With Easter Sunday falling on April 1st, I am driven to wondering if the whole concept of religion isn't simply a huge 'April Fool' played on the human species.
There are hundreds of religions in the world and many divisions within each one; they can't all be right, indeed why should any of them be right ? Their adherents gather together and praise their god or gods, sing songs, wear funny clothes and practice weird rituals. All seem to claim that only their beliefs are the right ones and most of these disparate groups have engaged in vicious conflict in support of their particular notions even though most of them also espouse peace.
Over the centuries, and even millennia in some cases, they have persecuted, tortured and murdered those who don't agree with them. Jews, Muslims and Christians have fought, and continue to fight, bitterly in various parts of the world even though their beliefs all stem from the same common source. Different flavours of Jews dislike each other while different brands of Islam openly fight each other. Christians, of which their are a huge number of different branches, have not only fought the Jews and Muslims but have also butchered each other over assorted questions of biblical interpretation.
Catholics and Protestants have a long history of torturing and killing each other in the most gruesome ways ever since the reformation which began in the 15th century. The 'Spanish Inquisition', the battle for religious supremacy in Britain, the 'troubles' in Ireland which continue to this day, all have hatred between Catholics and Protestants at their core. The 'Pilgrim Fathers' and Mormons who left Britain for the Americas left because their ideas did not accord with those of others in their communities. Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, Anglican, Baptists, Anabaptists, Methodists, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Plymouth Brethren, Quakers and many more all profess to be Christians and yet all believe something different - they can't all be right, indeed, why should any of them be ?
And, of course, it doesn't end there. In the past there were the gods of Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and Scandinavia, the gods of the Maya, Toltecs and Aztecs, those of ancient China and Japan. In India, the ancient gods of the Hindu religion are still celebrated - Vishnu, Ganesh, Kali and the rest. There are Buddhists, Parsees, Sikhs, Jains and who knows how many others ? They all have different beliefs, they can't all be right.
With all of this lunacy going on around us, religion serves one purpose and always has. It was used in ancient times to exert power and control over the mass of common people and it still is today. Adherents are required to obey the diktats of their specific order, take part in that order's rituals and, usually, hand over their hard earned cash at the same time. The leaders of the orders then live in splendour while their followers frequently starve. Perhaps unsurprisingly, political leaders also profess religious beliefs; the British Royal Family and successive Prime Ministers all claim to have fervent religious faith, something which seems quite impossible given their levels of education. In like fashion, American Presidential candidates always make religion a cornerstone of their campaigns knowing that not to express strong Christian belief would be disastrous for their hopes of gaining power. Could Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, John Kennedy and the rest have been elected if they'd said they were atheists in a country beset by religion? Of course not, so they all professed Christian beliefs, regardless of whether they really held them; all that mattered was gaining power and they'd do and say anything to achieve that end.
If I was God, I'd think this was a pretty good April Fool given that so many billions of people seem to have fallen for it.
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