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ESSAYS ON RELIGION
by TABLE OF CONTENTS
ESSAY 2 - The Infinite God and The Personal God In religion, there are two concepts of God. One is a Personal God who is represented by Yahweh in Judaism, Jehovah in Christianity, Allah in Islam, and Vishnu and Shiva in Hinduism. In Buddhism and Taoism there is no emphasis on a Personal God. A Personal God is one who is like a super being, an anthropomorphic entity, that rules heaven and earth and has a purpose, intent, emotions and so on just like human beings. The Infinite God is indescribable, indefinable and inconceivable. In Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, the personal God is given these all-knowing and omnipotent qualities but without the consideration that any description of God, is a limitation on God. The Infinite God is beyond description and without limitations. The Infinite God is the potential of all things and has no beginning and has no end. The Infinite God is the Infinite Potential that forever manifests those potentials and forever disintegrates those manifestations. The only two constants of the Infinite God are Change and Diversity. The Infinite God is like the ocean. The ocean is a vast body of liquid that manifests shells, fish, mammals, plants and so on. It really has no preference of one manifestation over another. It is all things. It is at one with all things. All things within the Ocean are one with the Ocean. When atheist reject the notion of God, they are really rejecting the concept of a Personal God. To reject the Infinite God, the Infinite Oneness, is like a fish denying the existence of the Ocean. The Infinite God is called "The Way" in Taoism, "Brahma" in Hinduism and "Dhammakaya" in Buddhism. The Personal God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is referred to as also being the Infinite God and yet the emphasis is on the Personal aspects of God. When one embraces the Infinite God, one understands that there is no difference between the Personal Gods, and all races, religions, nations, and both sexes are distinct but at one with the Infinite God. All is One. All are One. There is no harm in embracing a Personal God as long as that Personal God does not encourage intolerance of others and consequently become the harbinger of prejudice, hatred and injustice within the world society. A Personal God that advocates elitism among its worshipers, who excludes from its realm rather than embraces, even one human being on earth, is in the final analysis a harbinger of pain and suffering within the human society and an antagonist to the manifestation of WorldPeace.
ESSAY 4 - The Jewish Historical Book of Joshua: a common religious dilemma One of the problems with Sacred Texts from many of the world religions are sections which deal with gross brutality and war in the name of God. The Jewish historical book of Joshua is an example. The problem here is that within the Sacred Texts of Judaism is this book of Joshua which is in essence a book about genocide. It is a book about genocide committed in the name of their God by the Israelites when they crossed the river Jordan after the death of Moses to take possession of the land of Canaan which their God had promised to them when they left Egypt. In this book, God tells Joshua to take possession of Canaan and to kill everyone there. No one was to be spared. Men, women and children who lived in Canaan were to be utterly slaughtered; no exceptions. This is an extremely brutal and remorseless command from their God. The problem with these stories, which are an intransigent part of many of the sacred scripts of the world's religions, is that they seem to justify contemporary brutality. These stories are seldom denied, explained or apologized for. They are embraced as part of a religious heritage. I have used the book of Joshua because it presents some very contemporary issues regarding present day Israel. The first question has to do with a comparison of the acts of genocide of Joshua with the acts of genocide of Adolph Hitler against the Jews in Europe during World War II. We have a contemporary situation where the Jews spend a great deal of effort reminding the world of the atrocities committed against them by Hitler and yet there has been absolutely no effort to account for the genocide committed by Joshua. There has been no effort to distinguish how the acts of Joshua can be justified. Genocide needs to be given immediate attention because it is presently going on in Africa and just stopped in Bosnia. It is a real and horrific problem. But what about a people who vehemently denounce genocide committed against them and yet refuse to even remotely deal with their own history of genocide. This is a serious and common problem with religions. There many times seems to be a double standard: " What we do, we do in the name of our God, and what you do, you do not do in the name of God." The second problem is a question of whether the contemporary Israelis are intent upon repossessing the land originally promised them by their God? Since there has been no apology regarding the genocide of Joshua, does this mean that Israel will again attempt to drive everyone out of the old land of Canaan? This is a legitimate question and it is currently and directly relevant to the hope for peace in the Middle East. Is there an unspoken determination to ethnically cleanse Canaan? If the stories coming out of Jerusalem are correct regarding removing Arabs from Jewish neighborhoods, these questions must be addressed in the name of peace. The point of all this is, "can there be hope for WorldPeace unless religious texts are edited so as to eliminate racism and genocide?" Unless there is a formal statement that this mindset is presently rejected, will it not be passed down to future generations as acceptable future behavior? As I said, this problem encompasses all religions. Has any Pope apologized for the cultural genocide that was committed to the Inca, Aztecs and Mayans in the name of the Christian God? Consider that the Jewish book of Joshua is incorporated into the Christian Bible. Or has there been an apology for verses in the Koran which sanction the ongoing bloodshed in the name of the Islamic God? These are real issues that, in the name of God, take lives every day. Unless the religious causes of racism and genocide are removed, WorldPeace will never manifest. EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK OF JOSHUA After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, "My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. Chapter 1: 1-5 Joshua then said to the Israelites, "Draw near and hear the word of the Lord your God." Joshua said, "By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. 3: 9-10 On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city (of Jericho) in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent. 6: 15-17 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. Then they devoted the destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys. 6: 20-21 Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and go up now to Ai. See, I have handed over to you the king of Ai with his people, his city, and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. 8: 1-2 When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai, and attacked it with the edge of the sword. The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand - all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the sword, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and they took his body down from the tree, threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones. 8: 24-29 Then the five kings of the Amorites - the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon - gather their forces, and went up will all their armies and camped against Gibeon, and made war against it. 10: 5 The Lord said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have handed them over to you; not one of them shall stand before you." So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gigal. And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who inflicted a great slaughter on them. 10:8-11 Meanwhile, these five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. And it was told to Joshua, "The five kings have been found, hidden in the cave at Makkedah." Joshua said, "Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to guard them. When Joshua and the Israelites finished inflicting a very great slaughter on them, until they were wiped out, Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out to me from the cave." When they brought the kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the Israelites, and said to the chiefs of the warriors who had gone with him, "Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings." Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous; for thus the Lord will do to all the enemies against whom you fight." Afterward Joshua struck them down and put them to death, and he hung them on five trees. And they hung on the trees until evening. 10: 16-27 Joshua took Makkedah on that day, and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword; he utterly destroyed every person in it; he left no one remaining. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua passed on from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, to Libnah, and fought against Libnah. The Lord gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel; and he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left no one remaining in it; and he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Next Joshua passed on from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to Lachish, and laid siege to it, and assaulted it. The Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he took it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah. Then King Horam of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua struck him and his people, leaving him no survivors. From Lachish Joshua passed on with all Israel to Eglon; and they laid siege to it, and assaulted it; and they took it that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword; and every person in it he utterly destroyed that day, as he had done to Lachish. Then Joshua went up with all Israel from Eglon to Hebron; they assaulted it, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns and every person in it; he left no one remaining, just as he had done to Eglon, and utterly destroyed it with every person in it. Then Joshua, with all Israel, turned back to Debir and assaulted it, and he took it with its king and all its towns; they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed every person in it; he left no one remaining; just as he had done to Hebron, and, as he had done to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and its king. So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroying all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded. 10: 28-43 When King Jabin of Hazor heard of this, he sent to King Jobab of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Ashshaph, and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in Naphothdor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. They came out, with all their troops, a great army, in number like the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. All these kings joined their forces, and came and camped together at the water of Merom, to fight with Israel. And the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will hand over all of them, slain, to Israel." So Joshua came suddenly upon them with all his fighting force, by the waters of Merom, and fell upon them. And the Lord handed them over to Israel, who attacked them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephothmaim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpeh. They struck them down, until they had left no one remaining. Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and struck its king down with the sword. Before that time Hazor was the head of all those kingdoms. And they were put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed, and he burned Hazor with fire. And all the towns of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua took, and struck them with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. All the people they struck down with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed. As the Lord had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 11: 1-16 ESSAY 5 - Social and Spiritual Peace Social and spiritual peace are two sides of one coin. Both are dependent upon each other and both manifest each other. Social peace is, in a nutshell, the social law. It is the law of each society that delineates acceptable and unacceptable behavior in society as well as punishment for unacceptable behavior or behavior outside the law. Without law, chaos would reign in society. And if chaos reigns in society, we will each become so concerned with survival that we will have little time to reflect on our spiritual nature. At the same time, spiritual peace drives social peace. The core of spiritual peace resides in the recognition that we are one with each other and one with God and what we do to anyone reverberates throughout all of humanity. When we consider all human beings our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children, we write laws that are equitable and just. These equitable and just laws create peace in society and allow the pursuit of spiritual reflection. We will never have social peace without spiritual peace and we will have a difficult time achieving spiritual peace without social peace. The common denominator of spiritual peace is that we are one with each other, equal in our infinite immortality though temporarily residing in different bodies and living as a member of different social strata. This oneness is the driving energy behind all social law which is "to treat others the way we desire to be treated." We all serve two masters; that of the body and that of the spirit. The majority of us believe that we have incarnate within our physical temporary bodies an immortal infinite spiritual energy. We live simultaneously in both realities. I recognize the oneness of all human beings within the Infinite God, but I advocate incarceration or some type of restraint for those who deliberately, intentionally and maliciously prey upon others. To truly manifest WorldPeace from this point in time we must proceed both to become more tolerant of each other by recognizing our spiritual oneness and we must at the same time continuously edit our laws in order to promote peace, justice, equality and the pursuit of happiness for every human being. ESSAY 6 - Prophecy and the Christian Bible Note: Even though the following focuses on Christian prophecy, it applies to all religions. I simply used Christianity as an example because these are the prophesies with which I have the most familiarity. Many Christians have spent countless hours trying to decipher the many prophesies in the Bible. The Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation are the focus of much discussion regarding the future of the world. Much emphasis is placed on the 100% accuracy of the Book of Daniel without paying attention to the historical scholars who point out that the book was written in 632 b.c.e. The reason that this date is known is because all the predictions regarding events prior to that year are 100% accurate and the predictions regarding events after that year are not. As for as the Book of Revelation, it is known that the book was written on the Island of Patmos. The real author is in question. This island was famous for its visions. In fact, ancient people would go to Patmos and smoke the sacred mushroom in order to experience a vision of one kind or another. Peoples all over the world from the most ancient of times have sought visions through the use of drugs. There is no way to prove that this is the way that the Book of Revelation came into being but we do have to wonder about the fact that it was written on an island devoted to drug induced visions; not to mention the heavy symbolism it contains. The truth is that no one can tell the future. Many people put forth their predictions regarding the future and some of those predictions do in fact come true. But if one looks closely, one sees that a lot of predictions are made but few materialize. There are no doubt people who are quite good at these things but it is impossible to tell which of the many predictions that a seer or prophet makes will actually materialize. Ancient writings are always suspect because it is so difficult to verify authors and dates; making prophecy based on these writing a useless endeavor. Of all the 6 billion people who presently live on the earth, no one has ever emerged who can consistently and accurately predict the future. Probably the most renown of all seers was Nostradamus but if one looks at all 1000 of his quatrains regarding the future, we quickly see that only a small percentage actually materialized. So if we lived at the time of Nostradamus how would we use these 1000 predictions. How could we know which ones were nonsense? The answer is that we could not know. So what good is prophecy? The answer is not much. Calamitous events occur almost daily in the world and yet not one of the 6 billion humans presently residing on the earth has emerged who could consistently predict them. We tend to believe in intuition because we have all experienced times when our sixth sense kept us out of harms way. Yet there were times when we ignored our intuition without any noticeable negative effects. Intuition and prophecy must be therefore put into their proper perspective as something to consider. If we are about to make a major decision in our lives, we should listen to our sixth sense and balance our logic with these feelings. In regards to Biblical prophecy, Jesus said that no one knows when the end times will come. Jesus said that even he did not know. So why are we wasting so much time concerning ourselves with these things. There is no doubt that the world is going to end one day. Nothing in this reality lasts forever. But will our planet be struck by a comet or asteroid or by a rogue planet from space or will the earth die when the sun burns out? Who knows? As regards to our own future, the only thing that is certain is that our bodies will wear out; they will die. Every single one of us will die. So what difference does another 10 years make. Concerning ourselves about the day of our death is totally unproductive. To find peace, we have to live in the present. Certainly we should plan for the future that we desire to live but all we are given is the present moment. There are no guarantees about the future. Lastly, consider how much of Christian prophecy is focused on doom and gloom: the apocalypse, pestilence, disease, war, hunger. Even the horrors of World War II were not great enough to satisfy the Christian definition of apocalypse. The Christian prophecy ends the world the same way that Christianity began it: in violence. Christ died a violent death and untold amounts of violence have been committed in the name of Jesus: and we are to told to believe that this age will end in violence. Consider the level of fear and apprehension that Christian prophecy has manifested and continues to manifest on the earth. Consider how the level of peace on earth will increase when we discard emphasizing a fearful doom and gloom end-of-the-world philosophy and simply live our lives as if today were our last day in this reality. Let us approach the Third Millennium with a world resolve to make this century as peaceful as the twentieth century was violent; and a world resolve that the next thousand years will be one permeated with peace and harmony and the uplifting of all of humanity. The truth is that we will manifest a future that is a product of our daily actions regardless of what the prophets of doom promote and the ancient texts allegedly foretell. John WorldPeace ESSAY 7 - The World Savior: an interfaith expectation All of the dominant world religions, - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, to name a few - have an expectation of a world savior who is to appear in the future. This world savior is expected to bring peace on earth. This "world savior" would be better considered a "world peace maker" because this is the primary mandate of the world savior: to manifest peace on earth. However, when we question the members of the major religious institutions, we find that their expectation is that this world savior will come from their particular faith: Christians expect a Christian world savior, Buddhist a Buddhist world savior, Islam an Islamic world savior. Unfortunately, with this mindset, no religion will embrace a world savior not of their particular faith. For example, as soon as a world savior identifies with Buddhism, then he or she will automatically be rejected by Christians, Muslim, Jews and Hindus. Therefore, we have to realize that the concept of a world savior has to be modified to a concept of a world savior for Christians world wide as opposed to a true world savior. The mindset is such among world religious institutions that a truly all inclusive world savior will not manifest. The mindset is that the Islamic world savior will appear and those who do not embrace Islam will be sent to hell, removed from the planet, or possibly enslaved. When a world savior appears he or she - all major religions essentially reject the idea of a female world savior because they were all founded by men and have tenaciously held onto a masculine orientation - will have to refuse to embrace any religious institution. He or she will have to understand the teachings of all religions but not have a preference for one over the other. He or she will have to relate to the common thread that runs through all religions and essentially speak only to these common beliefs. If he or she tried to deviate toward a mindset that was unique to one religion, he or she would alienate those who did not embrace that mindset. Religious institutions are by their nature elitist and exclusive. They feel they have the one "true" path to salvation, or what I call peace, and they feel no need to embrace other religionists as their equal. A true world savior will have to be inclusive of all religionists otherwise he or she cannot possibly be a true world savior. When we look at the history of religious thought world wide over time, we find that occasionally men and women with deeply rooted spiritual orientations bring their spiritual truth to a particular area of the earth and influence millions of human beings. This is an ongoing process that will never cease. What is unique in this day and time is that the world has become one and so situations of the past where a deeply rooted Western religion for the Middle East can flourish without coming into contact with an Eastern religion in India no longer exist. Buddha and Jesus were able to significantly impact their worlds without clashing with each other due to physical separation of the parts of the world they traveled. Now we have one world and so the next Buddha or Jesus will have to embrace the entire world. This will be tricky because to integrate the Eastern and Western religious mindsets into one mindset will not be easy. What it will require will be the letting go of the uniqueness of East and West and holding fast to the common denominators. There are in reality only two common denominators in religious thought: First, a belief in One God and this One God is infinite, immortal, without beginning or end; all-inclusive. Second, a commitment to treating others as you expect to be treated. On these two pillars rests all religious thought. Lastly, the greatest negative manifestation of expecting a world savior to appear in the future and bring peace is the apathy this mindset fosters. People are starving and murdering each other for various reasons even as you read these words. To believe that only a world savior can stop this suffering is to allow yourself to ignore the cries of pain that go out at every moment. If belief in a world savior allows you to turn a deaf ear to these cries of pain, it would be better to discard your belief in a coming world savior and begin to immediately focus on extending a loving and helping hand to the billions of suffering human beings that presently inhabit the entire planet. ESSAY 8 - Institutional Religion and Ex-Communication The institutional religious bureaucracies that have formed around the teachings of a particular man of God, i.e., Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Baha'U'llah, etc., have at times determined that, in some special cases, certain individuals must be removed from participation in the rites and rituals of the bureaucracy; and the rank and file membership must be encouraged to have nothing to do with these singled out (ex-communicated) individuals. In the search for peace and WorldPeace, we need to consider the basis and effect of these acts of ex-communication. What is the core reason for ex-communication? In a nutshell, a person who is ex-communicated asks too many questions about paradoxical teachings or advocates a position that is not in harmony with the official teachings of his or her religious bureaucracy; and by so doing challenges the authority and teachings of that particular religious institution of which he or she is a member. In any organization, religious or otherwise, there is a need for one relatively harmonious mindset of all the members. This mindset allows the organization to distinguish itself from all its competitors in the world society and allows a certain degree of power that comes from having large numbers of people united in a common philosophy. Many people who are members of religious organizations really do not understand all the nuances of what their particular religion believes and advocates. Their understanding is relatively simple. For instance, in Christianity, Jesus is considered the only Son of the One God, Jehovah, he died for your sins, and if you believe in him you will go to heaven even if you have a less than wonderful life. The majority of Christians are not bothered with the unpeaceful and unloving sayings of Jesus like, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Mt 10:34 and "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be by disciple". Lk 12:49. These are the sayings that are challenged and questioned by religious heretics, those who are flirting with ex-communication. The problem with religious institutions is that they claim that their founder, and generally their founder only, was in direct communication with the One and Only God and therefore everything that their founder said was true. Unfortunately, a lot of what those founders said or were alleged to have said are paradoxical and contradictory. Therefore, after the death of the founder, the disciples and other followers began to interpret those paradoxical sayings in an attempt to harmonize them. It seldom works. The paradoxical words and sayings never seem to go away and generation after generation questions them. The institutional religious logic is that since the words of the founder came from God, and since God is perfect and the founder is close to perfect if not perfect, and since the religious institution is the heir to the teachings of the founder, and the protector of the founder's teachings, the religious institution cannot afford to have heretics, those who do not totally embrace the official teaching of the religious institution, stirring up the average members who do not feel compelled to concern themselves with these paradoxical sayings of the founder as well as the actions of the religious institution that are also paradoxical to the founder's teachings. The heretics are like a cancer within the body of the religious institution and must be removed for the good of and survival of the religious institution. In the mind of the heretic, truth must be able to withstand challenges or it is not the truth. In other words, if what the religious institution teaches is not truth, then it should not be taught as truth. For instance, in the Bahai faith we are told that women are equal to men. This sounds like truth and is truth. Yet the Bahai faith which claims this as their truth refuses to allow women to sit on their governing body, The Universal House of Justice. The heretics demand that the Bahai faith act in accordance with its teachings. The Bahai faith wants to maintain the double standard within its bureaucratic structure and when it cannot stop a particular heretic from continuing to challenge this paradox, they are forced to ex-communicate the heretic, label him or her a "covenant breaker", and tell the general membership to cease all relations and communication with the heretic or face ex-communication themselves. The net effect is that ex-communication becomes a very powerful way to keep the membership in line. The threat of ex-communication becomes a chain around the neck of every member. When a religious institution claims authority from the founder, who claimed authority from the one and only God himself, they also claim to have the keys to heaven, in a manner of speaking, and they claim they can bar the ex-communicated not only from participating in the earthly religious bureaucracy but also bar them for entry into heaven. These claims create a very powerful form of mind control. Few rank and file members ever question what all heretics question about all religious institutions, "why does this all powerful God need this bureaucracy to speak for him? And why does this perfect God relate so many paradoxical sayings and actions through his chosen founder?" Why are these questions not asked by the rank and file member? Because the rank and file member does not mentally separate God, the founder, the disciples, and the religious bureaucracy. They are considered one and the same and therefore what the bureaucracy says is what God says. And this mindset is fostered by the religious bureaucracy because it legitimizes their authority even though it is not true. All heretics know that the spiritual realm of God is not the same as this earthly realm. The religious institution is not God. The religious institution cannot bar anyone from heaven or condemn anyone to hell. The founders were generally anti-bureaucratic and were rebels who put their life on the line in order to break the chains of bondage of the religion they were born into. Jesus rebelled against the rampant bureaucracy of the Jews, Buddha rebelled against the bureaucracy of the Hindus, Muhammad rebelled against the polytheistic idol worshipers of the Arabs, Baha'U'llah rebelled against the bureaucracy of the Muslims. The paradox is that these men who realized that these bureaucracies had become little more than the husk of spirituality, in that they emphasized their rites and rituals over spirituality, have all had gigantic religious bureaucracies formed around their teaching. It is just a matter of time before a new spiritual leader will emerge, who comes with the same spiritual message of his or her predecessors and is also labeled the arch heretic who challenges the husk of religion that the institutional religions promote as true spirituality. So where does this leave those who have been ex-communicated? First, they have not lost the love of God. This is impossible. No religious institution is in the position to speak for God. No one who occupies a position of authority in any religious institution is even close to the spirituality of the founder. The founders emphasized spirituality and love and tolerance and the religious bureaucrats emphasize the religious bureaucracy. No bureaucrat or group of bureaucrats in any religious institution has the power to deny heaven to anyone or condemn anyone to hell. Second, with ex-communication, all that has happened is that an exclusive and elitist club has denied the heretic membership. That is all. There is no spiritual difference between being barred from membership as a Bahai, Catholic, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, or being barred from membership in a local tennis club. The spiritual effect of being ex-communicated from a religious institution is zero. What is interesting here is that if one asks a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist what is the effect of being ex-communicated by the Bahai's, the answer would be nothing. The same is true of all religions when asked about the practices of other religions. All institutional religious heretics who have been ex-communicated or threatened with ex-communication need to consider that almost all of the founders of the major religious institutions began as heretics. There is little denying that these great souls were very close to God and true spirituality. All heretics should derive great comfort in the realization that they, as religious heretics, are in the company of the arch heretics of religion; and they are also in the company of some of the greatest souls that have ever walked this earth. But most of all, heretics need to remember that they are at one with God and nothing anyone can do can change that. The institutional religious bureaucracies that have formed around the teachings of a particular man of God, i.e., Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Baha'U'llah, etc., have at times determined that, in some special cases, certain individuals must be removed from participation in the rites and rituals of the bureaucracy; and the rank and file membership must be encouraged to have nothing to do with these singled out (ex-communicated) individuals. In the search for peace and WorldPeace, we need to consider the basis and effect of these acts of ex-communication. What is the core reason for ex-communication? In a nutshell, a person who is ex-communicated asks too many questions about paradoxical teachings or advocates a position that is not in harmony with the official teachings of his or her religious bureaucracy; and by so doing challenges the authority and teachings of that particular religious institution of which he or she is a member. In any organization, religious or otherwise, there is a need for one relatively harmonious mindset of all the members. This mindset allows the organization to distinguish itself from all its competitors in the world society and allows a certain degree of power that comes from having large numbers of people united in a common philosophy. Many people who are members of religious organizations really do not understand all the nuances of what their particular religion believes and advocates. Their understanding is relatively simple. For instance, in Christianity, Jesus is considered the only Son of the One God, Jehovah, he died for your sins, and if you believe in him you will go to heaven even if you have a less than wonderful life. The majority of Christians are not bothered with the unpeaceful and unloving sayings of Jesus like, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Mt 10:34 and "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be by disciple". Lk 12:49. These are the sayings that are challenged and questioned by religious heretics, those who are flirting with ex-communication. The problem with religious institutions is that they claim that their founder, and generally their founder only, was in direct communication with the One and Only God and therefore everything that their founder said was true. Unfortunately, a lot of what those founders said or were alleged to have said are paradoxical and contradictory. Therefore, after the death of the founder, the disciples and other followers began to interpret those paradoxical sayings in an attempt to harmonize them. It seldom works. The paradoxical words and sayings never seem to go away and generation after generation questions them. The institutional religious logic is that since the words of the founder came from God, and since God is perfect and the founder is close to perfect if not perfect, and since the religious institution is the heir to the teachings of the founder, and the protector of the founder's teachings, the religious institution cannot afford to have heretics, those who do not totally embrace the official teaching of the religious institution, stirring up the average members who do not feel compelled to concern themselves with these paradoxical sayings of the founder as well as the actions of the religious institution that are also paradoxical to the founder's teachings. The heretics are like a cancer within the body of the religious institution and must be removed for the good of and survival of the religious institution. In the mind of the heretic, truth must be able to withstand challenges or it is not the truth. In other words, if what the religious institution teaches is not truth, then it should not be taught as truth. For instance, in the Bahai faith we are told that women are equal to men. This sounds like truth and is truth. Yet the Bahai faith which claims this as their truth refuses to allow women to sit on their governing body, The Universal House of Justice. The heretics demand that the Bahai faith act in accordance with its teachings. The Bahai faith wants to maintain the double standard within its bureaucratic structure and when it cannot stop a particular heretic from continuing to challenge this paradox, they are forced to ex-communicate the heretic, label him or her a "covenant breaker", and tell the general membership to cease all relations and communication with the heretic or face ex-communication themselves. The net effect is that ex-communication becomes a very powerful way to keep the membership in line. The threat of ex-communication becomes a chain around the neck of every member. When a religious institution claims authority from the founder, who claimed authority from the one and only God himself, they also claim to have the keys to heaven, in a manner of speaking, and they claim they can bar the ex-communicated not only from participating in the earthly religious bureaucracy but also bar them for entry into heaven. These claims create a very powerful form of mind control. Few rank and file members ever question what all heretics question about all religious institutions, "why does this all powerful God need this bureaucracy to speak for him? And why does this perfect God relate so many paradoxical sayings and actions through his chosen founder?" Why are these questions not asked by the rank and file member? Because the rank and file member does not mentally separate God, the founder, the disciples, and the religious bureaucracy. They are considered one and the same and therefore what the bureaucracy says is what God says. And this mindset is fostered by the religious bureaucracy because it legitimizes their authority even though it is not true. All heretics know that the spiritual realm of God is not the same as this earthly realm. The religious institution is not God. The religious institution cannot bar anyone from heaven or condemn anyone to hell. The founders were generally anti-bureaucratic and were rebels who put their life on the line in order to break the chains of bondage of the religion they were born into. Jesus rebelled against the rampant bureaucracy of the Jews, Buddha rebelled against the bureaucracy of the Hindus, Muhammad rebelled against the polytheistic idol worshipers of the Arabs, Baha'U'llah rebelled against the bureaucracy of the Muslims. The paradox is that these men who realized that these bureaucracies had become little more than the husk of spirituality, in that they emphasized their rites and rituals over spirituality, have all had gigantic religious bureaucracies formed around their teaching. It is just a matter of time before a new spiritual leader will emerge, who comes with the same spiritual message of his or her predecessors and is also labeled the arch heretic who challenges the husk of religion that the institutional religions promote as true spirituality. So where does this leave those who have been ex-communicated? First, they have not lost the love of God. This is impossible. No religious institution is in the position to speak for God. No one who occupies a position of authority in any religious institution is even close to the spirituality of the founder. The founders emphasized spirituality and love and tolerance and the religious bureaucrats emphasize the religious bureaucracy. No bureaucrat or group of bureaucrats in any religious institution has the power to deny heaven to anyone or condemn anyone to hell. Second, with ex-communication, all that has happened is that an exclusive and elitist club has denied the heretic membership. That is all. There is no spiritual difference between being barred from membership as a Bahai, Catholic, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, or being barred from membership in a local tennis club. The spiritual effect of being ex-communicated from a religious institution is zero. What is interesting here is that if one asks a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist what is the effect of being ex-communicated by the Bahai's, the answer would be nothing. The same is true of all religions when asked about the practices of other religions. All institutional religious heretics who have been ex-communicated or threatened with ex-communication need to consider that almost all of the founders of the major religious institutions began as heretics. There is little denying that these great souls were very close to God and true spirituality. All heretics should derive great comfort in the realization that they, as religious heretics, are in the company of the arch heretics of religion; and they are also in the company of some of the greatest souls that have ever walked this earth. But most of all, heretics need to remember that they are at one with God and nothing anyone can do can change that. ESSAY 9 - Atheism Atheism is defined generally as: the belief that there is no God, or denial that God or gods exist. This seems simple enough but it really means nothing until one defines what is meant by God. In the world society, there are two distinct concepts of God. In the West, which I roughly delineate as the area from the Middle East west to and including North and South America, there is a concept of God as an anthropomorphic (human like) super being who is involved in the goings on of the world society. This Western God is called Allah in Islam, Jehovah in Christianity, and Yahweh in Judaism. These Gods are referred to as being masculine. In the East, which I roughly delineate as China, India and Japan, there is a concept of God as an indescribable, incomprehensible, inconceivable force that is all inclusive of every thing and every nothing. Any definition of this concept of God is limiting and therefore nothing more than a partial description. In Hinduism, this essence is referred to as Brahma, In Taoism, it is referred to as The Tao (The Way) and in Buddhism, as the Dharmakaya. You really cannot equate these words to God because the Western concept of God describes a super being and these Eastern words for God really refer to All That Is and Is not. I personally equate the words Infinite Potential with these Eastern names for the all inclusive God. The Infinite Potential is a non-emotional set of words that for me comes closest to stating what this all inclusive essence comprises. Now it is also important to understand that the world society is about evenly split between the Eastern and Western concepts of God. It is also important to understand that these concepts so completely permeate their particular parts of the world, and these concepts are so different, that it is very difficult for a person from the East to find common ground with one from the West in regards to God. There are few bridges between these two views of God; except to say that the Western Gods are a subset within the Eastern concept of God. Returning to atheism, we have to understand that it is essentially a mindset that is a reaction to the Western concept of God. It is a denial that an anthropomorphic super being is guiding the affairs of humanity. This seems logical to some individuals in a Western society which is based on logic and the belief in the conventional knowledge that every cause has an effect; which seems to be true of the physical world. And when one is focused in a scientific way on the physical realities of this Universe, what cannot be proven or be shown to exist, simply does not exist. It is simply a limited concept of reality, or a concept which limits reality, in which any completely intangible force is denied because it cannot be produced much less measured. It is an exclusive philosophy that denies the existence of everything that cannot be scientifically measured. So in general, we have the at the core of atheist belief., a mindset that since the masculine anthropomorphic Gods of the West cannot be scientifically measured or scientifically proven, He?, God, does not exist. Since almost all atheist live in Western society, and since this anthropomorphic concept of God dominates Western thought, the atheist after making his or her proclamation that God does not exist, dusts off his or her hands and smilingly goes off down the road with the thought that he or she has vanquished God and proven all believers to be foolish or child-like in their nonsensical belief in God. It is at this point that most atheist are confronted with the outer realms of their philosophy. They have been speaking to a Western audience. Now something new enters the debate: What about the concept of God being defined as every thing and every nothing? If God is defined as all inclusive, as in the East, how can there be a denial of God? There are no atheist reacting to the Hindu, Taoist or Buddhist concepts of God, because to deny this God, or all encompassing essence, would be to deny what each one of us experiences and are conscious of at every moment: that we exist. Here are the questions that the atheist cannot answer: If there is no God, per the Eastern definition of God, then how can one contemplate anything, much less the non-existence of God? If the all inclusive Eastern God does not exist, how is it that we are conscious of our existence? If there is no all encompassing non-physical, impossible to measure, energy, then how is it that inert chemicals come together to manifest consciousness? Or does consciousness not exist because it cannot be proven or measured? In the final analysis, atheism is just a reaction to the Western concept of God. It cannot be a denial of God, if God is defined as the all inclusive Infinite Potential. Such a denial would be a denial that anything exists. Atheists conflicting with Christians, Jews and Muslims are like children playing in the school yard thinking that the school yard is the entire universe.
A SHORT STORY
Once there was a frog who was the self proclaimed king of his little puddle
see the ESSAY 10 - The Ten Commandments in the Third Millennium
However, as we enter space, as we begin to manipulate the human genetic code, as we through the internet consider religions and concepts of God that were not previously as accessible to us as they are now, we have to consider that the ten commandments need to be re-evaluated. God is not religion and religion is not spirituality. God is the Infinite Potential of all things. Religions are bureaucracies established to disseminate the teaching of the various founders of the various religions. Spirituality is a knowing by experience that there is an invisible presence that guides our lives. If you break a social law, you have committed a crime against the government. If you break a religious law, you have committed a sin against a religion: and the religion argues that to sin against the religion is to sin against God. I believe that you can sin against a religion but I do not believe that you can sin against an immortal, infinite God out of which we were each created. I have placed before each commandment the word God or the word Society. When I use the word God it means the commandment relates to religion and God. When I use the word society, it means that the commandment really has to do with the social law irrespective of God. Moses was trying to set up a Theocracy where the laws of God were the laws of society. It did not work. So before you allow yourself to negatively react to the following comments on the ten commandments, consider that only four actually relate to God. John WorldPeace
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1)
2) You shall not make yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth and then bow down to that image or serve it for such images are no more than dust and the transient manifestations of the physical universe and they are inferior to our oneness out of which all things are created.
We are the one God, and as All That Is has manifested from us, we have nothing to be jealous about. Is the artist jealous of his art? Is the sculptor jealous of her creation? How ridiculous!
The confusion of each soul is not a burden of the children of the physical body which that soul inhabits. The wrongs of the parent are never never transferred to the child even though the child must surely compensate for the actions of the parents as the child grows and matures within the home of the parents: under the parent's control. Each child is conceived by its parents and birthed from its mother but each is unique and does not inherit the wrongs of the parents.
Our love is available to all, denied none. We are at one with each life, with each being, with each soul because from us, each has manifested and because each is at one with us.
3) Y You will not use the name of your God to bolster your lies.
4) You should disengage from your toils upon the earth for a portion of one day in seven. The particular day of the week does not matter for each religions has sanctified its own particular sabbath. Without rest, the body and mind become dull. As the body sleeps each night, it should rest one day in each week and one week in each year.
The heavens and earth were not made in six twenty-four hour days and we did not rest at the end of creation for a twenty-four hour period and we did not designate one particular day as hallowed. It was humanity who divided time into days, weeks, months and years and then applied that arbitrary division to the story of creation.
5) Acknowledge your father and your mother and your sons and your daughters as well. For your parents are the sacred yet imperfect vessel from which you manifested into this reality and your choice to become parents was a choice lasting a lifetime; a commitment which ends only in physical death, yours or your children's.
6) You shall not place yourself in a position where you determine that the only solution to whatever problem is confronting you is the death of another human being. This is not to be confused with your obligation as a judge or juror in a trial to order the death of the physical body of a human being who has demonstrated a disregard for the lives of others. Killing does not apply to animals and plants which are to be consumed as food for your bodies.
7) You should respect the family institution. The lives of children should not be disrupted by the extra sexual affairs of the parents. Those who insert themselves into a family with children and parents who disengage from the family in order to pursue their sexual desires are no doubt negatively impacting the lives of defenseless children. The institution of marriage should be not be entered into carelessly and children should not be conceived without considering the tremendous responsibility one accepts when conceiving a human being. 8) You shall not steal. 9) You shall not bear false witnesses against your neighbor.
10)
It is all right to desire to own things but it is not all right to determine
to steal the possessions of others. The possession of things is often
a burden and an impediment to a life of peace and harmony.
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