Could Organized Religion be our Downfall
I know I am taking a risk by writing this article, and it is a chance that I am willing to make. Some of you will probably quit reading what I have to say when it is all done, and that is ok. On the other hand I could possibly get more people interested in what I have to say. Surely a popularity contest is not the reason I have this Blog, but it is a vehicle for me to express my opinions to anyone who might care to listen. Hang on to your seats, because here we go.
Could organized religion be mans downfall in the end? Humans have had disagreements since the dawn of time, but in the beginning days it was not such a threat to our total existence. Now our divisions and disagreements can lead not to just wars, which in my opinion are bad enough, but to the end of our civilization as we know it. The way I see things is the problems that we are facing today is of a spiritual nature. We keep trying to solve the problems of the world as if it is a political problem, or an economic problem, or even a military problem, and it is none of these. A spiritual problem is the one type of problem that we as human beings don’t seem to know how to solve.
We have many sacred scriptures around the world, The Bible, The Veda, Bhagavad-Gita, Lun-yu, Pali Canon, Tao-te Ching, Talmud, Hadith, Book of Mormon, Qur’an, Upanishad, I Ching, Adi Granth, Mahabharata, Yoga-Sutras, Mathnawi, Kojiki……. need I go on? But we all act as if there is only One!! It is your sacred scripture that is really sacred and all the rest are poor substitutes and blasphemies. Our spiritual arrogance is what has caused us as human beings more sorrow and sufferance than anything in our existence. It seems that for one thing, we are willing to give up everything, love, health, happiness, harmony, safety, security, even our life. And that one thing is……Being right!
All behaviors are caused by beliefs. What is the easiest way to have someone kill another? By telling them thats what God wants, or that is the will of god, and that you will be rewarded in heaven if you do God’s will. This has been going on since the beginning of time. The wrath of God is taught to us as beliefs. Our religious leaders have called upon the True Believers to kill the apostates or kill the infidels. The point is, if others don’t believe what we believe, God says we get to kill them. Pope Urban II issued a crusade at Clermont, France, in 1095 that created a military expedition organized by Western Christians against Muslims. This went on for two hundred years with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Muslim leaders likewise have sponsored throughout the centuries aggression after aggression in the name of wiping out apostasy. Now this is not limited to the ancient times, back in 1989 the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. He said that Muslims around the world had a duty to execute Rushdie on site, and any person doing so would go straight to heaven. And now you see what is going on in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Israel. History just keeps repeating itself over and over.
So what can we do to break out of this vicious cycle we have gotten ourselves into? There needs to be big changes in the way we perceive religion. A revamping if you will. Ask yourself this, if you are the owner of a company that has a policy of how you do business, and that plan made the company a lot of money in the beginning but business has slacked off due to changing times, do you continue to follow that policy until the company goes out of business or do you change your thinking and your plan to fit with the current times to continue the life of the business? Oh but Charles you cannot compare religion to a business, that is a bad analogy. Is it? Apparently what we are doing now is not working, just look at the turmoil the world has been in. I say it is time for a change and a awakening, and quit being sheep and just doing something because that is the way it has always been done. It is time for a spiritual revolution, a revolution of peace and interfaith understanding.
Now this doesn’t mean that we have to throw out the old completely and accept the new, but there needs to be a spiritual transcending. Transcending means to go beyond, to move past. It does not mean to completely reject or totally destroy. You do not have to destroy a thing to move past it. You do not want to destroy your old belief systems because that is a part of us, and there is a lot of that we will wish to retain. But you will expand your belief system to be a combination of new and old. Throw out things that just don’t fit, expand some of the old to make it work better, and add some new to round it all out. People perceive organized religion as tolerant and accepting, when in fact organized religion by nature exclude as many as they include. Religions in which we count on to teach tolerance have not learned how to practice it and so teach just the opposite. I remember a story in the not so distant past about a Lutheran pastor who got formal charges filled on him for joining a Interfaith event. The charges were filled by six other pastors calling for his expulsion from the church. He was accused of idolatry by participating in an event with non-Christians and a event that promoted that all religions are equal.
In my opinion one of the biggest problems in the world today is organized religion. Organized religions are not a solution, but a problem, not all religions, but most. And certainly, most of the largest. It is the old case of the blind leading the blind. Religions forbid tolerance. Baptists refusing to pray with Jews or Catholics. Lutherans refusing to pray with other Lutherans, as if there is a wrong time or wrong place or a wrong person with whom to pray. Is it any wonder that human beings around the world are asking themselves “What is wrong with this picture?” Who wants to believe in a God who is less charitable and less tolerant than they are? How can we ask the world to heal itself when organized religion - does nothing but inflict more and more damage, open wider wounds, and spread non-acceptance?
Steps to change
1. Acknowledge that some of your old beliefs about God and about Life are no longer working.
2. Acknowledge that there is something that I do not understand about God and Life, the understanding of which could change everything.
3. Be willing for new understandings of God and Life to now be brought forth, understandings that could produce a new way of life on this planet
4. Be willing to explore and examine these new understandings, and if they align with my inner truth and, to add them to my belief system.
5. Be willing to live your life as a demonstration of your beliefs.
Namaste!
What is the holistic approach to health.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
That is what I am so hopeful about. I think the new findings on the brain will put a jumper in the computer and the problem will be completely bypassed. When we use the right brain we can see Eastern thought and understand women. I seem to see a different interpretation of the scriptures at this time. I see things like, he would that everyone would be save and the Quran, almost the same thing. It have the idea that God will get what he wants. Wouldn’t you think he would. Or how about this one, there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous the later to judgment. That could be his own judgment that he is wrong. The symbolism seems obvious from the rest of the bible. When it says that the earth will be burnt up and the elements exposed, in prophecy the earth is always the people and burnt up, purified. It goes on and on. Like it says in the last days no on will have to teach them about me, all will know and the implication was not referring to just to the saved from what I could tell.
In nine of thirteen bibles used by the Baptists the word hell has been take out of the Hebrew scriptures. It is obvious now that the Hebrew word meant grave. It is in the english dictionary as one definition also. Even more telling, besides quantum theory is that the right brain is everything that religions teach, mild, creative like the creator, loving, to pure to behold evil because it sheds light on it as ignorance and the right brain is just the opposite. That brain is almost totally subjective the opposite of objectivity, scientific. The left brain thinks in pictures. We see them in dreams. Pictures can get the big picture and sees incongruities putting, in short, all thought and humankind together harmoniously. All the philosophies have discovered part of the truth.
It would seem that the bible speaks on many levels to every kind of person, from where they are and their time in history. It is all coming out now so this is the time for the new scrolls to be opened. But nothing can be added to the scriptures so instead the whole bible, as seen from the right brain is a different book, speaking about the end of confusion. All are beginning to see differently and would hardly pass up using right brain technology and the happiness that comes from there and from the creator at least indirectly.
The New York Times hinted at some of this by saying that we have found out that we are like monkeys on the back of a tiger, the subconscious. It does all the work, they say, our job is almost just to listen. Hmm
Charles, I have been meaning to write about that same subject for quite a while now, but have been hesitant. Kudos for taking the risk.
I really enjoy your blog! Thank you.
Wonderful post. Well done!
I actually came across this post as it’s extremely similar to something I wrote a short while back on the same topic ( http://paulitics.wordpress.com/2006/12/31/is-organized-religion-still-good-for-society/ ).
If you don’t mind, I’m going to post a link to this story in the comments section of my post. I still have lots of people reading my article and I feel that they would be well served to also take a look at yours.
Paul
I have been saying that forever The argument over whos God is greatest or whos beliefs are correct . Many religions are just that a business and really have nothing to do with honoring God or saving souls. These fanatics causing the problems today are basicaly saying my way or die . I think alot of people will agree with this article as I do . The true problems are the fanatics and their misinterpretation of the bible. Really all that needs to be done is to honor the Lord and follow the 10 commandments.