Out of all the dictionary definitions to the word Religion my favorite is “a particular system of faith and worship.” That is what religion really is it’s a system of rules and “ways” to reach god or some higher force.
Whenever someone is saying something to me I always try to think why is he saying that. Does he really believe what he said? or does he have a secret agenda? or maybe both. So when people are saying to me that god only works a certain way, or he will only listen if I’ll do what they are saying I’m wondering why do they say that?
The answer I believe is power and money. They achieve it with Fear. Muhammad tried to spread the Islam with force by killing people or as he called it Jihad. Christians tried to spread their beliefs with missionaries, they often came to uncivilized places helped the people there and converted them along the way. Often using peoples pain to convince them. In both religions the people understood that their power is in the number of followers.
Religion can only exist if people believe in their rules, and so they invented stories. They invented the devil, demons and all kind of evil spirits. The purpose was to fear people into believing whatever they wanted.
The second thing they did was to give the followers pride in belonging to their religion. They invented the sinners. Those are the people they couldn’t convince. They created a separation.
In addition they claimed to have a direct contact with god, that they are his messengers and that god talks only to them.
Some religions even have ranks like in Buddhism. That is another tool to boost the followers ego and it’s profitable because often ranks can be bought with money.
In Judaism they did something interesting. It’s not easy to become Jewish it takes time. you have to study the bible and prove that you really want to become Jewish. That way they once again create the illusion of elite, just like if you are standing at the entrance of a club and you see a lot of people trying to get in and somehow through connections with people you manage to enter. Because it’s hard you appreciate it more.
Christianity was formed by the disciples of Jesus. He never intended to form a religion the same is true for Buddhism. The Buddha and Jesus were enlightened, however their teachings were distorted.
The bible was edited according to the wishes of a minority. We know this because of the writing, some of the writing is older, it belongs to earlier times and some is newer yet in the bible they are mixed together. The bible was written by different people at different times.
Many wars took place in the name of religion and god. Religions created god in their image, Revengeful god that punishes people. A jealous god that needs people to worship him and fulfill all the commandments, there are 613 commandments in Judaism. Most importantly they invented hell, a place where you are forever punished if you are making the “wrong” choices. Thus eliminating the free choice because it’s not really free if you have to pay for it.
From what I’ve learned true spirituality doesn’t require just one way, every way is legitimate even religion. God loves everyone even the killers, think about it, is it possible that something will occur without the consent of the almighty god? God has given us the power to control our lives and we do it every day whether we know it or not. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences to our actions because in our world every thought or action has a consequence.
Contrary to religion some people completely negate the concept of god,they ask questions like if good exists how come he didn’t stop the Holocaust? These questions are not relevant, because once good gave us the power to create our reality he doesn’t interfere, if he did he would interfere with free choice. The truth is every soul decides when to perish. It’s not god that says time’s up.
So go ahead believe in what makes you happy and remember everyone are doing what they are doing because they think they are benefiting themselves or others. They are not evil.
here is a great video by the hilarious comedian George Carlin and though I don’t agree with his opinions about god he is very accurate about religion.
