Imagination running religiously wild

Pat Buchanan inspires this post. Last year God told Pat that tsunamis would hit North America. I think Pat also got a crib sheet from God on which God wrote that He'd make it rain hard somewhere. And it did! So basically Pat batted .500 last year. Which is very Big League, if you're involved in MLB (Major League Baseball, for those of you not into acronyms. Which begs the question, does God ever use acronyms?)

At the very root of Pat's problem is his imagination. Which you could extend to say that 'imagination' is the root of all mankind's problems, if you're of the opinion that persecution, genocide and one man telling another man what to do, or else, are problems. If you're doing the persecuting, the genociding, and the telling another man what to do, or else, then you may not think these are problems. But that's another issue.

I subscribe to the hypothesis that if there were a Power, or a Being/Beings, running this Universe, English (or any Earth language) is not spoken there and they aren't bipeds. (Which view also requires an excess of imagination!) My hypothesis is really just a statement of non-belief in 'earthly religions.' All of which, the religions, that is, have sprung up from an excess of imagination, IMHO.

Think about what it was like 180,000 years ago when the human primate began exhibiting sapient behavior. There was a moment in time when self-awareness first became common place, and languages began developing. There was no history at that point, no accumulation/repository of 'facts,' other than what everyone could see and touch. Children were not told fanciful stories, because there were no such stories to tell, during those first generations of self-aware sapients.

I like to imagine some strapping young newly sapient human being told by someone in authority (his mom) to go down to the river and catch some fish. He dutifully sets out and spends the day in fruitless efforts. He gets scolded when he comes home empty-handed. He's told to try again the next day.

Some unique event takes place that night or the next day. Maybe he sees an unusual animal, sees something 'different' in the night sky or finds a unique-looking stone. Coincidentally (in my view) he then has a very productive day at the river and comes home loaded with fish. Since he has rudimentary reasoning powers, he thinks about the two days and formulates an explanation: The unique thing or event is the difference between no fish and lots of fish! So now he invests 'power' in the unique stone, in the shooting star, or in the act of seeing a rare animal. And eventually he founds a 'religion' based on reverencing snapping turtles, shooting stars or turquoise rocks, etc.

It's my view that this is how 'religion' came to exit. From the need, or desire, to think that coincidences are proof of "divine" intervention, and that there is someone, who, with the proper urging, will make sure you win the lottery. Or you can substitute 'superstition' for 'religion' and it works out just the same. Meaning that somewhere in our collective past, some man stepped on a crack and when he got home, he found out that his mother had broken her back! Coincidence? He didn't think so and this has been passed on and on and on...

And what action do I advocate based on these rough-hewn thoughts? Only that you think for yourself and accept that coincidences are natural occurrences, and that the law of the bell-shaped curve allows for even extreme weirdness to exist. Every continuum has two ends and those two ends can be related, but a universe apart.

Oh, yeah, and please send your kids' college fund money to Pat Buchanan so that God will continue to whisper in his ear.