Weekend at Bernie's

Ok well it had to be mentioned eventually; The Pope has died. It was in the morning on April 2 that the Vatican announced his death. For a while there I thought they were going to tell us all on April 1; then tell us all it was an April fool and in fact the Pope had died quite some time ago and, Weekend at Bernie’s style, had been puppetted about via an elaborate system of wires and pulleys.

I am told also that the Pope was catholic, in spite of this though he didn’t seem like such a bad dude. He was a voice of opposition to war and used his position of power to promote the cause of peace. He also played football, ice hockey and rugby in his native Poland, and that’s all right with me!

During his last days, one particularly poignant statement he made was “Do not weep for me,” and rightly so. The mourning thus far has been relatively sensible, the guy was clearly suffering throughout the last few years of his life, and if you believe like many people do, he has clearly gone to a better place. Needless to say though, many women in small South American villages will wail uncontrollably at the feet of Virgin Mary statues for some time to come. This leads me to suggest that in general, Christian society does not deal with death particularly well. Obviously it is painful to lose a loved one, but for so many people who say they believe in God and heaven, it really shouldn’t be that difficult. Surely if heaven really is the wonderful paradise that it’s claimed to be, then we should be happy for the dead, and our grieving is purely a selfish feeling because our friends or family aren’t around to keep us company any more.

Here in of course lies the purpose for religion. What would so many millions have to hold on to were it not for faith? The concept of an omniscient god and an afterlife, gives people a purpose for their lives when perhaps they would otherwise have none. Belief gives people comfort and gives people a reason for their existence. It is, as our old friend Karl Marx (who may or may not have also been Santa Claus) said; ‘the opium for the masses.’ Perhaps somewhat more critically he also said; ‘Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.’

So is religion a product of evolution? As the human mind evolved over time, so did more questions arise and so were more answers required. How many billions of people could not live their life without purpose and without the comfort that they were loved unconditionally by a higher power? Is this belief required for the human species to evolve successfully? Regardless of whether a god exists or not, it is worthwhile noting that religion was not created by a god, religion was created by humans.