when society was not as organized enough to where there was a way to keep a large group of people from committing crimes towards each other. This is where Religion comes into affect, Religion acts as a mental police force. It threatens its believers and non believers with damnation and denial of passage in the afterlife. It uses this threat to promote order in society. In almost all religions there are many myths and stories that have an underlying message about being a better person and treating people with respect, these myths are not intended to be interpreted literally but to be viewed from a social standpoint and relay its undermining theme to society.

During the middle of this text it brings up the creation of the belief that people who ally themselves with God and make themselves into his/her image will achieve the same divinity as him/her. It begins to address how most religions have a prophet, Buddha for Buddhism, Jesus of Nazareth for Christianity, Moses for Judaism, and Muhammed for Islam. These prophets act as a stepping stone to divinity for the followers of a religion. The followers see them as an example to emulate so that they are really emulating God. This belief in achievable divinity is crucial to all religion as it leads to faith and faith is what keeps people from acting irrational. A way the book relates religion to social order is through the combination in beliefs of Plato who was a philosopher and the religion of Christianity, both of which believed in one God and had someone of the same ethical views, on treating all men with dignity. It displays how religion and philosophy had quarreled with each other in tolerance of belief, the book would address how a philosopher can see and understand that other philosophers have different ideas some of which may be better than his own. In a religious sense, there was only that religions one true God and all other religions and Gods were considered inferior, especially the lesser Gods of the pagan cults. In the next chapter the text addresses the Christian God and Jesus. It describes how the Christian God picks only the Christians to appear to and chooses them as his chosen people
God was available for all human beings, yet the Christians huddled together in a sordid little group, asserting: “god has even deserted the whole world and the motions of the heavens and disregarded the vast earth to give attention to us alone” (Armstrong 97).

It explains how he is less human and is feared more by his followers than Yahweh. The belief in the God so complicated that no one can fathom the complexity of his existence. The chronicles of Jesus are also prevalent, the text demonstrates that Jesus is considered to be god, yet he is human. It raises questions about how he can be both human and god many explanations were formed but the most popular was that God “Assuming the physical form of Jesus in order to teach men and women the way back to God.” (Armstrong 96). It was told that Jesus was the physical form of God send to atone for the sins of humankind, making mankind indebted to God for his physical martyrdom, and giving God more power over the people. The text then explains how prophets are used to show the followers the correct way to please God and begins to describe the Islamic faith. It explains that the lack of religion in Islam was beneficial to the revelation Mohammed had “There was a wide spread feeling of spiritual inferiority. Those Jews and Christians with whom the Arabs came in contact used to taunt them for being a barbarous people who had received no revelation from god.” (Armstrong 133).
Most religions have an underlying theme, a theme not only made to keep people from murdering each other, but to gather an awareness of themselves spiritually and culturally. Followers of the religion gain a sense of ‘togetherness” from their shared believes and band together in thought to try and grow as a society. They holy scriptures of different religions promote this kind of thinking by using examples of myth in their text. Theses myths are not intended to be viewed as documentation of what happened but must be seen as the underlying message “Thus the virgin birth of Christ in the womb of Mary was not primarily to be understood as a literal event but as the birth of the divine wisdom in the soul.” (Armstrong 100). Now, you may ask yourself, why would these people simply change their ideological ideals to match this new religion. Well the answer is quite simple. The followers were told they were un pure and were not in their natural state unless they were in connection with their god and their religion, “Human beings are aware that something is wrong with their condition; they feel at odds with themselves and others, out of touch with their inner nature and disoriented. Conflict and a lack of simplicity seem too characterize our existence.” (Armstrong 101). Most importantly religion was used to change a society’s way of thinking whether it be about substance abuse and diet or treating the lower class fairly,
In practical terms Islam meant that Muslims had a duty to create a just, equitable society where the poor and vulnerable are treated decently. The early message of the Koran is simple: it is wrong to stockpile wealth and to build a private fortune, and good to share the wealth of society fairly by giving a regular proportion of one’s wealth to the poor. (Armstrong 142-143)

It was necessary to change opinions in a society to further evolve its thought. In some cases different mediums were used to convey the messages about the religion in Islam speech is used, “Some stories show powerful Quarayshis who remained steadfastly with the opposition being visibly shaken when they listened to a sura. It is as thought Muhammad had created an entirely new literary form that some people were not ready for, but which thrilled others” (Armstrong 146)
It used an elaborate style of grammar that the Arabic world had not seen before, which in itself was a revelation to some people.
In conclusion from the Evidence provided, it should be understood that religion preaches not only of a divine power and a path to enlightenment, but that it also teaches good morals of society and can in some cases help a society progress throughout its time span. It is shown with Muhammad in the Arabic world, and Jesus in the Western world that if people overall choose to treat the people they live with, with respect and decency, then they will find a way to divinity whether it be with god or their own personal revelations.

Work Cited
Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: the 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York: Ballantine, 1994. Print.