The Beginning and End of Religion

Curiosity is what drives intelligence and most of us begin life being incredibly curious about the world around us; most parents know that a child can "why?" them into a stupor in the course of an afternoon. 

At the dawn of mankind religion developed as a way of making sense of the world, of answering their children's whys but for early humans there was no way to discover the correct answers and, as we are a storytelling race, so began the myths of the world. I don't know if every primitive tribe developed their own creation myths but I'm sure a large percentage did. I can just picture a little child scared of the thunderstorm and her mother, trying to comfort her, explaining that there's this guy named Thor with a hammer named...(thinks for a moment) Mjolnir and the thunder is when the hammer strikes a cloud and the lightening is the resulting sparks. The girl grows up tells her children the story and within a few generations it becomes "fact". To the south a little child is scared of earthquakes and so is told the story of Poseidon and his galumphing horses that the parent made up and it too eventually becomes fact. Elsewhere children are curious about where people come from and hear about deities who created Ask and Embla or Adam and Eve which eventually become fact. 

For thousands of years this went on as we had no other way of explaining what things were or how they came to be...that is until about 500 years ago when science began to emerge from astrology and alchemy with answers that could be proven and need not be taken on mere faith. Since then our scientific knowledge has grown and we find less and less the need for a deity, especially the biblical one, as so much taken for fact in that book has been disproved. As people gain knowledge through education and become more financially secure the need for religion diminishes. This could be another reason why the religious right is so against the mere hint of socialism as it undermines their power to control their flocks through fear of this unjust deity. Marx wrote that Religion is the opium of the people and in a way that is true. It lulls people into mindlessly obeying the rules in hope of being rewarded in the afterlife. If they were certain that this life was all there was they would be more apt to rebel against those who oppress them and take advantage of them with such promises. The time is coming when we must put away childish things such as religion and grow up; we must find a way for all to enjoy and partake of the resources of the world, that no one will have 11 houses while others are homeless. I think we have the brains but when will we have the will?