Social Religion

Why is it that you feel satisfied and joyful after attending a religious event such as the Sunday church mass with all its prayers and singing. Is it because you really got closer to God? Is it because in your mind, you think that you had done something great by following your religious beliefs piously? Is it a feeling that cannot possibly be described in words since it is doubt as spiritual? I guess not. The feeling stems from the core of human needs. Humans are very social beings. You ought to observe the same positive effect after a long day of interacting with others. You can expect the same intense feeling from camps, parties, family reunions and vacations. So one simple way to uplift your day instantly is to talk to friends and  get in touch with as many people as you can.  This makes your day social. And social means happy. This is another reason why people crave for religious events as much as family reunions, parties or sleep overs with friends. Religious gatherings are social, not spiritual. Just look at how similar religious gatherings can be to a music concert. Churches are getting bigger, songs of workship are getting more akin to concerts and listening to charismatic preacher is like watching a good stand up comedy show (Go watch Benny Hinn in Youtube). All round fun surrounded by friends and family. No wonder churches attract the young. Church camps are also a good place to mingle around. What is it that is so different from your average scout camps? I don't see much difference. Both are, social events. If you truly believes in god, why care about attending to all these seemingly frivolous events while you should already be able to communicate directly to the omnipotent one. You have already been given the all in one book, all that you need to know about the religion. The rest are unnecessary extras that you do not need, except, maybe, you need the social benefits.

Let's run a thought experiment. If the world that we are living right now has another major religion that does not require any form of pilgrimage, weekly gatherings or any other big events in its spiritual calender. You do not need to sacrifice your time attending any events. You don't even have to pay for anything. It's all free. All you have to do is to read the all-in-one book and make your prayers anytime and anywhere. Say the book is equally as impressive as the others so you do not lose out on any good moral values or teachings. Basically, what you have is a religion on par with the current 2 largest monotheistic religions but minus off all the social aspects of them. Do you think this new religion will be as popular as the other two? Will you be feeling more happy with this new religion than without any religion in the first place? How long do you think you can continue to 'speak' to the one above without ever getting a response before you start to doubt your own sanity? You are all alone in this theoretical religion. Doesn't sound much fun now does it?

If all that you have in a religion is a book, and a book only, then this class of religion should fails to attract its followers mainly because there is no incentive to be in it. There is no sense of belonging and very little social interactions to be derived from besides the communication with the one deity in the book. Religion loses appeal when its social aspect is taken away. Undoubtedly, this partly proves that religion is indeed man made.


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