Who are we? Every people seek to answer this question of the Communal I-Am. Every people seek to validate defining responses to this question with beliefs and behaviors they convince themselves are required by the God they hold responsible for their existence. This drive to have a Communal Resolution Of Being is more than just a tribal attempt to reach an aggregate definition of God and self. It is necessary if a people are to have any sense of freedom from the debilitating anxiety of mortal insecurity and the daunting fear of eternity.
The resolve of a people to be free from the Pain Of Mortal Being and the Fear Of Eternal Being is the genesis of all religion. It is the first line of emotional defense against the cruel harshness of life and the stark reality of death. And despite whatever transpires in between, it is also the last line of defense against the assumed possibility of punishment for our mortal deficiencies and our fear of eternity. Every people must have it. Every person must have it.
Who am I? Every person must come face to face with this question of the Personal I-Am. It is inevitable. it is necessary. If there is no intercession, cosmic or otherwise, between the Communal I-Am and the Personal I-Am, the need for a personal Resolution of Being is usually satisfied by the religious beliefs of a people.
A person will attempt to satisfy this need with a personal philosophy if and only if that person is unable to eat and drink from the communal table of an aggregate definition of God and self. Nevertheless, even when one rejects a consensus or majority religious Resolution Of Being, one will still take one's cues to create, accept, or eject a personal Resolution Of Being straight from the cultural definition of God and self.
If a man is unable to embrace any religious beliefs that satisfactorily for him defines the reason for his existence and gives him relief from the Fear Of Eternity, the need for a Resolution Of Being must be repressed and suffered like all other repressions. But one simply cannot be human and not have a Resolution Of Being, not without suffering the Pain Of Mortal Being and the pervasive stresses of anxiety, fear, and unhappiness that accompany it.
If a woman is content with her perception of reality and subscribes to a philosophy, religion, or a set of behavior she believes are acceptable to the God she holds responsible for her existence, she at least retards the Pain Of Mortal Being. Every person is motivated to avoid that pain. We will subscribe to any theory, belief structure, and behavior that gives even momentary relief from it.
The need for freedom from anxiety, the fear of eternity, and the Pain Of Mortal Being can be so strong that the mere promise of relief through God's Charity or the charity of any other source can assemble loyal followers to almost any cause or ideology. It is a need that binds men and women to all kinds of religions, near religions, cults, repressive powers, political rhetoric, and the behaviors contrived by them.
Unfortunately, many attempts at a Resolution Of Being end in failure. Many such attempts end in disappointment and sometimes end in agony because they don't provide those persons with the spiritual intimacy they seek with the God they hold responsible for their existence. More importantly, their failure does not free them from the anxieties, out of which flows the source of their pain and fear.
As a result, they feel alienated from the Assumed God Of their Creation. Alienated, they suffer spiritual discontent, emotional infirmity, and the personal unhappiness the Pain Of Mortal Being relentless inflict upon those who suffer from ill-fated Resolutions Of Being.
They suffer these disorders of the self in spite of their acquiescence to what in the final analysis, they admit is essentially an attempt at absolution from pain and fear.