After writing abt my experience with preachers in the previous post, I kinda figured it would make sense if I wrote about what I think of organized religion. At the risk of pissing people off, I am being candid here.
I use the term ‘organized religion’ in the same tenor as ‘organized crime’. There is simply too much similarity in the way they operate for me to ignore it. Although, there’s where the comparision ends. Organized religion has a well defined purpose like organised crime. Organized crime wants to control was much area/domain as possible, and make as much money as it can, dodging authority and/or greasing its’ palm. Organized religion wants to spread its dominion in the community to the extend possible, and control as much of the people as possible through the vicious circle of ‘sin and repentance’, dodging reasoning, rationality and pursuit of true knowledge.
I have clarify at this point that I make a very clear distinction between god and religion. I guess I’ll write up a post on god sometime in the future, but for now its about religion.
If I were god (as most of the organized religions define god), then I’d make the world as a perfect place simply because its easier to manage and wonderful place to be, for your kids (i.e. humans) to live and die. Unless, of course, I want to raise the bar, I want a challenge. Since I am god, the all-powerful, nothing could be challenging, so I wouldnt really gain anything by creating an imperfect world and then getting a high out of managing it. Which means that I actually created a perfect world, but imprefection crept into it, thanks to the devil (garden of eden and the serpent). If I am god, and I created eveything, then I must have created devil as well… so devil should be perfect as well, and completely controllable by god, but obviously the devil isnt.. so there is some disconnect there. Even if it wasnt the devil, imperfection still crept in, like entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. But god should be able to set all that right.. after all he is god! At this point logic fails. So what’s really going on? I believe that this inherent inconsistency is because of the way religion conceptualizes god. I believe that the god that people know from religion is a far cry from truth, more on that in some future post :)
Lets consider the concept of sin. The 10 commandments. Were we so stupid that it took god to tell us what we need to do for a stable society? Any bloke will tell you that if you are busy murdering others, sleeping with ppl indiscriminately, stealing other people’s property etc. it will take no time for the society to disintegrate into anarchy! So to safeguard the interests of the people, some of the smarter folks came up with certain ‘rules’.
These ‘rules’ were written and passed on from generation to generation, and the keepers of the rules ensured that there was peace and stability in the society. At one point the keepers of the rules kinda realized that if everyone is following the rules, then the keepers arent really needed, and so they wont be as important as they’d like to be, after all they were the ones who historically controlled and stablized the community, they were under the threat of obselence! So they needed something else, something that was more powerful than human, an all-seeing, all-powerful entity. God was the ideal candidate, and so they chose god as the ultimate guardian. The best way to control people was to keep them under constant fear, and threat, almost Orwellian. So they went ahead and made all the most basic and natural human instincts a sin, including birth itself (the original sin)! The only way out for the people is thru the keepers themselves… that way they retain control. And that is the ultimate goal of any organized religion, control the society.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, there are people who have received enlightenment, who have genuinely figured out what it takes to lead a righteous and fulfilling life, and are sharing it with other people. When the man, in flesh and blood, perished, his idea lingered, and was the ideal platform for the keepers to comandeer his teachings and manipulate it to their end.
Every religion starts off with the best intensions and teachings, but will invariably degrade into a tool of mass control. It cannot be helped, its in the very nature of nature. Entropy of the world is always increasing….
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Hi Semantic! Oh boy, you hit the mother load with this one! I am truly surprised you haven’t been shackled out of existence!! ;-0}
Believe it or not, being a Christian, you have spoken many truths about organized religion with the exception that true organized religion is in it for the buck also as is organized crime!
That is why “religion” to me needs to take on two different faces!
As a Christian, I do not consider myself religious as is in the religion understanding of religious.
As for many of your other points, all religion and in this case even Christians have a criteria to follow that leads them or helps them believe in what they believe in and why.
God, is, to me, a true living entity who has delivered to His people, those who would believe, a son in the flesh, Jesus Christ.
If you are a believer in the Bible you will find that God did indeed create all things including Satan. But to understand the whys, well yes, to my mind, it would have been so much easier not to allow sin to become rampant in the first place. Logic and belief sometimes do not seem to go hand in hand and that then is where faith comes into play.
Logic is not a part of my beliefs to the extent that I can say, this is a definite, but I believe it to be through faith.
In order to create any understanding of religion or even Christianity for that matter, I believe you must have an understanding of the intent of the maker.
Just my humble opinion. Interesting post, sir!
Dig long and hard enough and you shall find what you are looking for. :-0}
Hey Peg, I agree with you on the part that religion is a lot more personal than the ‘canonized’ faith that we know by common names. That is why I believe that true christians are he ones who choose to read the scriptures and dervie their own understanding as it applies to them in their life. And this interpretation is different for each of us, making this, in some sense, a unique religion to us. It doesnt even have to be from the same scripture that has been prescribed by the faith. Mnay times, I have found that my understanding of god and His-her creation is a lot more comprehensive (and I’d like to believe a lot more true) when I read writing from more than one sources.
I do believe that god created the world and satan with it, but my concept of god is very different from the biblical one, or even the islamic or the hindu gods. Like I said.. that will make for another post :)
You said it best when u said “Logic and belief sometimes do not seem to go hand in hand and that then is where faith comes into play.” I agree, here’s where the authority of the source plays the most important role. If one is convinced that the source is the ultimate authority, then believeing what it has to say comes naturally. But if one chooses to question it, and not receive a satisfactory answer, that simply means one has to continue the quest. And the only tool known to man for such a question is rationality and logic. It may not be a good tool, but its the only one we have at our disposal. And so the jouney continues :)
I am so glad you left out woman, using the only tool known to man! ;-0}
You see sir, for I believe in what the Bible says and believe it to be the true word of God. Metaphorically there are a few, but I believe it to be a factual account of history, past, present, future.
As with the young minds you encountered, I do also believe as it is written in the Bible that the way to the Father (God) is through His son (Jesus). I also do believe my “soul” purpose on earth is to do each and all things that would glorify the Father (God). Every encounter is to be treated as if (you) all are truly my brothers and sisters I have touched and doing so I become more Christ-like.
I will probably never succeed to the extent I do want and wish to, but my journey will aslways point me in the right direction and my beliefs will be my steps of guidance.
Very good food for thought, you have provided!! :-0}
I like the redesign. Neat!
Dangerous subject, my friend! Should create some stir though!