It's Sunday again, or at least it's close enough for me.
Time for my weekly religious diatribe.
If you've known me for awhile, you'll know that I judge each religion to be equally valid. I try not to be judgmental and I assume that each person has perfectly valid reasons for their beliefs.
You see that's the thing about belief.
Belief by definition, needs no purpose or validation. It can stand alone.
When you begin to share belief you begin to find religion. While I judge each religion to be equally valid, this is to my mind the greatest picture ever drawn on the subject of religion.
Do you really think that this is what happens?
Perhaps not. Perhaps the battle for the souls of believers happens here on earth.
Perhaps we are all chess pieces on some cosmic chess board where the forces of good battle the forces of evil?
I've never found either answer satisfying and a question my kid posed to me today really put it into perspective for me. He asked me point blank...
Daddy do you believe Donald Trump is a bad guy?
A couple of things about this. The kid is 6 years old and secondly, we don't talk politics in my house.
But he's picking this up from somewhere and I had to give him an answer that fit well within my beliefs.
My response to him was this...
There aren't bad guys and good guys. There are just people and people will do bad things, but the same people will also do good things. What we need to do is make sure that each person really gets a voice in choosing their leaders. Once that happens, then the future is up to those leaders. Right now a lot of people like what he's saying. I don't like what he's saying. However we don't live in a world where your daddy and mommy's vote has any more weight than anyone else. Those are the rules and we have to play by the rules or we have to find a new game to play with our friends.
No matter your religion, if you are religious you subscribe to a set of beliefs that says "our way is the only way".
The subtext here is that if you don't subscribe to that particular set of beliefs then you are on the outs with God. Many religions take it a step further and either say explicitly or implicitly... "We are God's few, his elect and his chosen. Of the billions upon billions of people on this earth, we are his favorites and when we get to heaven it will be only us and those we invite.".
Here's the thing that has always bothered me about that argument.
If you look at every Messiah in every religion you will find three things in common.
Firstly, they never challenged "casual evil". In fact Jesus was well known to frequent less than savory places and has always had plenty of followers who would not be what you could call "of good moral character". He was even called out for it for a time or two. His response to this was, "let he who is without sin..."
What was challenged was "abuse of power by those in authority"
Secondly, what they saved mankind from, was ignorance brought about by blind obedience. Obedience to power is sacrificing one's own will, in the hopes that someone in power will "like you more". In this case that someone is "God". But the principle applies here. I have my doubts that a God who is beyond all reckoning, really appreciates a sycophant anymore than any other person in a position of power appreciates it.
The message really sent by Jesus, Buddha, Prometheus, Loki etc is that obedience, while good for the social order and therefore good for the master, is terrible for the spirit of the slaves. This is because, no matter what rules or laws you think you're obeying, what you're really doing is letting another person have control over you. This control is the problem. Your reason for obedience is the bigger problem though.
Do things because you want to do them, not because you're going to get into heaven for doing it or go to hell for doing something else.
The final and perhaps most important thing that every messiah has brought, is an overturning of the social hierarchy. Prior to Jesus's time, the Jews taught that the only path to heaven was a rigid set of structures and rules.
Jesus was tried, convicted and crucified for blasphemy because he had the courage to stand up and say. "No one speaks for God. God speaks to each of us individually, in the way we need to be spoken to." No man can enter the kingdom of heaven following someone else, because as Buddha said "Each of us has a unique path".
Now here we are 2,000 years later and we are back to a bunch of religions all bickering over who's rules and rituals are more true, more pure. All about a God who has said time and again...
"All rules are false, each of you must find your own way back, but you can hold hands to get here".
I believe that eternal truth is found only in the places where no one can really disagree.
All religions on earth share two principles.
"You have freewill"
"Be kind to one another, because we are all equals in the grand scheme of things"
Anything else is just getting involved in someone else's power struggle.
Final Note: If it turns out I'm a pawn on a cosmic chess board, I will move in ways even the gods will scratch their heads over. Which of course will lead to accusations of cheating. Which of course is what really lead to the fight depicted above.
Image Credit: Perry Bible Fellowship
I love the image!
I think any religion which teaches love, respect, and tolerance is basically following the same God, anyway. Names are kind of irrelevant and could be due to language differences and long distances between cultures. I believe God shares truth to whoever will listen, which is why so many religions have so much in common. It's ridiculous to fight over religion. We should build on common beliefs and celebrate unique ways of looking at the Universe.
You and your readers might find my recent post interesting. It talks about coming to God in your own way and your own time.
Thanks for sharing this matter, I like what you posted. Thank you so much
I would buy a tee shirt with that on it.
Interesting you mention that.
Pbfcomics does have a tshirt and mug store
www.pbfcomics.com
I don't see that exact image there but I'm sure if we shot the artist an email he would totally have them printed.
I disagree with this. There are only bad guys or good guys. Those are the 2 most important distinctions (unlike religion, race, creed, gender, etc.). There are those who choose to constantly act with compassion, and those who initiate force, bully, and hurt others any way they can just to get ahead.
The reason bad guys still exist is because some good guys continue to pretend that everything is A-OK and no one ever points out or corrects their disgusting behavior. This is why we do not see the liars and thieves who crashed our economy in jail. This is why Clinton and Trump are the nominees for President. This is why millions of children are suffering from mercury poisoning due to the CDC falsifying data, destroying evidence, and then forcing kids to get vaccines filled with a known poison. This is why cheaters get rewarded in our society (for example in divorce court the woman will, in many cases, get alimony even if she is the one who committed adultery), but those who are honest and righteous and moral are continuously ostracized.
Yes, all of us have free will. But that free will ends where someone else's free will begins. "Bad guys" don't respect that boundary and impose their free will on others, often without consent. They also refuse to follow the 2nd rule of being kind. Are good guys supposed to just take that kind of abuse and preach that these people are good, but sometimes do bad things when evidence points to the contrary?
I do agree with your main point though. All religions lead to God, and each one offers a unique path that we can choose to take. But also, we cannot get bogged down in the rules and rituals of these religions. I wrote about this a bit ago if you'd like to check it out:
https://steemit.com/spirituality/@mscleverclocks/there-is-no-god-in-religion-philosophical-musings-from-northern-russia
I think most people who do bad things do them because for whatever reason, that's what they were taught to do. So there are people who strive to always to what's right, and those who don't know what right really is. This is sad, because damaging behavior can poison generations. And those people who engage in damaging behavior rarely listen to kindness or reason. All I can do is teach my children love and tolerance and seek the best future possible through them.
Kids should absolutely be taught love, compassion, and tolerance, (and I commend any parent who focuses on that), but they should also understand the reality of life. People will hurt them and many of them will do it on purpose, just because they are bad people. No other reason.
A "bad person" is just a person who disregards free will and consent. And it is a person who is willing to initiate force to get what they want.
We should teach kids how to discern early on which people to avoid and which to trust. :)
You don't need to follow any religion to have a freewill. Religion is for those who need a guide to show them what and how to do.
haha
Marvelous image.
My favorite description of who Jesus was and what he wanted is Reza Aslan's Zealot, summarized here
but totally worth reading in full. I may to a review of it at some point. When the video freezes a minute or so in, just click on the timeline at the bottom to the right of where it freezes.
• 2+2 = 999,999,999
• 2+2 = 4
• 2+2 = 666
Depends on the dimensionality and base of the calculation and the precision of the instrument used to retrieve and interpret the result.
Example if 2 is equal to 333 because it's a 3 dimensional translation of a 3 dimensional vector at x,y,z =3 then yeah the result is 666.