Symbolic Representation In Religion

The Importance of Symbolic Representation in Religion The curiosity of humanity has always driven it to powerful questions, going into the proverbial deep end of the intellectual pool. “Why are we here? What is our purpose? How did existence come to exist,” are all questions that were commonly asked by the philosophers of the ancient world. Through science, humanity has been able to vaguely answer some of these questions; however, these revelations are relatively modern. The concepts of science and provability were non-existent in the primordial world, leaving the people of the age without answers and a dark void of unawareness. In order to fill the void, the people turned to religion, ideology, and myth to sate their quest for knowledge;

The major point of connection—art and religion stem from the misery and sadness of life— is a clear concept to grasp. As stated before, people are curious creatures, intelligent animals that require an answer to the question. When life becomes heavy with hardship and strife, they cannot simply be satisfied with an answer of ‘Just cause,’ when the question they ask is ‘Why.’ They need to find an answer to their sorrow and, in the case of these primitive cultures, the answer was found in art and religion. As Armstrong puts it, “Like art, religion is an attempt to construct meaning in the face of the relentless pain and injustice of life,” (Armstrong 5). People require a way to find meaning in life; this desire to find meaning often manifest itself into some form of medium. An ideology that justifies the pain in life—the thought that for one life to continue another life must end—is often the result of such a

Certain Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Confucianism, required their followers to undertake some form of physical and mental alteration. The principles of Buddhism required a monk to live by a code of anatta, a form of ego death, while the principles of Confucianism are guided by the Golden Rule, a life-style of kindness towards others. Both of these religious practices focused around a mental metamorphosis and an alteration of the self. A yogi, for example, would partake in the ancient art of yoga, a form of physical manipulation, to achieve a feeling of peace and harmony. Yoga, however, was not an activity for anyone to participate in. The young disciples were not allowed to perform this rite until they “…had completed an intensive moral program” (Armstrong 15). Just like the disciples of Buddhism and Confucianism the yogins had to undergo a form of behavioral metamorphosis in order to reach the true meaning of their theology. The yogin had to take up a rule of ahisma, or nonviolence. A yogin could not simply begin to perform the mind-enlightening art of yoga, but had to alter his mind into a state of peace. This is similar to the usage of art for the Lascaux tribes in the sense that both cultures required a “pre-enlightenment” in order to understand the deeper beliefs behind their respective religions. The Lascaux people may have used the