Regardless of their belief I really do salute people of faith for trying to become the best they can be, especially the many believers who sincerely are out to live the peace and love their books tells them to be.
Whenever I was traveling in countries whose customs I was not aquanited with, I usually did trust religious people most, because they had ethics, which non-caring atheists simply dismissed.
So in times of an immature society I do see religions as valuable moral guide rails (as long as it doesn’t backfire into fanatism).
I also have friends from all kinds of religions and do salute their sincerity – especially when compared with the oblivious majority who merely subscribes to a blind materialism, just to live out their unquenchable egotistical hunger for convenience and pleasure.
This is why I wondered why in my lifelong sincere search for the divine and many lengthy discussions I developed a love-hate relationship with orthodox religions of all kinds:
1.) “The fear of god”
What actually did and subconsciously still does create a great discomfort for me is the religious dogma that god only loves you, once you believe in “him“.
(The narrow sexual term “him” makes it even worse, because it triggers the negative archetype of a punishing father).
To me it seems childish, to say “either you are with me, or against me”. Do you really think an almighty god had such huge ego that she cares about what us human microbes think of it ?
I think the reason why believers do like a regulating authority, is because it doesn’t require a great effort on behalf of the worshipper – all one has to do is to follow a handful of limiting dietary and ethical regulations, put all ones issues into the hands of a “big daddy”, and bliss will be guaranteed.
The drawback of such an attitude, however is that this locks the believer in a state of infantility which then inhibits a more abstract inner evolution, leading to a blindspot for possibilities to evolve oneself or to evolve one’s self (a concept unknown and even unliked by orthodox believers).
To be fair – this is not only a problem of religions, but a part of the immaturity of mankind, as you can see on the current global school system, which is not designed to educate ones persona, but to turn us into obedient working machines.
Nowadays ironically, this consciousness of submissiveness is exploited by unspiritual materialists who believe in the mammon instead of the divine.
The dogma of fear has nothing to do with love, but imposes a sword of Damocles upon anyone who keeps the mind open for all kinds of reality.
2. The condescending claim to absoluteness
Mere faith without spiritual experiences lives on the strength of a community, which is why believers are on a constant mission to increase their circle of like-minded ones, whilst people who “know themselves” as the ancient Greeks propagated, don’t need their false ego’s approval of anyone else.
To strengthen their comunity the dogma to missionize others turned into a justification for blinker-minded believers in wasting most of their life by standing on corners or trying to convince people – most of whom don’t even want to hear about their own frame of mind.
Orthodox followers regardless of their religion all in my eyes are equally bad. Fanatics constantly and blindly hammer into everyones brain that whoever they were raised to believe in is the only way”, which is exactly the kind of attitude, which did create the atrocities you can see in the middle east.
The arrogant attitude of “owning the only truth” (as Christians and Muslims do) or “belonging to the chosen people” (something btw not only Jews, but also Koreans do believe in) is the source of all wars due to a distorted concept of being better than others. This comes from, and dogmatically leads to:
3.) religious wars and acts of terror
Whenever people aren’t allowed to evolve upwards, the result usually is that their world becomes so narrow that it starts to attack sidewards:
Just look at history and you will see that all religions got their hands dirty by slaughtering people from other religions. Up to this date it still is done, only in the disguise of a “war against terror “war for democracy”, whilst on the other hand entire religions are stigmatised to have a justification to invade those countries for oil or other capitalistic endeavours.
Minorities who don’t have the means of todays expensive warfare, usually resort to terrorism.
I herewith condemn politicians who are war-mungers as well as terrorists with all my heart alike:
I have never seen a more blatant hypocrisy and stupidity than aggressive fanatics who claim to follow their book of love and compassion only to then kill or do harm to others!
Whilst I can understand any politician who was voted into a position of power to have to move out of running wars slowly, this also goes for politicians who did start new wars they claim that they “had to” -> the blood of each death, whether civilian, collateral or soldiers are on your hands! The Nobel-price has been dished out to a bunch of politicians who were leading wars – therefore I don’t take its value seriously anymore.
Unfortunatly the mass of simple-minded people usually all to quickly resort in a condemnation of the large majority of peaceful members of other religions they were brainwashed to hate by the media (who thrives on creating fearful news).
This also is a strategic foolishness, because a deep rooted belief will only change through the heart, never by physical or dogmatic force.
Nationalism as well as religious fanaticism both bear creepy similarities – just listen to the phrases of politicians and religious leaders dished out – they pretty much are the same.
After a short speech from George Carlin, a really interesting summary of the history of religion including how the church did twist it, can be seen here:
Sodarshan Chakra Kriya 