Dedication
This book is dedicated to God. To all great beings, masters and teachers past and present and to all people all over the world who continuously work tirelessly to ensure a more peaceful world where love, understanding and peaceful co-existence is the experience
Preface
Ellington’s book comes at one of the most strategic periods of our human existence.It is hypothetically like that prophecy of a book that would come in a generation which would dissect the intricacies of the world’s religions, the madness of its attendant idiosyncrasies, opening it to give us the hidden scroll which we had since longed for.This book would never have come at a better time than now. With our 21st century being almost literally splashed into pieces along religious lines, I can only hope that those who will read this book would do so with the utmost depth with which Ellington has delivered its theme.
The book challenges us to rise above Religious fanaticism, understanding that the entire world cannot be like us, like what we like, eat what we eat, or wear what we wear. That time, place and circumstances affects our religious and moral upbringing. It reminds us that religion was made for man and not man for religion.
This book also makes us understand that unfortunately most greedy and wicked leaders hide under religion to preach hate, supremacy of their religion, tribe or race and by so doing instigate wars and conflicts all around, this should make us Question everything we hear or are told by our spiritual leader.The book is indeed a must read and I recommend it, feeling honoured to have been among the first to read it.
Green Ndume
Editor-in-ChiefNigerian
Times Newspaper, Ghana
Introduction
This book by Bakumor Ellington is nothing but a masterpiece from a mastermind. I have known the author for over fifteen years as a lover of spiritual things and I am least surprised his many years of spirituality has coalesced into this masterly work which I believe will add to the vast library of transcendental material worldwide without which the world would be mystically barren and forlorn.
The thematic value of this book is undoubtedly topical. It is not trite but newer than tomorrow though older than yesterday and that is why it is going to be invaluable for bookworms, mystics, scholars, journalists, researchers and devotees of all religions and even non-believers! What I like about this book is that it is not the propaganda of a sect or a dogmatic work but a creedless and timeless document and that is why it is going to be a priceless piece to its readers.
The history of religion has been replete with violence and iniquity no doubt if you consider the jihads and Inquisitions but the author goes beyond the letters to the spirit of religion and that is what makes this book so refreshing. Here religion is taken from dogmatism to spirituality. The form and function of religion is academically presented and represented by the author in a very concise and precise manner that makes the book readable. The architecture of religion is what this book is all about and from chapter to chapter you see its thesis, antithesis and synthesis which are Truth, Love, Peace and Bliss.
PROPHET UFOUMA BERNARD
PRESIDENT GODISM
CHAPTER ONE RELIGION
RELIGION
Man is by nature a spiritual entity and he is somehow conscious of this even without the help of a religious teacher or system.As he grows and confronts life and its seeming challenges he begins to ask very important questions, these questions have led to what we now know to be religion. There is no concrete information on how religion started, what most of us know is that religion is as old as man, and because religion didn’t start in a particular place.
The date Religion started is not exactly known but some scholars say it dates back to about 50,000 years ago or even farther possibly as old as man, and that it (Religion) isn’t peculiar to a specific people but a Universal phenomenon.This means that while people were developing their Cultures, traditions and religion in Europe, Asia, Africa also was, they established religion based and according to the TIME, PLACE AND CIRCUMSTANCES in which they found themselves, but although there are and still differences in all the worlds religion, there were and still are many similarities, this we will know in coming chapters. Because of the problems and challenges the ancients found themselves, they had to devise means of survival through mainly hunting and farming, and were they couldn’t find such solutions , they had to create gods or the concept of God (the higher self, demigods, spirits and angels) to support them.this mainly they did from their instincts some call this the age or era of animism or superstitions, like i said man as a spiritual being was born with an inborn knowing that there must be a Universal Power that must have created this world, and has brought us here for its own reasons, this being or beings therefore must be revered, worshipped, loved, even feared sometimes.Early Agriculture and ReligionThere may be a link between agriculture and religion. Because as we must know, there were no offices and white collar jobs in the ancient times, they were either farmers cultivating food, or fishermen or hunters. Most historians say that the first farmers began to cultivate crops in Mesopotamia over 10,000 years ago. Driven by necessity or just convenience, the nomadic hunter-gathers of the time began to settle in the one location and learn the art of farming. Farming may have given us the building blocks of organized religion.In Farming we till nature and from her we get food, from her we get trees to make canoes, spears and nearly everything we did then and still do now traced its roots to nature, so you will notice that at the end of the day even with the advanced farming technology we have today and as far back as 10,000 years ago we still need the sun to shine and rain to fall to produce a good harvest all which is aspects of Nature. And throughout the world today many farmers still pray consciously or unconsciously for a good harvest. It's not difficult to see that ancient man may too have carried out this practice, and a relationship developed between man and nature, man and God, a sort of unwritten agreement, a contract, where man pleads with God or prays to God for sunshine and rain. And as time moved forward it came to pass that this contract required a special day of the week, separate from work days, when prayer could take place. Also required was a special place where the contract could be honored along with skilled people (Priest or priestesses) who would administer the carrying out the contract or covenant, till date in farming communities all over the world they always have rituals and festivals they perform annually probably during time of harvest to glorify and thank God, and the ancestors for bringing them food. In Africa where i come from i know of the new yam festival of the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria, i know of the IGUE festival of the Ancient Benin Kingdom in southern Nigeria, the Homowo festival of the Ga people of Greater Accra region in Ghana. Perhaps the motto pray now, eat later is apt. In effect we can see where the apparatus of organized religion, the Sabbath, the church and the priest, may have stemmed from. So because of these cultural , traditional, and geographical factors Man has interpreted God, named him and devised ways of worshiping , we can see David a man from a seemingly desert country where the major occupation was rearing of animals, realizes God as his Shepherd and he the sheep Calls God "the Lord is my Shepherd", the ancestors of the Ancient Ashanti kingdom realized God as the big friend who stands by them and supports them hence the name of God Onyankupon meaning God my (big friend) and so has each religion understood God. Simply put Religion was created by man to answer its questions about Life, death the soul and all phenomenon that could not be ordinarily explained.
MONOTHEISM AND POLYTHEISM Over time there have become two notions about God, this notions like most others we will study as we read on were just perceptions of people at certain times based on their own level, spiritual, and mental. These two notions are monotheism and Polytheism. Monotheism simply means the worship of God as one Supreme Being with no other or smaller gods, while Polytheism means the idea of God as many. These two ideas have battled for supremacy from
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 14.12.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-6456-6
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This book is dedicated to God. To all great beings, masters and teachers past and present and to all people all over the world who continuously work tirelessly to ensure a more peaceful world where love, understanding and peaceful co-existence is the experience