Religion and Theology

Some people say that religion in the United States is fading away. However, the fact is that religion can never fade away, because religion is not something that is dispensable and man created religion because it was a necessity, hence religion cannot fade away it can only change from one form to another. The evolution of thought and society is happening in such a way that we do not consider this effect a change of religion, but only a change of priorities, but if we observe carefully people are abandoning their old religions to adhere to a new religion, which is not recognized as such till date.

We know that religion is a system of beliefs that has a major impact upon the thoughts and actions of the people who follow it. It is a motivating factor for its followers, and a factor which can impact their decisions in almost all aspects of their life. This new phenomenon that we will identify has all these symptoms of being a religion, along with its own symbolism and traditions and rituals. It has temples like traditional religions and it
has sacred figures, it even has its own mythical enemies.

This new religion is consumerism, the worship of money, fame and material possessions. About a year ago, a news story was published in an Indian newspaper the story was about the death of some Hindu visitors to a temple, where crazed religious fanatics trampled upon them in their zeal to get into the temple. This year on Black Friday Sale, I read about a Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death by the frenzy of crazy pilgrims of the supermarket (Frucci). On any given day turn on the TV and you would see images of wealth and splendor, red carpets and beauty that can be bought, sportsmen doing dope for fame, politicians taking bribes to increase their wealth.

The fact is that money has become so much important in our society that it has become a religion, and a religion that surpasses all other religions. Take any Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, the common factor in all of these people would be love for material wealth to such an extent that their religious rituals sometimes take a back seat. The belief that beauty can be bought with money (dozens of plastic surgery procedures available), and so can be talent and fame (as in Paris Hilton and Donald Trump) is increasingly becoming deeply rooted in the subconscious of the common man.

These beliefs are at the top of the minds of the public right now.  One might think that it is human nature to gather wealth, or the desire to gain it and what I am calling a religion today has been going on for centuries, but this is not so. The main difference between the societies of the past and modern society is that traditional religions were considered the revelations of an ultimate universal truth whereas worldly possessions were a means to provide ease while people lived their lives according to those truths. However, today, wealth is considered the ultimate truth.

When business executives in the Wall street and major banks are insensible to millions of people going out of jobs while they make millions, and politicians do what benefits them personally, ignoring the whole country, and media lies to the public so they can increase their viewership, and there are shows on TV that promote fake beauty, and your heroes are the cast of Entourage, and everything that is in your newspaper is somehow or the other connected to someones financial gain then you have a problem.

And the problem is that the love of money has become a religion. A lifestyle that we strive for is not rooted in morals or ethics or the pursuit of happiness even.

Our corporations have programmed our minds in such a way that we even associate happiness with ownership and wealth. Such is our mentality now that we cannot imagine that there can be any happiness in honest poverty. We continue to follow this religion and it continues to prosper. One day we will cease to become Christians, or Jews, or Hindus or Muslims without our realizing it. The scariest fact is, these religions were rooted in some sort of moral or ethical code, but this new religion has nothing to do with morality.