Ever since I was a young boy, I always doubted the idea of a personal god. The idea that you can pray to "Jesus" or "Allah" and get what you want without working for it never clicked in my head. Perhaps, it was my parents' fault for not taking me to church every Sunday; whatever it is, I'm glad I'm not a believer.
The problem with some religions is what they believe in. Most religions believe in a godly figure, something that we humans cannot test and, so it becomes blind faith. Blind faith is dangerous because it makes one live his/her life on the possibility of "true and false".
When a religion sets standards and rules, it gets in the way of normal, natural, human feelings and urges. They make you feel unnatural and guilty. The religious system is preventing people from doing what they want to.
Religion also separates people. It puts them into categories. In some cases, it is frowned upon to communicate with people outside your religion. It becomes a cult. This may not be the religion's purpose, but without a doubt, it separates people. Some of the world's most damaging wars and deaths started with the inability for religions to coexist. This is by far the biggest problem with religion.
So, some religions believe in gods which cannot be tested; so their faith is blind. Some religions try to prevent you from doing things your body would normally do and make you feel bad about it, the guilt trip. Religion separates people; it makes everyone different for the wrong reasons- it starts wars. Am I saying that all organized religion is bad? Of course not, just the ones that do these things.
Organized religion is the attempt to control the uncontrollable. It is the marketing and merchandizing of God, used to attain control and material possession in the name of a deity. Organized religion exploits man's carnal desire for cognitive understanding in order to set up traditions, mental customs and practices which are extremely attractive to the intellect. It devises theologies and doctrines which produce prejudicial thinking and limit the natural spiritual freedom existing in every human being. Because the carnal mind of mankind believes it needs spiritual boundaries, it embraces organized religion's laws and regulations as necessary limitations with open arms. Furthermore, organized religion has a built in matrix for dependency. Insecure individuals are drawn to leadership positions in organized religion because these positions allow them a false sense of security through a manufactured authority. Similarly, others are easily enticed to be followers or “sheep” to these leaders because they are unable to find and be responsible for the divinity within themselves. It is a twisted and abusive system that has been in place for thousands of years; and it has rooted itself so deep into our society that it requires martyrs of love to stimulate ideas for a better way.
ReplyDeleteJesus himself is one of these martyrs. He spent most of his time as a human being attempting to expose the intoxicating and imprisoning mentality of organized religion. In fact, his anger for turning spirituality into a business manifested quite clearly in the temple of his day as he overturned the marketing tables of the people who were “selling” their God products. Ironically, 2000 years after Jesus' martyrdom, the very people who proclaim to be leaders in his name are the greatest abusers of all he taught; and mentor's of things which he did not teach. For example, Jesus never taught about attaining positions of leadership. In fact, he warned us about the people who seek these positions. Sadly, men have twisted the words of Christ to justify using religious authority in order to manipulate weak minded people. “Christian leadership,” in an occupational context, is actually a perversion of the teachings of Christ. Furthermore, the “church” was never intended by Jesus to be a business organization. The real church which Jesus taught about is the organic entity that lives beyond the restraint of denomination, doctrine and dogma. The real church is not bound by buildings or bank accounts. It is not defined by sacred items or holy days. It is fresh and new every day, every hour, every minute and even every second.
Organized religion's intellectual and political attraction has made it very rich! Today, the interest organized religion has in attaining wealth is well disguised but very real; pocketing billions of dollars every year from people who are told that their money will be spent on human interest; only to see that money end up in personal bank accounts. These organization claim that their wealth is God's favor. However, most of it's money is made off of the fear of those who think they must give it or there will be divine wrathful consequences. On the other extreme, many give to these organization believing that God will favor them the more they “give.” It's no wonder that money is a big part of organized religion. The need for wealth is built into the system. What is built by money must be sustained by money. Huge mortgages and salaries are necessary for these organizations to grow and flourish. Therefore, the pressure to get as much from the people as possible is an ever increasing responsibility for these organizations.