The Search for Answers.

For centuries people have turned to religion to help solve life's puzzles and give them the promise of everlasting life after death

Religion is a lot like philosophy. It tries to answer unanswerable questions. To explain the inexplicable. To create order out of chaos. To give us a purpose for being here. But, religion moves beyond philosophy. Philosophy relies on logic. Philosophers attempt to prove their theories, detailing how they arrive at their answers in explaining life's deeper meaning. Their conclusions are open to discussion. Religion doesn't bear the burden of proof: it is limited only by the human capacity to believe, to have faith without proof. It deals not only with why we're here; it offers us the hope of eternal life when we're gone.

Our ability to believe goes back hundreds of thousands of years, to prehistoric times. Archeologists have found signs at burial sites suggesting that cultures of the Old Stone Age (about 500,000 BC) included religion. They've found skeletons buried with tools and weapons, for example, essential items of life on Earth that people thought would be needed in the next life. It's difficult for us to grasp death, and religious beliefs help us cross the bridge into the unknown.

For our ancient ancestors, religion answered a lot of questions about Nature. What else, but angry gods, could explain Nature's violence in the form of lightning and thunder, floods, and volcanic eruptions? We have scientific explanations for all this now, but religion still helps us accept the things we don't have answers for. For many, religion continues to fill the gaps in our quest to understand our own existence, as it has done for centuries. It nourishes the spirit, and helps people through life's difficult times.

While mere are lots of different religions, and different branches within the same religion, there are some common beliefs. Invariably, they deal with questions of existence and with the idea of eternal life. They all connect us to the world around us as part of a grand scheme created by something divine, something beyond us, something that is everywhere, in everything. For many, faith in this holy being is not merely belief but an attitude in which they commit themselves to the divine and acknowledge its claim upon them. In a deeply religious person, faith commitment tends to shape all of that person's life and character.

Religious traditions nearly always involve ritual and public prayer as well. These may take the form of sacrifice or sacrament, passage rites, or invocations of God or the gods. The most important ceremonies usually involve the entire religious community or a significant portion of its, although in many traditions private devotional forms such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage are also practised.

Being part of all this gives followers a sense of belonging, of not being alone. (In fact, some religions are brutal in their treatment of members who do not participate, excommunicating them or shunning them, for example.)

Holding on to religious beliefs is not only good for the soul. It can boost physical and mental health too; that's the view of psychiatrist Dave Larson after studying people in Evans County, Georgia. Dr. Larson found that smokers who went to church regularly were four times less likely to have high blood pressure than those who didn't, and had about the same blood pressure as a nonchurch-going nonsmoker. In a survey of psychiatric research, he found that religious people were less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, commit suicide, be depressed, be juvenile delinquents, or get divorced. Herbert Benson, Harvard professor and author of "The Relaxation Response," also found that meditation and prayers involving repetition of a word, sound, or movement with the outbreath, can improve health, perhaps by reducing nervous system responses to stress. This process runs through most religions but the same effect can be achieved by nonreligious people who meditate: they end up with a spiritual feeling which one researcher describes as a sense that a power, force, or energy - perhaps God - is present and close.

But the key to better health seems to be genuine religiousness or spirituality, not just going through the motions of going to church, for example. No matter how religious we are, we can't live for ever. And, when spiritual beliefs can no longer prolong life, they help people cope with dying.

Followers also think that religion provides a solid foundation for building values and ethics; it helps make them see beyond themselves. Imposing a clear ethical code upon the members of the community helps create orderly societies by clearly defining right and wrong for its citizens.

Ancient civilizations such as Babylon and Israel operated under laws believed to have been written by religious men giving those laws the weight and prestige of holiness. Laws were very closely linked to religious expression. Virtuous behaviour, or goodness, reflected one's true spiritual makeup.

As religions develop, they often place increasing stress on the ethical, and sometimes focus on the holiness of moral demands and a profound respect for them. When meeting those demands means eternal salvation, there's a pretty powerful incentive for good behaviour. Many think it is something that is sorely missing in our society today, as many of us move away from organized religion.

But, we continue to search for spiritual nourishment. And, the search can take us to some unexpected places. People who have found little satisfaction in Western affluence, for example, are seeking the ultimate truth in far away places such as northern India. It's particularly appealing to Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1965. They're seen as a self-absorbed generation some of whom have discovered that material success doesn't necessarily lead to contentment. Globe and Mail writer John Stackhouse went to India with Peter Emberley, a professor of religion at Ottawa's Carleton University to find out more about the International Meditation Institute in the town of Kullu. Mr. Stackhouse re: ported in June 1998 that hundreds of Canadians flock there every year to meditate with a 74-year-old Indian guru (Hindu spiritual teacher) named Swami Shyam, searching for a new spiritual path.

"Never before has a generation been so distant from deprivation, and yet here are people trying to deal with their deep sense of emptiness in one of the world's most deprived countries," writes Mr. Stackhouse. The retreat helps fill the void, providing "peace and acceptance for the spiritually hungry."

He echoes Professor Emberley's reservation that "... the great experiment of ambition and consumption has ultimately failed this generation."

They listen to Swami Shyam talk of oneness: "I'm everyone," he is quoted as saying. "I'm the best Jew, best Christian, best Hindu, best Muslim ... All that I see is in my sight, and it is me."

Other spiritual destinations are closer to home. An article in Time Magazine in 1998 pointed out that Catholic monasteries "with their ancient chants, beautiful grounds and prices at a pittance" have become so popular in the United States that some are booked as much as a year ahead. Guests have no schedules or expectations and it usually isn't compulsory to attend services. The only real request is silence, ranging from complete quiet to silent hours. And, while some may see it merely as an inexpensive break, others say the peacefulness helps them get in touch with something higher.

One of Canada's faith journeys is to Lac Ste. Anne, about 50 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. Tens of thousands of pilgrims take part in a five-day spiritual celebration there, which has been taking place each summer for more than a century. Most participants are Native Canadians from across the country and many are Roman Catholic, but members of various Native communities in the northern United States also attend. As one Metis involved in the event said, "Lac Ste. Anne is so sacred, so powerful, I feel a lot of love there; I feel connected."

Many visitors are attracted by the legendary healing powers of the lake itself. Generations ago, Native people called it Lake of the Spirit, before a Catholic missionary renamed it in the mid-1800s. To the Natives it is a sacred place worth travelling long distances to each summer to trade and socialize.

And, even people who are not setting out on pilgrimages are reading a lot more about religion and spirituality, placing books such as "Care of the Soul" on the bestseller list. They're also filling religious studies courses at universities.

The search for meaning in life seems an endless one.

As the "Tibetan Book of Golden Precepts" states: "The Path is one for all; the means to reach the Goal must vary with the Pilgrims."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

1. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud saw religious beliefs as "illusions," connected to "wish fulfillment," and Albert Ellis, father of cognitive behavioural therapy, equates religion with "irrational thinking and emotional disturbance." Discuss these views.

2. While Freud attempted to fit the various forms of religious experience into a general theory of the unconscious, William James dealt primarily with conscious expressions of religious experience. Do a book report on James's "Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902), and deride whether or not his ideas have any relevance today.

3. The year 1922 is sometimes taken as marking the beginning of modern anthropology and with it the complex studies of existing cultures and their religions that have done much to illuminate contemporary thought about religion. In that year, Bronislaw Malinowski and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown published studies based on in-depth field work in foreign cultures. Review and report on this work.

Websites

Lac Ste. Anne - http:// www.omigrandin.ab.ca/lsap.htm - http://www.peace.mb.ca/ 00.Native/nlrnz07.htm

Canadian Council of Churches - http://www.web.net/~ccchurch/ index.html

FACT FILE

A common though by no means universal feature of religious organizations is a priesthood charged with teaching and transmitting the faith and performing religious acts.

In earlier times, the religious community could scarcely be distinguished from the community at large; all professed the same faith, and the ruler was both a political and a religious leader.

Billy Graham's 1975 book, "Angels: God's Secret Agents," was a best seller with sales of 2.6 million copies in the U.S.

A distinction is often made between religion and magic with magic seen as attempts to manipulate divine forces through human acts; religious acts such as prayer and sacrifice involve awe, worship, and thanksgiving.

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Many traditional revelations, which seemed to be miracles in a prescientific age, might now be judged as natural events or coincidences. Inner voices and private visions might be explained psychologically as subconscious mental processes. Some explain belief in God as a projection of the human mind; others see religious belief as the product of socioeconomic forces. In this context, religious beliefs become the source of philosophical debate, but faith does not submit to rational argument.

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Most religions include a belief in angels. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe in them; so do Buddhists, and Hindus. According to an article in Time Magazine in 1993, "... winged figures appear in ancient Sumerian carvings, Egyptian tombs, and Assyrian reliefs. Visible or invisible, in disguise or in full glory, angels appear in more than half the books of the Bible ... Muslims believe that angels are present in mosques to record the prayers of the faithful and to testify for or against people on the Day of Judgement (and) medieval theologians believed that angels had to exist to fill the gap between God and humankind ..."

These messengers of God are seen as guides on our journey from Earth to eternal spiritual life. They are thought to guard us as well as guide us. They work miracles. They adorn places OT worship and fill artists' masterpieces. They are above humans but act as a bridge between us and the Divine. They protect and comfort us, and there have been many reports of them rescuing people in times of crisis, acting as beacons to safety, leaving no trace of their arrival or departure.

Of course, there are fallen angels too, chief among them being the Devil. There also are reports of these disgraced spirits but they don't receive the same publicity as their comforting counterparts.

Ancient and medieval peoples widely accepted the influence of good spirits, or angels, and evil spirits, or fallen angels. During the Middle Ages, theologians developed a hierarchy of angels. They were classified in the following nine ranks (beginning with the lowest): angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.