أحمد الزيدان
2010-09-29 01:29:36 UTC
However, there does remain an aspect of belief in God which defies all logic and reason, but which has
become a corner stone of faith. It is the belief that God became man. Where the original monotheistic
belief in God degenerated into a belief that there must be intermedi-aries between human beings and
the Supreme Being to either convey human quests or to act on behalf of God in the world, the intermedi-aries became objects of worship. The intermediaries were often con-ceived as spirits found in all manifestations of nature. Consequently, humans from primitive times have worshiped spirits of the
forest, rivers, skies and the earth etc., until the present time. Occasionally nature itself was worshiped, and at other times, symbols representing nature were worshiped. The religious systems, which evolved from these types of beliefs tended to be localized and remain scattered among primitive people around
the world till today. Such beliefs did not converge in the form of a single belief system of international impact, as far as is known in the current records of human history.
On the other hand, where the monotheistic belief degenerated into the personification of God’s power
as separate intermediary entities represented by images, idols became a focal point for worshipping God. The powers of God became gods. Such beliefs have culminated in ancient and modern times as natural religions of international im-pact. Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman religions have died out
due to the complete subversion of these empires by Christianity. However, the Indian expression of Hinduism survived both Muslim and Christian colonization and remains the national religion of ap-proximately one billion people in India. Christianity and Islam, with exception of Bali in Indonesia,
have supplanted their direct interna-tional impact in the majority of the Far East. However, the different forms of Buddhism, its offshoot, have become the main religion of hundreds of millions in the Far East. Different forms of this Hindu reform movement continue to spread in the West today.
When a person reaches the top caste, the Brahmins, after various re-incarnations, the cycle of rebirth ends, and he reunites with Brah-man. This process of reunification is called Moksha, and in Bud-dhism it is called Nirvana2. The Atman becomes once again reunited with Brahman. Thus, man becomes God.