On Religion

 

Well sorry about that...starting off so cynical right off the bat...

Let’s start again...

So as I mentioned in the introduction page, and home page, I was raised Catholic...which resulted in a lot of questions for one who wonders about life far too much.  Really though, since the beginning of history (and maybe before), we have been trying to figure out who (or what) God is, what God wants, what happens if we don’t give it to Him, or what happens if we do.  The truth is that we still have no idea, and are unable to come to an agreement, about answers about any of these questions.  And this is part of much of the turmoil in so many areas of today world, and why we are unable to evolve.  (Yeah, hold on...this gets pretty deep...)

So many of our laws, social mores, and even simple customs, (of almost any culture), are based on what their people believe to be what God wants.  And if you step back, and look at the answers our religions have provided, objectively, (and for many people this is downright impossible to do when it comes to religion) they appear to be outright fallacies in order to keep us in check.  If you are open minded and curious enough to consider these fallacies, here goes...

The first fallacy that our religions try to tell us regarding God is that God needs something from us.  As a kid, growing up (that’s what kids do), this didn’t make sense to me; it runs counter to the belief that God is everything.    And it presumes another fallacy...that God can fail to get what he needs.  Well, wait a minute...this is the all powerful God, right??  Now...as a grown up (sort of), who can look objectively at our world, one can recognize that without these fallacies just about every organized religion on the planet would fall apart.  After all, if God needed nothing there would be no reason for Him to be angry...and that leads to the next fallacy.  We don’t give God what He needs, and our failure to do so makes Him angry.  In fact it makes Him so angry He banished us from Heaven...however, He needs what he needs so badly that He would bargain with us, that if we still will give Him what He needs, He will let us back.  (Wow...George Carlin would have a field day with this...oh wait...he did!!).  But wait...there is more!!  (No not a ginsu knife ... and certainly not free shipping!!)  If we (actually you personally...yes, God takes this personally) do not give God what he needs He will destroy you...or at the very least punish you forever!!  Yes...burn for eternity (that is forever), in hell.  Does this sound like an all powerful, all loving God?

So....let’s sum up what all major religions are all about.  God needs stuff, can’t get it Himself, sent us (you) away because we/you wouldn’t give it to Him, but still demands that you give it to Him, and if you don’t He will punish you forever.  Kinda sounds like a loving, omnipotent God??  What you say...common sense and religion have no business in the same realm??

Whoops that cynical thing again...sorry...let’s get positive...

 

Little better...

 

 

Well...at least that one was funny....wasn’t it??

Anyways...let’s get serious here again, sort of. 

The time has come for us to become aware, and to realise that if our religions have not been lying to us, that at the very least they do not know all there is to know about God.  The biggest questions that believers are reluctant to ask is “Could we be mistaken?”  The current paradigm says if you do not believe in God, in the way you are told to believe, then you are a heathen and will be punished (oh no....let’s not get started again!).


 

It is time to grow beyond the old ideas about God and in turn about life.   We must come to understand that there is more to God than our religion is telling us.  A good starting point may be that God is Love, that God is All, that you (me, each of us) is a part of All, and as such we are a part of God.  So where does this take us?  Into another post!  Stay tuned...