Please note: The following article is not intended to offend.  If you find it offensive at any time of your reading of it, please click off.

Yesterday, a friend posed an intriguing question on Facebook: If Jesus came back to Earth today, would he* be a Christian? While the idea was major food for thought, it did not take me long to come up with a clear answer: No chance.

With over 39,000 sects in our world that call themselves Christian, which one would he choose? As the most divided of all the religions of the world, how could Jesus settle on just one? And he certainly would not align with the completely polluted original edition, Roman Catholicism, something my family insisted I accept in my youth. I got over it.

The number of breakaway sects were created for three basic reasons: Some were formed as a result of the Catholic church's corruption. The supposed excuse for founding other sects was difference in dogma or rules. Still others were formed so that small groups of greedy people could dominate particular geographic groups.

The Roman Catholic church's corruption and willingness to ally with dark money barons has expanded over the years to the point where its' pollution is quite obvious to those who look with an unbiased perception. Jesus would see right through them.

He wouldn't align himself with an institution that suppressed his most empowering statements. For an example, see the wonderfully inspiring Gospel of Thomas which was rediscovered in 1945.  The gospel is cryptic; most people will want help in understanding it.  The mystic OSHO's commentary on this gospel, "The Mustard Seed," is the most enlightening book I have ever read.

Not too long ago, a well-known radio psychologist attempted to defend her use of racial slurs by leaning on her belief in the Bible as the guide for her life. It made no sense, particularly because the Bible (along with the Koran and other big religion scriptures) is so riddled with contradictions. Check this out: http://ffrf.org/legacy/books/lfif/?t=contra

The big religions---all of the big ones---ask us to believe in scriptures that are not only contradictory but also fly in the face of logic and scientific fact. Some require their flock to subscribe to the notion that the Earth is only several thousand years old.  Science has clearly shown that such a notion is ridiculous.

If Jesus were to join a Christian religion, it certainly it would not be the the first one founded in his name, the religion that was commandeered by control freaks who wanted to dominate its followers. With a modest amount of open-minded research, anyone can see that the Roman Catholic Church evolved into the worldly powerful entity it has become by allying itself with those who controlled money.**

While the church's professed purpose has been the support and spiritual nurturance of its followers, it has become simply a tool to keep them off balance and fearful: to dominate them. Congregants assemble weekly to affirm their inferiority and separation from the divine, saying together out loud: "Lord, I am not worthy."

I don't believe that Jesus would align with any of our world's religions because he preached unity. The vast majority of religions as currently practiced are inherently divisive.

If he dropped in on us today, I am convinced that Jesus would tell us to dump allegiance to any of today's popular religions.

Certainly, there are today viable and productive spiritual organizations and congregations that do not foster guilt and fear. I would not presume to label any of these as religions. The word “religion” has become polluted and weakened by all the big religions' practicing the opposite of what they generally preach. Productive religion would steadfastly aim to unite and empower us, helping us to affirm our value and our worthiness to live in loving harmony. Most religion as it is today is divisive, fear-based and spiritually weakening.

It tells us that we need their religion to know what to believe, to find salvation. The largest Christian sect, Roman Catholicism (among other sects) tells us that we need its' priests to be our confessors, that it is somehow sinful or insufficient to confess our sins directly to God. Folks, it doesn't get much sillier than that.

An underlying tenet of Christianity---and virtually all organized religion---is that its' followers do not have within them what it takes to trust themselves in making religious or spiritual choices.

Most Christian religion requires its followers to believe in a schizophrenic God, one who is both all-loving and who is willing to damn rule-breakers to an eternity of fiery torture. While I love and respect all people, I observe that it is simply ignorant and self-destructive to believe in such a God. Collectively, we are learning to let that kind of God go. At some point, simple self-respect requires it.

More than once, I have had conversations with people of strong, fundamentalist religious beliefs. In sharing our viewpoints, it quickly became clear that the basis for their religious beliefs had nothing to do with scientifically proven facts or even common sense. Some referred to the Bible or other scriptures. Others quoted their church's pastors. If the pastor said the Earth is only several thousand years old, that was good enough for them.

The big problem with religion as it has evolved over time is that we haven't been willing to let other people believe in whatever god they have chosen. The Christian Bible has endorsed the slaying of non-believers. Most of the wars we have fought have been battles based in religious belief. Jesus would never have waved a sword in such battles.

It's a simple fact that the leadership of most big religion is steeped in deception as a way of maintaining control. While preaching piety and purity, they have protected their clergy who have sexually abused children, moving the priests around geographically to enable their continued abuse of the innocent. This wouldn't go over too well with Jesus.

In a world in which 5 million people starve to death every year, Catholics are commanded to avoid birth control and to repress their natural urges. How completely destructive!  If Jesus came back to Earth today, maybe he'd find a job for the pope at a condom factory.

If he showed up in today's world Jesus would observe that the name of Christianity and the word “religion” have become utterly polluted. He certainly would not want his name associated with Christianity or any of the popular religions as they are practiced by the vast majority who call themselves Christian today.

I am a big fan of Jesus. He showed us a lot. It is sad to observe that the vast majority of those who worship him or pretend to honor him have learned so little of what he really came here to show us.

Collectively, we are in the process of discovering that we have absolutely no need for religion as the bulk of it is practiced today. In fact, we will soon realize that religion has been a major stumbling block along the road to more enlightened living.

The "lifting of the veil"---which is what the word "apocalypse" means---will basically mean our collective realization that the apparent separation between Man and the Divine has been nothing but an illusion.

Christianity may call that blasphemy. In my heart, I know that it is one of the central lessons we are being asked to learn in this life.

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* Since “he” is not capitalized here, some of you may already be bristling. No disrespect is intended. It is my understanding that we are all divine, and that we are paradoxically both lovingly powerful as spiritual beings and individually insignificant when seen as human beings and minds. In writing this article, it is not my intent to condemn anybody or anyone's belief. It is my intent to offer productive truth as I perceive it, and to provide possible answers for those who sincerely seek spiritual understanding.  My intent is to reach people who really want to wake up.


** “Open-minded research” would not be limited to consultation with one's pastor, reading the Bible, or looking up any church's doctrine. The Internet is loaded with resources that can be verified for authenticity.

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For further inquiry on the nature of religion and on how most religion mirrors the egoic mind, see the new book, "The Wake Up Book" by Carlo Ami.  It is available here.

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Statement by the artist of the work above: One of the goals in my life is to use the talents God has given me. This project is a wonderful idea and a unique opportunity to use my talents. I came up with the idea for this drawing when I was thinking how much I like to just think about God and smile to myself. I figure that Jesus sometimes did the same thing and in doing this drawing I thought it would be an excellent way to help people around the world to see a side of Jesus which will help them to relate to Him - as I know He wants to have a happy relationship with them.

"Jesus Smiling At His Father" 
Artist: Heather M Taiwo
Pencil on paper - 35 cm x 45 cm 
California, USA

The small photo above is a crop of the original. For more information, see the following website: http://miatorgau.melbourneitwebsites.com/page/jesus_laughing_exhibition.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend with whom I often trade opposing points of view sent an article my way today about how offensive it is that our governments have taken the Christ out of Christmas.  The article he forwarded was written by John Bennett.  Here are a few samples from the article:

“Maintaining Christmas is part of preserving the culture that gave us almost everything that we have worth keeping. The whole name-changing charade is neurotic because it forces people to pretend that our majority culture is not what it actually is.”

Later: “Just follow the logic of his statement. We want to be inclusive, which means embrace diversity. Therefore we are going to express disapproval for the majority culture that made this nation great, which is what attracted those diverse people in the first instance.”

“Make no mistake about it, those who rip Christmas out of public life are duplicitous and exploitative, no matter what they claim their victim status to be, and no matter how noble their motives.”

My reply to the friend who sent the article:

The plea for logic and call to taking offense is rather silly, (my friend).

Anyone of reasonable intelligence who has some sense of logic will not buy the picture the vast majority of organized Christianity paints of an all-Loving God whose wrath we should fear because He may condemn us to eternal torture in Hell.  Most Christianity, while it will not admit it, worships a god that is severely schizophrenic.  And these beliefs are based on the words of corrupted men with a devious agenda who lived centuries after Christ died.  The evidence is quite clear that the Catholic Church has suppressed much of the beauty of the original Bible in the name of manipulating their flock.  There may not be any crime more severe than this.

One has to be deluded to subscribe to a god that can be so nasty.  And subscription to such a god is totally without logic and totally without foundation.

The tactics of militant Muslims so condemned by most of Christianity are the same tactics the Catholic Church has used over the years to grow its flock of sheep.  This label of Catholicism's followers may seem harsh, but is apt: following blindly, mostly because of fear, is what sheep do.

It is easier to forget that and just point the finger at the misguided Muslims who want to blow themselves and others to smithereens to earn lasting sexual privileges with seventy-odd virgins in the afterlife. Some conveniently forget the Inquisitons and the Crusades, condoned by the Church, during which men, women and children were brutalized and killed for their religious convictions or lack of them.

It is so easy to forget the unconsious means by which the Catholic Church has advanced its cause, right up to the present day times when they would rather shuffle around hundreds or thousands of child-abusing priests to molest more kids than fess up and kick the perverts out.  Add that to the current Vatican banking scandal and you realize that we are witnessing the death of a very corrupt institution....if people simply are willing to see the truth and respond with integrity.

Bennett labels those who are complaining about governments’ not supporting Christmas-labeled events as “duplicitous and exploitative”.  Isn’t it ironic that the entire documented history of the Catholic Church’s leadership has been exactly that.  Anybody caring to do even brief research from sources outside the church itself will see this.  Most of their followers would rather not look.

We are now living out the consequences of allowing particular religious influence being condoned by government, even promoted by governments.  Those who identify us as a "Christian nation," tend to exclude those who are not Christian.  At the very least, these people like to pretend that membership in their church earns them some extra slack on judgement day.  This plays into the hands of those financial and religious forces who want to lead us around like sheep.  Many married to their religion have gladly complied with thier church's doctrine even when they don't believe in it.   Compliance here is a product of their fear.

Who wants to live in fear?  Do you?   That is the yoke you place on your shoulders when you subscribe to the vast majority of what we call Christianity today.  More and more are choosing the courage and trust to walk away from such insanity.

It has been proven in conflicts over the centuries, from boardrooms to battlefields: The way to conquer people is to divide them: Christian versus Muslim, fundamentalist Christian versus liberal Christian.   And those of the Christian faith cannot seem to find a way to unify themselves, to create commonality: Today there are over 35,0000 demominations calling themselves Christian: Divided and Conquered. Like our behavior in our political arenas, our choice to fight each about religion keeps us weak.  The purpose of any worthy religion would be to unify and empower. The vast majority of religion today---all of the big ones---do exactly the opposite. 

The Bennett article stirs people up to take offense.  As a culture we are learning the hard lesson that it does not make sense to take offense about how other people label you or your beliefs.  Taking offense is stupid, ignorant.  Under the Bush administration, all the Christian organizations got favored status and lots of money.  They kept the word "religion" out of it; they called the money handouts to religous organizations "Faith-Based." Some of the rules our often-misguided forefathers made that had to do with keeping church and State separate were good ones.  Along with the corrupt bankers and money barons, maybe the biggest problem in our world today is (most of) organized religion and the sheep who either abuse "non-believers" or who take offense that others do not want our governments promoting such a foolish, destructive set of beliefs.

The most pious of big religions' leaders often voice their offense at the words of others.  They judge.  They condemn.  Just like their god.

Let me be clear: I apppreciate the greatness of Jesus; His pure message is a beautiful teaching and His example has been abused and distorted by most of the leadership of the major Christian religions.  This is not a judgment, but a simple observation.  Just look at what has been expunged from the Bible over the centuries and you will see clearly that what was taken out was spiritually empowered.  Most organized religion wants to vest all power in their organization...and little, if any, in their followers.

Sure, there is a part of many of us who grew up with traditional Christian religion that regrets that Christmas has become for so many more about excuses for excesses in food and alcohol, and that it has become for many something that has little to do with Christ.  We might miss seeing the Christmas label on so many things this time of year.  The unfortunate truth is that the leadership of the vast majority of Christianity’s leaders have polluted Christ’s word to such a thorough and destructive extent that it may more spiritually profitable for all of us to find other ways to honor the Christlike in all of us.

It starts with tolerance, forgiveness and awareness of what is really important in life, and that is simply to love each other and ourselves more ruthlessly.  We are waking up to this possibility for our true redemption. Fighting each other, taking offense at others' beliefs, worrying about how others judge you...these are all so self-destructive.

Let's really wake up; let's choose to love one another.

A Rupture in the Rapture

The Book of Revelations as A Blueprint for Fear

If I were asked for a one-sentence sound bite on religion, I would say I was against it.

---Salman Rushdie

You remember Rushdie, writer of “The Satanic Verses,” a volume that so upset the Muslim world that his life was threatened for years.  He was virtually in exile as a result.  The notoriety of his experience shut the mouths of others who might have stepped up to point out the obvious in a more direct and succinct way: That the vast majority of all religion is designed to do the exact opposite of what it pretends.

Having studied religion for some time, this conclusion is something that I see as obvious.  When one with an open mind looks even briefly at the history of the Catholic Church, the virtual center of Christianity, the deduction of complete corruption is inescapable.   The problem is that so many who are tied to their religion are pre-disposed to defend it regardless of the evidence, regardless of the past, regardless of what it is doing right up to the present day.

There are certainly some worthy religions, ones that do what any true religion does: unite, empower and spiritually inspire its followers.  None of the major religions do this.  Instead, they promote the opposite: They divide us, weaken us and stir up fear.   The only reason that any of the big religions have survived is that people fear the percieved possible consequences of disengaging: the promise of eternal damnation and pain.

This article is all about fundamentalist religious silliness.   As we get closer to the “end times” date of December 21, 2012, the rhetoric and baseless fear-mongering seems to find new limits in the stupidity department.

Christians are asked to swallow the double-speak of an all-loving God who would eternally damn to a fiery pit those who would break His rules.  Muslims and Christians alike have been  told by this God that they earn extra points in the quest to avoid this hell if they kill non-believers.  The Christians over the last few hundred years have gotten mostly past the murder part but still insist on creating ministries to convert people all over the planet who never asked them for their guidance.  So much for love.

Again, from Rushdie: “Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.

This, I offer for your consideration, is the central purpose of the big religions.  Their intent, their very purpose, is to fan the flames of fear and doubt.  Their kind words and their acts of mercy and charity are smokescreens for their core intent: to weaken and disempower people.  Part of this goal is met as their leadership and their followers fight each other about how they all should define or worship God.

The vast majority of all the wars fought in our history have been about differences people have had over how we should see God, what name we should use to address him, and what rules “He” wants us to live by.  All the rules and so-called holy scriptures have been written by men, not penned by some Almighty.  Over the course of two centuries, the empowering content of some of the early Christian holy texts has been gutted: too empowering.  If you take a look at what books have been expunged from the Bible as we know it today, you will see that it has been emptied of its most empowering content.  See the Gospel of Saint Thomas, discovered a half-century ago with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the amazing Gospel of Judas.

The Church hierarchy does not want its flock to be anything other than “sheeple.”

Now, as we approach 2012, more and more people are talking about apocalypse, the End Times.  They are quoting the Book of Revelations, probably the most perverted, fear-loaded “holy book” ever penned.  The consensus of Biblical scholars tells us that the bible was written in the latter part of the first century.  This means that, for over a thousand years, countless generations of Christians have been worried that maybe theirs was to be the generation that suffered the pain of apocalypse.

Consider the strong possibility, as I see it, that the Book of Revelations was written as a blueprint for the disempowerment of the Christian flock.  It was not written as a book of wisdom or truth or God’s word; it was written with the purpose of dividing, weakening and frightening.  If you look at how the world is responding to this book today, it seems clear that, so far, it seems to be fulfilling that purpose.

What we are being asked to do now is to see the foolishness of participation in divisive religion.  If we intend to live in a free world, that means that we speak freely.  It means also that we feel fully free to be completely aware of what we are experiencing and how we are interpreting it.  It means that some will be offended as one speaks her or his truth.  So be it!

We are being asked with more and more directness to drop the old, divisive, judging ways of being.  In doing this we embrace our commonalities, our spiritual connection with each other and our divine nature.  Part of the schizophrenic nature of much of Christianity is betrayed in these contradicting sets of dogma:  First, it is said, that God is in everyone and everything.  But wait, the clergyman says, you are separate.  You are unworthy.  You must follow these special God rules if you hope to get to heaven and avoid the fiery pits of eternal suffering.

This is but a single example of the contradictory nature of the Christian scriptures.  Do you buy that stuff?  If so, isn’t it time to wake up?  The leadership of the big religions want us weak and fighting with each other.  They do not want us to understand that we have immense power, worthiness, and capacities for happiness, calm and abundance.

Non-religious self-reliance: It is not a phrase you hear much.  This is what this article asks you to consider for yourself.  Is it time for you to consider letting go of your religion, time to ask, "Why not me?" when figuring out who should be responsible for your own beliefs?  Isn't this what the "new age" is really all about--trusting our own loving power?  Explore this article to see how you might free yourself from conditioned beliefs that may not serve you.

We talked in the first article in this series about all the reasons we stay with whatever religion we were raised with or that we find ourselves involved with now.  In this article, the reasons to shift away from any dogmatic religious beliefs will be explored.

Why would we not look within the self to discover spiritual beliefs rather than simply stick with status quo, the surely easier road at almost any time?  Communally, we have never learned to trust ourselves.  And that has been the agenda of most religion.

The purpose of any truly worthwhile religion would be to unite and empower its followers.  Nearly all of the world’s religions today do the polar opposite with their teachings and example: they sap the spiritual strength of their membership and separate us from each other.  Some would point to Buddhism as an exception.  It is not a religion in the common sense of the word as it has no dogma, no belief in a fiery eternal fate for non-believers, no Big and Wrathful Being hanging out in the clouds to judge us.

Our planet’s people are now in the process of letting go of most of what we call religion.  Bravo for us!  Religion as we know it has been sapping the spiritual life out of its members for centuries.  It keeps its followers stupid, shamed and fearful that they could become skewered on the fire of God’s eternal barbeque.

We might re-think the validity of any given religion if there were the slightest reliable evidence to support it.  There is none.  We have writings by those who lived way before our time that believers ascribe to being the word of a supreme being.  Why would we put our faith in such writings?  Even within the Biblical and Islamic texts, the various books within them are loaded with contradictions.  Religious scholars can find all kinds of “answers” for these contradictions, but there are so many of them that they simply cannot be explained away

If you take even a brief look at how the Catholics have gutted the Bible of spiritually powerful content over the years, you cannot fail to come to the conclusion that their editing was much more about controlling its followers than about nurturing them.

Many Muslims will tell you that they are a peaceful people.  Is it surprising, then, that their “holy” book prescribes violence and death on those who are not Muslim?  The major Christian religions suggest that they, too, have a loving and tolerant way despite provable history: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the church’s silence while Hitler slaughtered Jews, their silence and hiding as their priests abuse children.

Today, we see the Jewish nation of Israel treating Palestinians like vermin, much like the Christian invaders of the Americas did to the Native American population.  One would think that after so long a time of feeling persecuted, the Jewish people would have learned some compassion.  It does not appear that they have done so.  We disrespect others based on the color of their skin, or whether they can speak our language or believe in the same god we do.  This is counter to anything that could be called religious.

Do we think that the Catholic Church’s problems with sexual behavior on the part of their clergy is a relatively recent thing?  The first pope, Peter, was married and most Catholic clergy were allowed to marry long after the  time of Christ.  “Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman”, wrote St. Augustine.  And this became part of Catholic ways.  At depth, we know that there are few things as spiritually empowering to a man than the loving caress of a partner.  While churches pretend to empower, they suck the energy out of their followers by fomenting guilt, shame and fear of eternal torture.

The psychological truism that the Church leaders have never figured out is this: That which you suppress will express itself in spades.  It does not take a Freud to figure out why priests abuse others, particularly defenseless children, sexually.  They have been required to suppress natural sexual instinct.  If one is not allowed to express sex in an acceptable way, it will often find a way to express itself perversely.

They fought over the issue of clergy marriage for centuries.  Some popes fathered children while others engaged the services of prostitutes, even during times priests were not allowed to marry.  Eleventh Century Pope Urban II, decreed that the wives of Catholic clergy be sold into slavery and that their children be abandoned to the streets.  How Christian!

A ninth century Catholic council openly admitted that abortions and killing of infants were being practiced in convents and monasteries to hide the  promiscuous activities of the frocked.  We make excuses for the church, despite the mounting number of proven cases.  We witness evidence that the church leaders prioritized the reputation of the church over that of the protection of the sexual purity of children in suppressing information about abuses.  And they did this while transferring around the predators geographically so they could abuse more children.  What more evidence is needed to see the church for what it is?

Such corruption is not limited to the Catholic Church.  They are evidenced in virtually all the major religions.  What might this truth be teaching us?  Maybe what is to be learned is that we are better served to trust our own definitions and practices of spirituality and morality rather than allow it to be thrust upon us by those who have proven that they are anything but trustworthy.

Religions largely boast that they have secret knowledge about the will of God, an inside track to Salvation.  In reality, their prime intent is rather to have control of  the social and religious behavior of people via the propagation of fear and division.

Most religion tells us to not trust ourselves:  “You’re too stupid to have your own beliefs about God.  Here: believe in this book that is riddled with contradictions.  “God is Love, it says, yet it shows you His willingness to throw you into eternal fires if you mess up.  This book says love one another, but know that those who practice other religions are inferior and must be overcome by any means.  God wants you to smite these folks!

In Catholic grade school, I sat through six boring Mass ceremonies per week, much of which was in Latin at the time, so we had no idea what we were saying.   Some of the heaviest dogma was kept in English so we could brainwash ourselves with something we understood.  One that lingers in memory that was repeated in every service: “Lord, I am not worthy”.  What a numbingly stupid “prayer” that was!

Schizophrenia propagation is what it was: “You’re a child of God.  You are beautiful and wonderful, but unworthy.  You need our church to make you worthy, but be fearful of messing up, vigilant always for the devil to be tempting you into something that could damn you forever.”

Please understand my intent with this article.  I am not damning or judging anyone as bad.  My purpose with this article is not to judge or condemn, but to observe what is happening in the world.  Though you may see truth in what you have read here, I ask you to refrain from condemning anyone or any institution.  Please consider forgiving.  And please consider walking away from any institution that sucks your energy, feeds you lies and suggests that you are either inferior or superior to anyone.  We are all equals.  Extremists have taught us that crusades and suicide bombers do not solve anything.  They simply feed the fires of fear or arrogance.  As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

We are now faced with a time when we are being challenged to communally trust ourselves to make our own spiritual choices, and to live consistently with them.  We are being challenged to see that we are worthy of lives of loving happiness and contentment.  It is time for us to see that no outside authority is required to grant us permission, forgiveness or the keys to some pearly gate.  We forgive and allow ourselves.

The time has come to think for ourselves, but in a new way that can take some getting used to: we are being asked to think with heart.

Thinking with our egoic heads has gotten us to where we are now, when religious differences and the importance we have placed upon them have us fighting on fronts all over the planet.  It is ignorant!  Thinking with the heart is what we are faced with doing---leaving the head out of the matter!

How does one think with the heart?  There are abundant techniques and tools, yet simply being aware of your heart when responding to any life experiences is a great start.  Ask yourself, “What is the loving way to respond to what I am experiencing?”

Maybe most importantly in the intent to live from the heart is this: Remember that anything that is called “power” is not really power at all unless it is based in love.  Today, the terms “power” and “love”, as Dr. Martin Luther King observed, have been seen as polar opposites.

As we move more and more quickly towards an era of harmony, and as old institutions like religion are fast fading away, one of the best reminders about where we are going comes from Jimi Hendrix, the guitar legend of the 1960s:

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”

Peace.  Why not me?

Peace is at hand.  All we are challenged to do is to trust it, believe it.  You and I and all of Us are worthy of it.

How do we identify ourselves spiritually and religiously?  Most importantly, does this identification match up with the way we live our lives?  The process of spiritual empowerment has much to do with how we answer these questions.

It has come to light recently that the Catholic Church has begun using Facebook in an effort to recruit potential priests to its fold.  Their slogan in this effort is “Why Not Me?”

Let’s look at some potential answers to that question, not only for those who might be considering a religious vocation of any kind, but from the perspective of one who may be questioning religious labels by which we identify ourselves.

From the outset, let me be clear that my premise in this article is that the vast majority of all religion as we practice it in our world at this time is spiritually counter-productive.  If we are, indeed, in the process of communally evolving into a more harmonious and loving planet, then the purpose of any worthy religion would be to lovingly unite and empower us.  Most religion divides and weakens us, casting non-believers as inferior, seeing proponents as superior and falsely creating a god that is schizophrenically both all-loving and quite wrathful.

Religion as we know it today is dying, and with good reason.  People’s allegiance to religion is the cause of more death, pain and suffering than any other social cause.  It has been the central cause of most wars and persecution.

Why do we identify ourselves with any particular religion?

Why We Continue With a Current Religious Identification

For the most part, there are three reasons that any reasonably intelligent people stick with a religion in which they were raised.

(1)Fear of Eternal Damnation or Extended Time in Some Purgatory

In the months leading up to the passing of my mother last year, my father experienced much emotional challenge as she descended into dementia, still holding on to half a lifetime of resentment and anger.  For well over a year, she was continually embarrassed about her “bladder problems” and had little interest or capacity for communicating with anyone.  She had stopped eating anything except ice cream and crackers.

The doctors put her on appetite stimulants.  It seemed to work.  She was eating better and putting some weight back on.  Yet, she was “vacant” almost all of the time.

After months in this semi-vegetative state, her doctor approached my Dad and suggested he might consider taking her off the appetite stimulants as a way of letting her go.  He and I talked about it.  He was going to think about it.   Soon after, we talked again.

“I would feel guilty for the rest of my life if she died after the medication was stopped”, he said.

It was his decision to make, yet I was compelled to explore:  “Dad, you know that the whole guilt thing and the eternal damnation stuff that your church puts out is a bunch of crap, don’t you?”

His response, “Well, yeah, but what if it isn’t?”

This is the kind of thinking so many religious people carry like a weight around their shoulders.  For fear of frying in eternal fires, we live a life that makes it fine to shoot a horse to save it from pain, let we cannot let our people die a natural death.  Such thinking is simply ignorant.

(2) Fear of Rejection by Family or Peers

High up on the Fear Meter along with eternal damnation is the prospect of being disowned by family or friends.  If all your family and friends identify themselves with a given religion, you risk their rejection if you decide that the religion does not really work for you.

Maybe you’ll continue to go to church, temple or synagogue on the weekend, but outside of that little show, you don’t really practice the religion, live it.  This is a most destructive and prevalent example of cowardice.

Maybe you have agonized over the conflict, figuring that you will stick with the religion you have until your parents have passed, sparing them the disappointment of your “betrayal”.  You are willing to wear a false mask in the name of family peace and harmony, all the while realizing that you are not being true to yourself.

This appears to be a major factor in, for example, France.  While 41.6 million of France's 65 million population identifies itself as Catholic, only about 2 million attend church each week, according to Jacques Carton of the Bishops Conference in France.  In the United States, the numbers are not so striking, apparently due in large part to the fact that our society here is much more focused on appearances and guilt.

(3) Laziness or Simple Distraction

In lives that seem to be more and more filled with financial challenge, responsibilities and daily pressures on many levels, it’s easy to forget the spiritual aspects of our lives.  Given the oxyomoronic nature of most religion---the fact that it is literally anti-spiritual---it can easily be just another item on your list of things that pull you in two different directions at the same time.  When it comes to making a change in how you see your religion, your mind tells you that there are more important things to deal with, so you sit with the status quo.

You have got other things on your mind, and at least your religion lets you fit in and also feel morally superior to other people, so long as you think about it selfishly, without much compassion.

We are living in a world of change at increasing speed.  For many of us, it is a time in which we are being challenged to shed the old ways of thinking that have not worked for us.  For many, this is the step now being faced in finding true spiritual empowerment.  Is it what you are being challenged to deal with in your process of enlightenment?

Non-religious self-reliance: It's a mouthful you do not hear much.  We have not been taught to rely upon ourselves but upon institutions that do not want us thinking for ourselves.  Please explore within yourself whether it is time to let go of your religion, time to ask, "Why not me?" when figuring out who should be responsible for your own beliefs?  Isn't this what "The Shift" is really all about--trusting our own loving power?

Coming soon: The Case for Letting Most Religion Go: Non-religious Self-Reliance--Part Two