God is a human invention

That type of thinking is still with us. Muslim clerics blamed the tsunami which devastated Aceh and other areas on western women polluting the beaches by disporting themselves in immodest garments. American televangelist Pat Robertson blamed the Haitian earthquake on Haitians making a voodoo pact with the devil to rid the island of the French.

The first five commandments are ways to deal with God, but the last five make it easier for people to live together. That probably is the basis of morality. Humans developed ways of living together in community. To make sure humans don't run away with a neighbour's wife or cattle or do the dirty in other ways have God tell you to follow the rules.

Some of the dietary laws seem arbitrary, but if we consider the society in which they arose they make sense for that society in that environment.

Leviticus
11:7: And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
11:8: Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.
11:9: These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
11:10: And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11:11: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

Why not eat pig? Why not eat oysters and lobsters? Not eating pig is a consequence of the fact that Jews and the Arabs who also follow the injunction were nomadic, desert people. Unlike cattle, sheep and goats, pigs are not a herd animal. For nomads such an animal is more trouble than it's worth. Thousands of years ago the Middle East was a forested well watered area. Mainly due to human activity there was desertification. Pigs need shade and water so much of the area became less suitable for raising them. If oysters and lobsters were transported to the desert they would probably be spoiled so it would be wise not to eat them.

A characteristic of religion is that its commandments are observed when they are no longer relevant, creating an unreasonable sense of guilt when the injunctions are violated. A Jew or Muslim who is living a settled life in a well watered area may still keep the dietary injunctions which were meant for nomadic people in desert conditions.

A great problem with religion is that, although it is dependent on environment and culture, believers think it contains essential, eternal truths independent of environment and culture. It is a divisive force when believers confront another people who think their religion also contains essential, eternal truths independent of environment and culture. "We have the truth!" is a recipe for oppression and conflict.

Three wondrous human inventions are democracy, mathematics and science. Democracy is an attempt to have people who will be affected by a political decision make that decision, rather than a monarch, tyrant or oligarchy. It doesn't guarantee the decision is a good one, but it does guarantee that people have the right to decide for themselves. If they have made a bad decision they have the power to change it.

Mathematics starting with counting. Some ancient thinker got the idea that the number five was an abstraction. The number is the same whether it is five sheep or five stones. It is the same regardless of what symbol represents it. For a long time it was thought that truth not available in religion or philosophy could be found in mathematics. Euclid, around 300AD, proved that there were an infinite number of primes, and the proof will be valid through eternity as are many other mathematical proofs. In 1931 Kurt Gödel found that no matter how many axioms form the basis of mathematics there will be statements about integers which cannot be proved to be either true or false.

Possibly science was invented when some human started to wonder as his or her fellows cowered at fear from the vengeance of the lightning of the gods. This human could have wondered why the sight of the lightning was followed some time later by thunder. Could it be that the light traveled faster than sound? Humans speculated on the nature of light and designed experiments to find out more. They found that light could treated as a wave and also as particles. In 1887 Michelson and Morley found that the speed of light was not affected by the motion of its source. That discovery sparked Einstein's special theory of relativity. Unlike religious revelation science builds on previous discoveries. However, it does not deal in truth but the best explanation for phenomena. When a better explanation is found the old one is discarded.

Unlike religion and language democracy, mathematics and science transcend ethnic and tribal bonds. The law of mass action in chemistry and relativistic physics are independent of social milieus as are Euclid's axioms. There is no certainty of truth outside of mathematics, and it can be problematical there.

Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach expressed our situation:

... for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

To cope with a rapidly changing world we can examine our human inventions and decide whether it is best to keep, modify or discard them.