Why are there so many religions?

My feeling is that religious thought is imbedded within every human soul. If you want to say our brains are hardwired for it or if you want to say our spirits have a sense of homesickness, an eternal longing outside of this world, I think both make the point that there is something, call it intuition, conscience, or whatever, that something, that causes mankind to seek for the divine, the ultimate something, which explains for the order and beauty in the universe; the power that must exist to overcome the natural pull to disorder, entropy. And so men go about trying to make the connection themselves, inventing gods, myths, and various explanations.

I also believe that God has, at certain times in the course of human history, intervened to setup and reveal his purposes and desires. Therefore certain strands of religion could be considered deviant offspring of a once pure understanding. How does deviance come about? It is not difficult to diagnose: through the choices of men, choices primarily made because of man’s confidence in his own power and greatness. The drama can be found throughout the historical record as well as in families all around the world. Children can be taught and directed but not forced to obey the wisdom of their parents. And so men create their own religions, sometimes created from nothing but most often modified versions of previous models. Men sit around tables and vote for doctrines. They take what was once given as law and become lawyers, definers of the law, replacing the role of Him who was the original lawgiver. It is not always done with cruel intentions, modified version are oftentimes done by those that have the most keen sense of celestial homesickness but they happen to come along after the initial deviation has already occurred. Sensing the deviation they strive to return to the ideal. These are the great and decent men and women that lead the majority of religions but they are fundamentally at a loss, they must rely on their best judgment, they function with a limited number of pieces of a grand puzzle. The direct divine intervention that fills their sacred writ seems so distant, even preposterous, to their modern experience.

Numerous religions are also bound to come forth because religion has within it power, power because it provides answers to the terrible questions. Control over the answers is control over the masses. Human history is a rather sad tale of individuals seeking to control the masses, maximizing their own power and magnificence at the expense of their fellowman. If religion does the trick, they will use it as a weapon. Power is the door to wealth and the good things of this world, and so religion attracts those that seek for personal greatness. Suddenly, in the hands of such men, messages centered on peace and love are transposed into swords and guns.

What then is to be done? Are we to dismiss religion altogether? Does the host of man-made religions preclude the possibility of a true and pure religion? Or the possibility that the divine could make another direct intervention? I think we live in a remarkable age when one can study and explore, not being confined to the religion of our cultural inheritance. I also think, for that same reason, this is the most challenging of ages, there are so many different voices, so many claims, and we must have the will and patience to sort through the waves of information we are fed to discern what has been touched by the hand of God as opposed to the hands of men.