Hardwired to Kneel
For all the advances of modern science, we still lack a complete understanding of the human mind. While we've been around for a few hundred thousand years, behavioural modernity is much more recent at roughly sixty thousand years. Whole civilisations have risen and collapsed, we've changed physiologically, we've domesticated, conquered, destroyed, and achieved. But there's one constant in the history of mankind that fascinates me and it transcends all the myriad differences that separate us today, and that is the act of worship.
Granted, there is incredible religious diversity in the world. Throughout history, belief systems have come and gone. Some have been absorbed through syncretism, others obliterated by time or war. But the underlying mechanism remains. Theist, non-theist, even atheist, we all worship something. Whether it's God, gods, science, money, our own ego, it seems that we have the fundamental need to elevate someone or something to the level of the divine. And more than that, we seem to be compelled to pay homage, to make sacrifices, to honour that in some form or fashion.
Even the most vitriolic "New Atheist" is not free from this. They've simply made their hate an idol, their ego their god. The rationalist worships his mind. Many people, consumed by passions and turned inward, sacrifice everything at the altar of pleasure.
There are many today who claim to have "broken free" from organised religion, but I would argue that they have simply replaced one God with a god of their choosing. I've yet to meet a formerly religious person who hasn't filled that void with something. What about non-theistic religions, you might ask? Something still plays that part, regardless of how it's framed.
I've been reflecting on this for a few days now. Over the last few decades, I've explored so many responses to this programming, this religious impulse. I've tried denying it, raging against it, but that only left me feeling empty. I turned to science for a biological explanation, but none were very satisfying.
I have resigned myself to this seemingly obvious truth. Frankly, I'm tired of fighting. Now, how do I satisfy this impulse? Personally, I've recognised a trend in our history. It points to an inevitability. From the many to the one. E pluribus unum, as my former country likes to claim. Poly to mono. And if we follow that path all the way to its logical conclusion, we encounter a revelation that is overwhelmingly powerful despite its simplicity:
Tawhid