As individuals we are all "programmed" from birth, to act in certain ways, dependent of the cultural heritage we are programmed with. Within these cultures we find ourselves split into different class structures, dependent on the affluence of the parents we are entrusted to. We are always part of a group and although we may not know the others in the group, we consciously become part and react as a collective unit from a country, religion, football club etc. The largest of these groups is Mankind. Without any intelligent opponent or equal, as a member of this group "Mankind" there is no purpose, nothing to be gained. If we were all citizens of a world order "Mankind" and no other smaller groups existed to distract us from our underlying devotion to the whole, where we would all be equal and have access to everything we desired, we would live harmoniously in peace with nothing to worry about. However; Mankind would never tolerate such an existence. A boring monotonous existence where the only distraction would be an act of nature which would occasionally kill a few of us via hurricane, landslide, volcanic eruption or earthquake. This distraction to the peaceful existence of a united mankind, would become a most fascinating and exiting distraction from the boring existence in a perfect world! As individuals and one of billions of people we could never comprehend or relate to a group the size of Mankind. It is a relief that we can relate to and be a citizen of a country, with hundreds of other countries as our competition, nations we can strive to be better than to beat in sport, and ultimately war! The group we belong to, as a member of a nation will always win loyalty over an all-encompassing group mankind. The smaller the groups become, the stronger our allegiances grow. There is no boring harmony for us - our instinct is to be better, stronger, wealthier, and gain the respect of all others be they enemies or friends. Life becomes interesting, conflict is entertaining, Break up a country into states and we have smaller groups, more competition be it sport, economic or all out war - WE WILL COMPETE! On a smaller scale we compete for jobs, wealth, Social standing anything from looking "cool" or looking COOLER than others, to driving the latest BMW. If everyone had the same there would be no point, no competition, nothing to strive for - boring! As well as our competitive urge, we are also interested in the rivalry of other groups, 90% of our entertainment is following some form of conflict, we side with one person, a team or a country against another. In short our whole existence is keep alive by some form of conflict, without which we would crumble under our own insignificance.
Where would an artist formulate ideas and emotions from a "perfect "world? If we do not have the instinct to compete and better ourselves there would be no inclination to learn anything - in a perfect world, why fix something that isn’t broken?
Religion
Religious groups do not constrain themselves to countries and as such are part of international groups spread across the world. Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Hindu are all wide spread religions and all have had their fair share of conflict in the name of their religion. Any one religious group will not agree or believe in the others God or their doctrines. Most of them have a figurehead, a God who is the all-powerful omniscient being, creator and ruler of our world. Depending on which (if any) religious group we belong to, we denounce other groups Gods and have in the past and present killed others in our Gods name. Protestants are a splinter group of the Catholic faith, created by a king who changed the Catholic doctrine to suit his own agenda. Protestant and Catholics are now still waging war on each other in Northern Ireland. The God they worship is one and the same, but groups will always compete with another so the God they worship becomes irrelevant and the conflict continues drawing in the UK who are there to keep the peace with their army of mixed Catholics, Protestant and Jews together in their own group "The British Army” adding a third dimension to the conflict which has enabled a group from the catholic side - the IRA to wage war on the UK killing any one from any religion be they black, white, women or children. The original religious conflict now becoming a political conflict, which kills indiscriminately, God becoming a sideline, but still needed to give credence to the original conflict which started it all. All religions will tell you theirs is the one and only God. Therefore it follows that the others must be wrong. There is no evidence of any God that apparently requires us to worship him in churches and mosque. The Bible tells us that 2000 years ago a holy man named Jesus calmed to be the Son of God and won the hearts of many who came into contact with him. We are told in the catholic faith that he died for our sins! The reason we haven’t heard from him in two thousand years could be due to the fact that anyone claiming to be the Son of God would be locked up in an asylum. First time round we might be able to get away with it. Second time is much harder. A later day Jesus who as we are led to believe from the bible, would have to be a humble man who would not value wealth would not be able to convince any pope of his divinity unless he produced a miracle. How could a human pope recognise a god unless he reviled himself via a miracle? The pope would surly then become a doubting Thomas, who could not have been worthy of holding the position of God’s pope in the first place. Religion has been a source of conflict though time immemorial. One God and his followers, against another. Groups of people under the banner of their god cannibalising there enemies in the crusades in the name of a god whose commandments include the law "The shalt not kill”. Popes who directed there people in the name of god, to destroy all who were not of their "group". A church that did nothing to protect millions of Jews from slaughter in the gas chambers. A god for all man?
Religion is dependent on a higher being, and if we live life to his rules (some amended over the years to suite) we can look forward to being welcomed at the gates of Heaven, a perfect world with no disease or conflict—oh dear, unfortunately we thrive on competition, therefore a perfect heaven would not be much fun, unless we cut it up into different cultures and countries perhaps, and ultimately end up back from where we started! Adam and Eve did not need a snake to tempt them to eat the apple. The shear boredom of swanning around naked in some salubrious garden drove them to it!
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