WORSHIP - THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION

WORSHIP

Reverence paid to a divine being or supernatural power.
As a noun, Your Worship = Your Reverence.
Extravagant respect or admiration for.
The act of expressing reverence.
Taking part in the rituals of reverence.

I come from a faraway island lush with water, food, shelter, and whatever clothing we wish to wear. At last count, we were over ten thousand inhabitants. Rains come and water our crops and fill our aquifers. Sunshine beats down and our crops grow. Our animals are fat from their food and we enjoy their bounty of milk and meat. The ocean that surrounds us is bountiful with fish that we catch as needed for food.

We have a few rules and our children are brought up to obey them unquestioningly.

Rule number one: Treat all as you wish to be treated yourself.
Rule number two: The work you do, whatever it is, is for the benefit of all.
Rule number three: No one may strike another for any reason.
Rule number four: If you break any rule, you must punish yourself by isolating yourself in the isolation area for a time determined by you. Only you can forgive you.

Our society is based upon respect for each other, always. We gather to sing, dance, and eat together. Our couples mate for pleasure and for offspring and are couples so long as they wish to remain couples. Couples may separate and come together with others and with other couples. Separation of couples is the most serious upsetment on our island. Tears are expected and sadness is common at separations. But these are the times when re-coupling enables a return to happiness.

No one may judge any other person but themselves. That is not a rule but rather an age-old custom.

When people die, they are placed in our four-sided open burial rafts and pushed out to sea with the tide for the length of the line that holds the raft. They remain in the raft until their bodies are gone and we reel the raft in to be used for the next person who passes on. We know that is where those who passed wish to find themselves if ever they waken, washed by the warm sea. We who wish to mourn their passing gather to hold hands at sundown at the launching place and remain there as long as each of us wishes. We sing songs of praise for those who passed.

We do not worship. We respect ourselves and others and always show that respect. No one is higher than another or lower than another. No one is better or worse than any other. We are all truly equal.

We killed one person who claimed to speak for a being higher than all others. We thought of him as evil.