May 2010 Archives
Imagine No Religion
Last week one of my co-workers and I engaged in a conversation about her religion (Christianity), and during that conversation she quoted that all-too-familiar phrase “But the Bible says…..”, which always sends me off to a place of frustration. I swear if one more person says this to me as an argument to defend what their belief system is I’m going to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Although I am an ordained minister, and I do believe that Jesus walked the earth, it is not as easy for me to come to such a rigid and narrow-minded acceptance of all of the dogma that is fed to and regurgitated from the followers of this religion. I also want to point out that I am not singling out Christianity, but because it is a major religion, I am using it as a prime example for the purposes of this blog.
I guess the reason I don’t accept dogma at face value is because I have taken the time to study the history of religion as well as the fundamental core beliefs of many major religions. Knowledge truly IS power and the conclusion I have come to is that they all teach the same fundamental values. So when I continually encounter people who quote Biblical scriptures as if they were absolutes for everyone on planet Earth, that is when my frustration rears its ugly head.
When people come to me for guidance because they are confused about their religion, which is in direct contradiction of how they desire to live their life, or they are starting to have a lot of questions, to which they cannot find any answers, this is what I tell them. Go to your local college and take a history class on religion. When you’ve completed the class, and you realize how and why religion began, it may be difficult for you to put any real value in any of these man-made belief systems.
I am not saying I want to discount or dismiss religion entirely because I do believe it had and still has a divine purpose, which is to create a moral code that governs the conduct of human behavior in our society. By the same token, spirituality can, and often does, accomplish the same results. Many people ask me what the difference is between the two and the best answer I can provide is that religion is a set belief system declared by someone else that you must buy into and follow to be part of that particular specific spiritual community. On the other side of the coin, spirituality allows you to explore the divine connection to God or a higher power in your own way, thus creating your own personal truth or belief system.
Obviously the latter is a bit more empowering to the individual, which could be why traditional spiritual leaders go to great lengths to denounce and diminish any contemporary belief system they are not in agreement with. If everyone bought into spirituality as a means to maintain their connection to God and keep their human behavior in check, there would no longer be any use for organized religion. Let’s face it, that would not only put a lot of people out of work, it would reduce the amount of power that organized religion has over people. Where there is power there is usually money or political gain. Need I say more?
Spiritual belief systems not only existed prior to Christianity, they existed even during prehistoric times and it wasn’t until the invention of writing (5,000 years ago) that its documentation began. Hinduism, which is the third largest religion in the world, existed around 3000 BC. An awareness of Abraham, the patriarchal figure in Judeo Christian and Islamic religions existed quite a few years later around 2000 BC. Zoroastrianism started around 1700 BC and by 1250 BC the first books of the Torah, the sacred scripture of Judaism were composed. This was followed by Jainism, an Indian religion that existed in 877 BC and Confucianism, a Chinese religion which existed around 500 BC.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, and also one of my personal favorites, walked the Earth teaching his wisdom around 563 BC, long before Jesus was even conceived 600 years later. I find it extremely fascinating that people can so easily negate the Buddha’s existence (or somehow connect him to “the Devil”) simply because they were born on the western side of the planet and only learned about Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in Christianity. But even with really cool dudes like the Buddha and Jesus, that did not cease the creation of new religions like Gnosticism which was created by the prophet Mani around the year 140. Muhammad was the founder of Islam, and the sacred text of that religion, the Qur’an was completed around the year 650.
Christianity obviously took on a life of its own. Although it began around the year 301 in the near east, it became the state religion of the Roman Empower around 380 and went on to be the largest religion ever. But then political and cultural differences got in the way and so it split into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy around the year 1054. In the early 1500’s theologian Martin Luther reformed the teachings of the church and the Protestant religion (Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Calvinism) were born. In the 1700’s the Baptist and Methodist religions were formed. Here’s a fact I’m sure most do not know. During slavery, many were stripped of their African belief systems and were denied free religious practice. Slaves managed to hang onto some of their practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices (dancing, shouting, and music) remain a large part of worship in the African American church today. Before and after emancipation racial segregation prompted the creation of African American denominations, the first of which was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787.
Some of the more contemporary religions are the Bahai Faith which was founded in the early 1800’s around the same time as Mormonism. Then Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam were founded in the 1930’s. We can now fast forward to 1952 when Scientology began followed by the New Age Movement which started in the 1960’s. All of these newer religions are condemned by those that practice some of the older more archaic religions, but honestly I do not understand what all the fuss is about. So some guy decided that Scientology was the only way to worship. That is exactly how MOST religions were formed. One person who was courageous enough to disagree with a religion that was already established founded their own religion based on voices they heard in their head that they assumed were God, or simply by their own egotistical need to have some kind of power over others. Either the religion took off or it didn’t. But does that make one any more legitimate than the other? I don’t think so.
So with all of the knowledge I have acquired about how religion was formed, I personally don’t see it as something that can be documented as an absolute. I also don’t see it as very useful, especially in light of the fact that it seems to cause more divisiveness, hatred, judgment, condemnation, and wars than anything else in the world. In my opinion, and it is only my opinion, religion is for the non-thinker or lazy spiritualist who wants to be told what to believe so they don’t have to take the time to really explore their divinity within. A few weeks ago Deepak Chopra put out a post on Twitter asking his followers what they thought about organized religion. I responded to the tweet “I think all religions are cults.” Deepak quickly responded “Agree. Religion is a cult with a large following.” Within minutes people were re-tweeting my tweet, something that has not happened with any of my tweets since. I believe it flew threw the Twitter universe so quickly because many feel the same way that I do. That religion is used to brainwash, control, and abuse others, which is pretty much the definition of a cult.
I’ll leave you with this last thought. If your religion is working for you, meaning it provides you with inspiration and you are uplifted, energized, and fulfilled on a spiritual level, then by all means keep doing what you are doing. But if it makes you feel guilty, ashamed, condemned, or oppressed, then I suggest you begin the journey of soul-searching so that you can connect with God in your own way, a way that works for you. What you will find is that your spiritual journey will excite you rather than weigh you down.
Namaste (The Divine In Me Honors The Divine In You)!
Through The Eyes Of A Child
I didn’t write what you are about to read. My 14-year old daughter wrote this as a writing exercise for her theater class at Oakland School For The Arts. Each student had to write about what they would do IF THEY RULED THE WORLD. This only took her about seven minutes to complete.
Not a single living being would be homeless. Not a single living being would be any more privileged than another. That is not to say that one wouldn’t collect more earnings – but no one would have more rights than another – not because of their gender, color, appearance, emotions, or thoughts. Too many people nowadays are spoiled. The human race in my eyes is pathetic.
On to global warming. From my perspective, we are past the time period where the Earth was changeable. Animals are extinct, glaciers are melting, seasons aren’t the way they used to be. Recycling and conserving can slow down the process, but because of what we’ve done in the last few millenniums, we have slowly destroyed mother nature. Careless wasting and selfish actions have put us in this place.
If I ruled the world I would unite every country into one. Not physically but we would all help each other and all be under one government. It’s all or nothing. If a country refused to join us, so be it – to each his own. But don’t cry to us when a natural disaster strikes. Your country can struggle by itself – but my nation will be filled with peace, fair rules, harsh punishments for the ones who do wrong, honesty, and LOVE.
If a 14-year old can think along these lines with regard to unity (in less than seven minutes), why is it so difficult for adults to comprehend?????
