Religion: The Nature Of...

I would like to make it clear that I do not belong to any one religion. The things I have found to hold truth and the things I share on this site and in my writings belong only to the category of "truth" as I have experienced it. Many times I will use quotations from the bible or from Jesus. This is only because I grew up in the west where the dominant religion is Christianity. I am not a Christian. Certain things that the Christian Church holds as absolute, I cannot agree with; like Christianity being the only way, for example. ..




It is clear that each religion holds a spark of the truth. I believe that we can come to know the whole truth, but we must be prepared to search for it. One of the main tenets of Christianity is that we are helpless and cannot attain salvation by our own means. It wields this as one of its primary weapon against other religions. The thing to be pointed out though, is that other religions have the same tenet. Yes, they say that one should purify oneself through practices such as meditation, fasting and so forth, but then so too does the bible, if one reads it.

As a student of God I can say that, when one looks closely at the religions of this world, what leaps out most is the inherent similarities. Countless thousands of lives have been lost due to the differences between religions. It seems that not a single one of these religious leaders is prepared to say, "Oh, hang on a second; doesn't it say something, somewhere about thou shalt not kill?"

I remember all too well when the World Trade Towers were bombed on 9/11. At the time I used to participate in several spiritually based discussion forums on the net. I had, previously, been most impressed at the other participants' general level of tolerance and professed love of peace. On the morning of 9/11, I was shocked by the reactions of these same people. The posts called for America to retaliate with full force. I believe the exact words of one member were simply "Bomb the f***ing b*****ds". Needles to say, my eyes were opened on that day.

This is perhaps still a very sensitive issue and it may be that I am inviting hostilities here, but retaliation, even under extreme circumstances, is not the way of Love.

One of the things that this world does with amazing regularity is that when a messenger from God appears, it promptly kills that messenger, discards the message and then systematically works to create a religion based around worshipping the messenger whilst speedily sweeping as much of the message under the carpet as possible. Is it any wonder that people have rejected God as they have? How I would love to delve inside the Vatican and see just what they have concealed over the centuries. What is it they say about absolute power…?

Gandhi was only too well aware of the nature of this world. He repeatedly insisted that his followers did not create a religion based on his teachings and that he should not be worshipped.

Let us look, for example, at the history of Europe. It becomes clear that during feudal times, when feudal lords warred against each other to gain control over the masses, it was the Vatican state that became the ultimate victor and the ultimate feudal lord. The only difference is that it did not use physical weapons to defeat its enemies, (that came later!). It learned to control people’s minds.

The main point, to conclude, is that one should always question what is set before you. Never accept something just because you think, or are told, that you should. We experience this world through the five senses. They are the tools of the ego with which it maintains its illusory hold over us. The senses are, unfortunately, infinitely fallible and all too prone to deceive. Always remember that the devil's greatest feat was convincing mankind that he does not exist.