Oluwatoyin
Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive
Process and Systems
"Exploring
Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
The recent furore over Islam, bringing
to a focus the troubling prominence of the religion since the beginning of the
21st century, challenges me to reflect on religions as ideologies
created by human beings in unusual situations.
I am intrigued as to how
the pronouncements of individuals, the founders of religions, can
have such a magnetic and profound influence on countless people across time and
space.
I once argued with a Muslim that the
Koran, like all religious texts, is partly a
human creation.
I also stated that the histories of
the creation of these texts demonstrate a body of procedures their creators
have followed.
These procedures are
quite straightforward.
They often involve
physical seclusion for long periods of time.
During this seclusion, the
seeker engages in intense prayer or meditation or
both.
Those who created new religions not only
did this, but they sought something different from what already existed.
Those practising such a discipline within
an existing religious framework discovered or created something new within
that framework.
I think that anyone who subjects
themselves to the discipline of a Buddha, Muhammad or Jesus
can achieve something like what they achieved.
Another quality the founders of
religions shared is that they were totally identified with what they
sought. They did not mix their vocations with any other occupation.
This commitment to their vocation was
at times so radical that they had no families, like Jesus and the
Buddha.
I expect
a related depth of commitments can
be developed but within the context of involvement in
social life.
I am interested in the
psychology of creating spiritual ideologies or religions as
a theoretical study and a practical discipline, something people
can learn and practice, helping to develop a more balanced approach to the
culture of divinising religious founders, those whose achievements are made
possible by their subjecting themselves to disciplines others are
not committed enough to engage in.
As the world grows, may we not have
modern forms of equal depth and novelty for their time of
the insights of Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad?
25 September 2012
