Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:15 pm by ByteSlinger
There is a big difference between a "religion" and a "belief". I believe that there is more to life (and death) than what we see here; I believe that energy never is lost, just transferred; I believe that our souls (or spirits or personas) are in fact a collection of intelligent and coherent energy housed in the biological computer known as the brain; I believe that there are more than 4 dimensions, and that we, as humans, only perceive a fraction of reality. I believe in positive and negative energy, and the existence of truly good - and truly evil - beings, some of which walk this Earth, and some that are just beyond our perception.
I don't have any answers. I don't know what God looks like, or if He really cares if we live or die. But I believe that He exists, in some form.
But I do know that a RELIGION is a man-made thing, designed to control people and keep them in check. ALL RELIGIONS ARE FALSE - but not all belief systems.
If you look at the general similarities of belief systems, they all have these attributes:
a) There is at least one entity who is responsible for the creation of life (even through natural and assisted evolution)
b) That people should generally treat each other well
c) That you should respect the world - and others - around you
d) That we are all connected in the grand scheme of things
e) That Good breeds Good, and Evil brings Evil
f) That there are consequences for your actions.
g) That there is more to life beyond the veil of death, and how you live your life affects what happens to you afterwards.
h) That free will exists and you can choose your behavior
Now, a RELIGION is a set of rules imposed over a belief system. These rules are designed to control groups of people and to keep them as puppets to the government.
Case in point: Roman Catholicism.
I was born and raised a Roman Catholic in a nice, Irish/German family way. I was taught from the onset that you had to always go to church, fear God, and pray that you would go to Heaven. Had to go to confession once a month to cleanse my soul of sin by listing all my faults and failures to a priest (back in the day, it was face-to-face - none of this curtains / small room stuff), who then asked if I was sorry, told me to say a few prayers, and try to to better next time. Like nabbing extra ice cream at a party or calling someone "fatso" at school was a one-way ticket to Hell. But as a little child, this is the fear they put in you.
Everything had a schedule, and every tradition was repeated without fail. Church was the same ritual, with only the readings changing from week to week. On special days, like Easter and Christmas, there'd always be twice as many people in church as usual - all trying to catch up and break even with God. Despite all of the readings and all of the stories, after a while, anyone with half a brain could see many hypocritical issues - and things that just didn't match up. When you ask a priest, the answer was always the same: "It is a Divine Mystery - just have faith in it all."
But how do you have faith in something you don't trust?
I veered away from the Church when I was 20 - not to disown it, but to get a different view. I visited temples, synagogues and mosques - many of my friends were of different religions, and I tagged along to see how other people made their peace with their maker. After many years of looking, I discovered one very common fact: God didn't create religion - Man did.
Go back to the Roman Catholic church - they didn't exist before 325 AD. From the time of Christ's death until then, most Romans (and Greeks) still had their poly-theistic views - all of the Roman and Greek gods still adorned their temples, and people prayed to the ones they wanted favor from.
When Christ walked the earth, dozens of people wrote of his teachings. They journaled his life, adding in their views, and keeping what they could for posterity. Some wrote letters, some wrote books. Many went to jail for heresy against the government. But his life was chronicled by many sources, who at the time wrote the best as they could. Back then, writing was a tough skill, and not everyone could write - but those that could would listen to others and write down what they had to say. Let's face it - Jesus was, if nothing else, an amazing teacher and prophet who did perform miracles, and lived a quiet, non-assuming life. He didn't surround himself with riches, nor did he demand anything from his followers other than this:
"I have but one commandment - that you shall love everyone as I have loved you - with all my soul and with no bounds"
Simple. Just love eachother. Show respect, and treat others as you wish to be treated. Don't be afraid to give your life for someone you love, and don't hold back.
And for this, they hung him on a cross as a traitor. Nice. Really nice. So much for appreciation.
For 300+ years, his followers spread the word of his teachings, wrote more books, translated them and shared the simplistic concept of Jesus and love. There were no Crusades; there was no violence. The apostles were told that "if you enter a house and try to spread the word, but it falls on deaf ears, then quietly leave the home, shake the sand off your shoes, and move on." No force - at least not from the Apostles. Many of them were beaten; some were jailed and some were killed. It wasn't an easy job - and it was all volunteer work.
But it did spread, and people began to follow the concept of the "One True God" and "His Son, The Saviour". Great for people. Bad for militaristic countries that were trying to subjugate them as slaves.
Eventually, the Roman government figured that if they didn't step in soon, they would lose to the Christian movement. Tossing them to the lions just made them martyrs, so that plan didn't work well. They needed a different way to get a handle on this uprising. So they called together all their own advisers, after some digging around, realized that there wasn't any unity or structure to the movement. They read the Old testament, and then the notes from all of the writers of Christ, and after much thought, decided to CREATE a religion based on all of these writings. Some of the writings didn't fit in with the story they wanted to tell, so they were edited or omitted completely. A new set of "rules" was created - the NEW TESTAMENT. Carefully crafted from all of the writings, and dovetailed into the OLD testament (from Judaism), it painted a very direct picture of what it would take to be ROMAN CATHOLIC. It was based on Christianity, and pulled together many loose ends - but it was pretty much the biggest sale pitch ever made.
And it worked. Well, not always - some Christians didn't want to accept that all of the writings had been gathered and all of the priests had figured out how to tie it all together - along with many new rules that had not previously existed. The biggest one was "any follower of Christ, such as a priest, deacon, nun, etc. will need to fully abstain from sex." That was NEVER in the OLD Testament - in fact, Jewish Rabbis were encouraged to marry, have children, and teach Torah at home - and hopefully raise a few more Rabbis in the process.
But the Nicean Council of 325AD rigged it all - the government was in charge of the religion; you had to give your tithing (10% of your earnings) to the church; had to follow all these new rules - oh, and by the way, there is now a NEW position called "POPE", who is now the mouthpiece for GOD - and if the POPE says it, it's just like GOD says it. Hmmm... Sounds fishy. That was NEVER in the Bible, either - and you'd think something THAT IMPORTANT would have been mentioned by Jesus before he died - you know, at the Last Supper, when he was making plans for his demise (and subsequent return).
They even carved out a plot of land, called it "The Vatican", and much like an Indian reservation, it was NOT part of Italy (Rome) but instead it's OWN DOMAIN. Which meant it could make up its own rules at will - and if the POPE says it, you GOTTA do it. The Roman Government controlled the Pope, and the Pope controlled the religion - and the people. To further drive the point home, eventually the Templar Knights were formed to reinforce these new rules - and protect the lies that the Roman Government created in the name of God. These same Knights were the start of the Crusades - and either you accepted Christ as your savior - or you were killed. Now, that's 180 degrees opposite of what THE ORIGINAL APOSTLES were told to do!
From there you know the rest. I do not know about the true birth of Christ - the Greek words for "virgin" and "young woman" are similar. I do not know if Jesus had any siblings, or if he married and had children of his own. None of that matters. It doesn't change my "belief" - that He was imbued with the power of God - and he taught a simple message of love and peace.
There are many arguments about the formation of Roman Catholicism - about how it was "supposed to happen" from visions seen by Constantinople. But no matter how you look at it, the end result speaks for itself - the RELIGION was created to rule the followers of Christ, and the GOVERNMENT runs the religion.
Which brings us back to "lying" and religion. All Religions lie to you - some more than others. But take a step back, and decide what makes sense - what do you believe in? Do you need to follow a religion to enjoy the fruits of the afterlife? They all can't be different - and right - at the same time. At best, only ONE is correct. But it's most likely they ALL are wrong, to some degree.
As for "lying" - well that happened way before the concept of Religion. Religion made lying an art form - and a way of life.
As for my "immortal soul" - when I die, if I am to face God, and He were to ask me why I wrote these words, I would tell him simply this: "I cannot follow what I cannot trust. These are the words of Man, and mankind can't be trusted. I have never doubted You, or your Acts - just those who tried to tell the stories."
Being omniscient, He'll already know my answer. I'm sure it'll make him chuckle...