We all have a longing for the divine…
an innate craving to make sense of our own existence and mortality.
Our longing is a search for our god… for a reason that we must die… this search for our god is really a search for ourselves… a search within rather than a search without?
Who are we? Why do we exist? To what purpose if any are we alive? And, ultimately, why must we die?
We know that these are questions without answers, no matter how strong our religious beliefs, beliefs based on hope and faith with a lack of certitude, beliefs that rely on stories handed down over thousands of years, bedrock stories that may themselves have been anthropomorphic in origin.
The three major religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all based on these stories.
This search for the divine, frequently accompanied by a longing for certitude, has manifested itself in some bizarre ways over time through ritual beliefs and practices.
Beyond ritual though, throughout history various religious groups have acted violently towards nonbelievers, infidels, either within the group or collectively against other groups of nonbelievers.
Wars have been fought, crusades undertaken and individuals tortured and killed because of a clash in religious beliefs.
Though this longing for the divine has on occasion mutated (or metastasized) into an exercise of hatred and evil, this seems an aberration and the longing remains inherent in each of us as we spend our lives seeking this awareness, this closeness to the essence of what it is that makes us human… “the divine purpose” for our existence.
If there is a divine power, whether by definition or through faith, it would seem that, beyond existing as a mere biological organism, my life depends on that power and continually seeks to unite with it on my journey through time and space.
It is a longing for something that I realize is beyond my attainment, but is nonetheless a quest that sustains me on that life journey.