Characteristics of religions are still in flux. For instance,
religious events embedded in various cultures take on a merely
ceremonial role in today's world, aligning themselves with the
newest in music, imagery, interactive multimedia, and networks.
Believers as well as casual spectators have access to religious
ceremonies through Websites. Probably even more telling is the
appropriation of social, political, and moral causes, as
religion ascertains itself in our time as open, tolerant, and
progressive, or conversely as the guardian of permanent values,
justifying its active role outside its traditional territory.
This ascertainment is dictated by the pragmatic framework of the
dynamic reality in which religion operates, and not by the
memetic replication of its name. This is, of course, the reason
for not limiting our discussion to variation and replication, no
matter how exciting this might appear.
But who made God?
The variety of religions corresponds to the variety of pragmatic
circumstances of human identification. Regardless of such
differences, each time children, or adults, are taught that God
made the world, the oceans, the sun, stars, and moon, and all
living creatures, they ask: But who made God? Trying to answer
such a question might sound offensive to some, impossible to
others, or a waste of time. Still, it is a good entry point to
the broader issue of religion's roots in the pragmatic
framework.
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