Axial Age

The Birth of Religion as we know it


Most of us have heard - and even thought about -
   the fact that many discoveries and inventions
     come about independently across wide distances
        yet eerily close to the same time.

There are lots of examples.

Philo Farnsworth is often credited with the invention of television,
   and he had a connection to Idaho.
        he went to high school in Rigby, near Idaho Falls.

Yet there were five or more inventors with similar ideas, also at work in the 1920's.

The film projector was invented in the late 19th Century by two German brothers
   and an American Civil War veteran.

Their inventions were very similar, and both presented to the world in 1895.

During World War II a German physicist and a British engineer both came up with the jet engine
    while serving on opposite sides.

They actually met after the war ended.

There are many more examples, some more or less famous.

The concept of simultaneous invention and discovery
   may seem mystifying, but it is more commonplace
      than we generally realize.

I think of it as just one more example of the unity of thought
    across the multiverse.

Be that as it may (or not, as you prefer),
     the historical development of religion as we know it
           came about across our little planet
              in a fairly limited time frame
                  known as the Axial Age.

It's called that because it is something of a turning point.

The fairly limited time period is somewhere between 600 and 1000 years,
      and that seems like a long period
        to compare it with the few years - if that -
             in which modern inventions sometimes come into being.

As we can recall together,
    some theories of human civilization now measure the age of a culture
           by oral traditions - song, dance and spoken word -
                as well as written records.

Doing so, we can see how Aboriginal civilization in Australia
    is somewhere between 55,000 and 75,000 years old.

In light of that kind of time frame,
     600 to 1000 years is very little time indeed!

Nobody really knows what happened about 2500 to 3000 years ago
     to cause the start of the Axial age,
          but events as far apart geographically
               as the life of Gautama Buddha in India
                    and the prophecies of Jeremiah in Judah
                       mark new ways of relating to the transcendent side of human experience.

There are theories around that would link developments in the Americas
   with those in Eurasia - besides the doctrines of the Mormons -
     but not much research has been done to support or deny those.

Lots of Science Fiction and Fantasy has been written about it, so we shall see!

Back to what we can verify,
   there were too many convergences to leave them entirely to chance.

Whether there was some guiding intelligence which science cannot verify
    or whether there was simply serendipity of the kind we find in many endeavors,
         religion as we know it came to light in the years of the Axial age.

People were taught that their tribe had the best religion.

Religious leaders like prophets and gurus provided doctrine and methodology
   to enable their followers to understand their world in newly meaningful ways.

Some of those leaders were self-aggrandizing narcissists.

Those individuals are often personally profoundly charismatic,
   so it is no surprise that they develop a following.

If this sounds all too familiar in our own time,
     maybe we can take some comfort in realizing that it is not a new development.

Additionally, if we can learn some lessons from our forebears,
            we can avoid some of their foibles.

To say the least,
    we don't have to follow spiritual or political leaders who say,
         "Do what I tell you, and give me your money."

Again, it is not a new problem.

There are standards for recognizing true versus false prophets, for example.

A true prophet will say things that turn out to be true.

A false prophet will say things that turn out to be false.

This sounds overly simplified, but people tend to believe what we want to believe, anyway.

It takes time to distinguish true from false prophets.

In the U.S. today, we have a true prophet in Jimmy Carter.

What he tells us has turned out to be true over and over, and it will continue to do so, I believe.

The funny mentalists of the U.S. have a false prophet.

The false prophet is our liar in chief, and what he says today turns out to be false next week.

At the same time, it may take many years to sort out the reality,
     and many of his ardent supporters are likely to be bitterly disappointed.

In ancient times, the founders of newly forming religions were not often the opportunists.

In nearly every case, as we shall see in weeks to come, studying together,
      most prophets and sages were followed by political leaders who seized an advantage
             in using their newly found religious and political power
                  to dominate other people and enrich themselves.

In some cases, the powerful follower was not a dominant personality,
          but successful religions tended to follow a path of power and wealth just the same.

Confucius helped the emperors establish their reign in China;
   Confucianism and Taoism were both established in the Axial age.

Krishna helped the rajas gain both political and religious power,
     and the Hindu religion as we might recognized it was born.

Jeremiah had his interpreter in Baruch (whose name is etymologically almost the same as Barack).

Jeremiah and Baruch both lived in Judah, the Southen Kingdom of Biblical fame,
    and that land lent its name to Judaism during the Babyonian exile,
         about which Jeremiah warned his people, whether or not they wanted to hear it.

To extend out past the Axial age into some of the derivative religions,
  Jesus of Nazareth had Paul of Tarsus,
     Muhammad had his beloved wife, Khadijah,
        and Martin Luther had Phillip Melancthon,

each interpreter guiding the religion into a new form which we would recognize,
        and the founder may or may not have.

It's an ongoing, very human story,
      and I hope by these brief references to founders and interpreters
           to whet our mutual appetite for more to come.

Back to the Axial Age, the turning point in human religions,
   people felt a need to channel their spiritual inclinations
      in the period following their departure from the Garden of Eden.

Now, I'm speaking in mythological terms on purpose,
      because one of my beliefs
          is that myths provide us a kind of metaphorical shorthand
              to speak of universal truths
                  that are helpful to remember.

In our own culture, there is a tendency to idealize a more agrarian past.

So many people in our wonderful cities feel nostalgia
     for the farm and town home some of them may never have known personally.

Such emotions may partly account for the results of last year's election.

A similar kind of nostalgia may well (I would say probably)
    have grown up around ancient developing civilizations
      for the hunter - gatherer life
        of their not so very distant ancestors.

That longing drew them into systems of belief
   that would affirm their traditional values.

Does that sound familiar?

Many sociologists and historians of religion
  believe that we may be on the edge of our own Axial Age,
     a new turning point in the expression of human spirituality.

In the U.S. we are clearly at a point of choosing.

Will we cling to the dark side of our own past?

Will we again affirm the tribalism that says,
       "My way is the only right way,"

or will we choose to say,
    "We have to work together and learn from each other to survive."

In the First Axial Age,
    too many religions brought a tribal frame of reference with them,
       saying that their god was the one and only true god,
         or their system of spiritual practice was the only right one.

It is my hope (and meditative, thought guiding prayer)
     that future historians and analysts of religion
        will say of our time

that we saw a Second Axial Age
   in which people of many different kinds and opinions
     came together to learn from each other
       and help each other move forward
         into a better world of hope.

Amen

Ameen

Omeyn

So mote it be.

Blessed Be!