Religion is a faith based on the belief of an invisible controlling power. It serves the personal and social needs of a group of people sharing the same ideology, a sense of value and morality built to regulate civility among its believers. All religions have three facets philosophy, rituals and mythology.
Philosophy
Human curiosity is the most dominant drive behind all explorations to know the creator, his creation, the meaning of human life and life beyond death. Consequently when reason appeared, the curiosity to know the unknown, the unthought-of, the unheard, the unseen became the passion of the human mind, this set the foundation of all religions, created out of sheer imagination and philosophical speculation of the human mind. However an element of expectation to know that which cannot be known called GOD was staged at the center of all religions. Magic and miracles were also associated with religion. Even today the belief in the miraculous powers still baffles the religious devotee with wonder.
Religions were a start-up form of philosophy. The foundation of religion was laid in response to fundamental fear, insecurity and misunderstanding of the natural phenomena of life. Human fear served as the building blocks of religion with faith in the savior was as an essential feature.
Earliest religions arose out of the cavemen’s fear and admiration of natural phenomena. As a result, the primitive man worshiped Fire, Lightning, Rivers, Storms, Winds and Trees, Sun, Animals and several other terrestrial phenomena.
The founders claimed to know the absolute truth and offered their comprehensive view of reality by twisting facts and making skewed analysis. Neither the absolute truth nor the non-absolutist point of view can be comprehended by the intellect totally. We need to appreciate different aspects of reality to get a wholesome view.
The caravan of religious philosophies is heading no-where. Thoughts from the mind of innumerable religious philosophers are sickening, frightening and choking the mind. Theology is polluted with so many schools of thoughts. Waste no time on them.
In the process of knowing, return from deviant views and rely upon proper understanding. To comprehend anything it is necessary to first start from a particular point of view and than examine it from different point of views to know. This may merely reveal the partial view of the totality and not the whole.
Reliance on personal experience is the ultimate in the school of thoughts and symbolizes the spirit of free Inquiry. There is in reality neither truth nor error. No virtue or sin. Nor any division whatsoever, all including the contrary is one.