RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS

(Sorry it has taken me so long to post this - moved house and forgot which computer it was on.)

In a previous post I reported I was reading Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton, a book which seemed to be the answer to many questions about what it is that strikes me as special about the country of Mexico, especially the religious aspects of the country.  Trained as a sociologists I kept thinking I saw “community”, that thing which sociologists felt had been in decline since 1850.  Indeed Auguste Comte (1798-1857) the French sociologist, who first applied the name to a field of study, made significant contributions to our understanding of societal developments before attempting to create a religious-like program which would accomplish what religion had done previously. He saw community disappearing and wanted to rebuild it without religion.   F. Toennies (18551936) made sociology’s concerns clearer when he developed the concepts of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the former term usually translated by “community” or a society held together by emotional and personal relationships.  In this state  we come to know each other more holistically, we tend to be more open and authentic and we feel more obliged to help others.  The later is modern society where contractual relationships (at work, shopping and so on) bind people together.  We live in a less charged emotional world, always try to present our best face and don’t really know those we even call friends.  In the latter phase there is much less constraint on the ego and too often it “runs amok”.  It creates the “me” generation and many of the other ills of society; the self is homeless and the ego becomes dominant and no one want to tell you when your behaviour is inappropriate since “nobody is the boss of me”.

Friederick Nietzsche (1844-1900) coined the phrase “God is dead”, among others, and with this phrase encouraged us to abandon a belief in God.  Religions were non-rational and humans, having created God, were capable of developing a rational basis for living, for morals, for relationships and so on.

Into this context comes the book Religion for Atheists.  It begins by suggesting the most boring question to ask is: is religion true?  It is very simple to suggest that God and many of the stories of the Bible, or of any religion, do not stand up to the test of science.  If instead we accept that God is dead and the various unsupportable claims made by religions are dismissed:  What is left of religion?  Is it of any use?   To often the answer draws upon another concept from Nietzsche, “the bad odour of religion”, and we tend to reject everything. Even a hint of morality turns people off.  All religions and their 2500 years of thinking about the human condition are dismissed.  Nothing is left and we are on our own.  We would rather believe the most recent research by psychologists than consider issues humans have thought about for centuries.  We tend to believe that the past teaches us nothing.

Botton suggests that all religions have two broad goals:  First “the need to live together in harmony, despite our deeply rooted selfish and violent impulses.  And second, the need to cope with terrifying degrees of pain which arise from our vulnerability to professional failure, to troubled relationships, to death of loved ones and to our own decay.”  God may be dead but these two important needs continue to haunt us.  Botton attempts to scavenge religious books to separate the non-rational from the helpful, suggesting there are many ingenious concepts with which to understand and perhaps solve the ills of secular society.  If self-help books can be helpful why not 2500 years of religious thought.

The Catholic mass is a beginning point.  The mass works to breakdown many of the social divisions which separate us.  People of all work, income or status groups come together to share, listen, sing and pray together.  We are reminded very quickly that we are all in this together, we want the same attention and love from God.  Second, we all listen to a very moral language and its lessons are repeated over and over.  Third we are surrounded by the great moral figures of our history in the form of statuary. Fourth, the rituals of the occasion are often repeated and the audience plays an important role, responding to requirements to pray, to sing and to recite very common lines.  All of these help unite people and the repetition drives home simple but important messages.  Fifth, the very building in which the mass is conducted has been intentionally created to make us look up, be quiet and to realize how small we are.  Our egos are all put in their proper place.

Botton includes a whole chapter on architecture and I was struck by the debate which emerged during the reformation.  Protestants were incensed at the money spent on Catholic churches and the extensive use of art work, statuary and so on.  Protestants argued that the bible alone could work just fine even if in a simple home surrounded by the squalor of the growing industrialization.   Catholics argued that we could only be uplifted in a beautiful location and they went on a building spree to illustrate their beliefs. It does seem that the Protestants were wrong on this issue and we now all appreciate the value of beautiful building, parks, streets and the value of untrammelled nature.  All of these things appear to heal the spirit and protect it from the roughness of many parts of the community and of life.

The author also takes us back to 1792 when revolutionary France separated the state from the Catholic church.  Three days after this declaration the state opened the Louvre gallery, filling many of its rooms with objects stolen or confiscated from church buildings.  In later years the theft of artifacts from churches further afield filled the halls.  The museum was supposed to perform the same goals as the church but how were we to look at these works of art?  Were we to pray?  Simply adore them?  What?  Rather than to learn moral lessons from art we were expected to learn facts.  This latter objective is often revealed in the museum-gallery itself -  the development of art from 1650 to 1750, the art of painter X, the development of the style y.  Lost of course is the moral point of view, we no longer look at a piece of religious art and find our self melting away and becoming part of the “other” - leading to opening ourselves, becoming less egotistical, more compassionate, thinking about the world, etc.  Instead we are urged to examine the use of brush strokes, of colour, of perspective.

Similarly when society set out on its secular path the universities said they could do what churches had previously done, particularly through the departments of humanities.  Through the great literature of the world they would expose us to the human condition and to solutions to very human problems - grief, relational problems, our own vulnerability and failures.  An examination of most universities however, shows that these grand ideals have been replaced by academic issues.  We are introduced to surveys of the development of narrative, the style of 3 modern authors, the use of metaphor in literature, and so on.  Lost is the moral instruction promised and we are left with a number of valuable books which we may read once and are left to gather our own lessons from the material.  We are presented with more books than the great authors ever dreamed of and yet our souls remain untouched.  If it were the church, students would read less, reread more often and read with the intention of exploring the moral dilemmas inherent in the stories.

Botton does not confine himself to Catholicism, drawing useful lessons from Judaism and Buddhism.  One example from Judaism is the day of atonement when you are required to review the past year to identify instances when you hurt someone.   You are then required to seek them out and apologize.  The receiver is obliged to appreciate your thought and effort and to forgive.  In this way small hurts are dealt with before they become disruptive of relationships.  In Buddhism we find the practise of meditation where one is led through a process of breathing, focussing on elements of the body until the ego is silenced if even for a few moments.   With repetition the ego is tamed and one is more open to your own needs and to the  needs of others.

If all of this can be generalized it is by seeing that these religions see the self (or our ego) as a source of a great many problems.  They have each found useful solutions in order to reduce the barriers between people, to take us out of ourselves so we can appreciate others, to impart moral lessons, to imagine the suffering of others, to talk about our feelings and vulnerabilities and to live and work together. All religions realized another important part of the human condition:  we all have best of intentions but forget our commitment shortly thereafter.  This is most clear to us on January 10 when our New Year resolutions are broken and put away until next January.  Religions are built around practice so that we continue to hear that voice in our head - “keep pedaling”.

Reading this book has given some clarity to why it is that I do not believe in God and at the same time get weepy when I witness community events and religious ritual in Mexico.  I have always thought it was about more than the God thing.

AN EXPLOSION OF IMAGES

If you have read this blog previously you will recall that I wrote about the number of religious images where I assumed this revewaled a process of democratization of religious power.  No longer centered in the institution nor in a single image (Christ or Guadalupe) power is transferred to simple images in metal or to photos, posters, small replicas of a saint.  Here I want to talk briefly about the history of this process.

Is this just an example of consumer "stuff" or is it a display of power?

I have been reading Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton and found it fascinating and challenging.  His basic thesis is that as the West became increasingly secularized we began to dismiss any religion (God was dead) and in this process we threw out the baby with the bathwater - or perhaps throwing out the bathwater with the baby.  After 2500 years of history we havediscarded everything  these religions knew about the problems of the "soul"and the building of community.  I will return to this book in a separate post but here only want to report on a little history.

The Romans had many gods and deities resulting in a multitude of temples and alters.  Each of these gods were believed to have a special power and so were sought out by those with specific needs.  In 312 AD Emperor Constantine was on his way to an important battle when he had a vision during the night.   In this vision he saw an image of a Christian word above him.  He awoke and had his troops paint this image on their shields.  They were successful in the battle and he believed it was due to the Christian image.  He subsequently legitimized Christianity by converting.   The Christians, not being fools, set about replacing all of the images and temples of the Romans with their own alters and temples.  Many of these placed a deity with a specific characteristic which corresponded to what was considered sacred locally.  As a result there were saints who performed miracles, others who provided relief for dental problems, marital problems, and so on.  In about 411 AD the Christian church declared that a simple piece of linen could be used to touch a sacred image and thus transfer the power of that image thus allowing you to take this power to your home.  As a result a market was created for a multitude of "handkerchiefs" as well as replica saints.   This is the process of democratization I referred to in an earlier post.  Attaching specific deities to a local location also fostered, probably unintentionally, travel which was to be undertaken for enlightenment and problems of the "soul".  (Now travel is to provide us with entertainment, knowledge or just as a time to see the sights - but what sights do we see?)

When the Spanish conquered Mexico they introduced the same polices.   When ever they found a site sacred to the local people they erected a cross or built a church.  I recently visited the city of Puebla and small town of Cholula.  In each of these locations you can't help but be struck by the number of beautiful churches.  In Cholula which was a sacred site for the large pre-columbian population Cortez vowed to build 365 church, one to replace every temple he had destroyed.  I think you would be hard pressed to find all these churches but there are indeed many churches and some of the most amazing in the county. One of these is the church of the Virgen de los Remedios begun in 1574 (replacing a cross that had twice been destroyed by lightening.  The image of the Virgin (only 27 cm high) was apparently brought from Spain with one of Cortez's troops who buried it after a terrible defeat by the Aztecs.  During the next battle the Spanish troops saw a young girl throwing dirt into the eyes of the Aztecs resulting in their defeat   Perhaps the young girl was the Virgin herself .  The image was thought to have brought them success.    The church itself is built on top of one of the great pyramids of the world.  Cortez probably wasn't aware that a pyramid was there as it had been vacated and was covered in trees and grass. Exploration of the pyramid was first begun in 1930 and while a small section has been reconstructed it is still covered in grass and trees.  The image of the Virgin was first referred to as Our Lady of Victory, but in 1594 was renamed the Virgin of Remedies. For the indigenous peoples the site was associated with the god of rain.   It is still a sacred site for the indigenous population (being one of several sites visited by the Conchero dancers each year) as well as for Catholics.

A view of Los Remedios as you climb up the pyramid.

The small section of reconstruction with the top of Los Remedios just showing on top of the pyramid.

Inside of Los Remedios with the small virgin (27cm tall) above the alter.

These few details helped me to see that the process of the Christianization of Mexico was not unique and the presence of a plethora of religious images goes back almost 1600 years.

A few more words on the image of the Virgin.  Upon seeing the Virgin I was convinced it was the same image as found in Patzcuaro, Neustra Senora de la Salud.  Although the image in Patzcuaro is much larger and made by the local idigenous population of pasta de cana it bears a remarkable likeness to that at Los Remedios.  One exception is that the Virgin of Los Remedios is carrying a small Christ child in her am.  One often wonders where Vasco de Quirroga found the inspiration for his image; it now seems possible it may have come from Cholula.  Indeed he may have known the image in Spain.

A photo of the replica of the Virgin of Los Remedios.  Notice the moon at the bottom and in her hands there is a small Christ child.

La Senora de la Salud during a pilgrimage in Patzcuaro.  Notice that she holds a rosary in her hands (but the original in the basilica has a small moon at her feet).

Reading:  Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists.