15 RELIGION


When religions remind us that our immortal, infinite souls are at one
with God, they bequeath inner peace to human beings who are caught up
in the materialism of the world. When religions dictate laws which make
us fear God and encourage us to avoid those who do not belong to our
particular religion, they promote judgment, disharmony, intolerance,
prejudice, hatred and war.

All of the dominant religions are masculine in their orientation. There is
not one major feminine oriented religion. World Peace can never
manifest as long as the subordination of women is advocated and
practiced by the dominant religions of the world.

Formal religions, as we know them, define the universe in terms that we
can conceive and believe. They define the universe in terms of what we
know and what we can potentially understand. Through doctrine and
dogma, they institutionalize a system of attitudes and beliefs claimed to
be God-given truths, even though written by men.

Christians define the universe and God in terms of Christian doctrine and
dogma, just as each religion defines the universe and God in the terms of
its own unique beliefs.

Each religion tends to believe that it is the sole possessor of the Truth.
Each refuses to acknowledge that it is just taking a turn at understanding
the universe. Each refuses to believe that its doctrine and dogma is just a
belief system no more or less valid than the belief system of any other religion.

Each religion defines all the followers of the other religions as infidels
and marks those infidels as fair game for genocide, at the worst, and
bars them from its heaven, at the least.

When one contemplates the Infinite Potential, one quickly concludes that
no religion defines a credible universe, much less a common denominator of
Truth for inner peace and peaceful co-existence that has stood the test
when applied to the earth. In fact, it seems that humanity's belief in God,
when filtered through institutionalized religion and its teachings, has
been undeniably linked with senseless bloodshed and holy wars to
convert or expunge the non-believers from the earth.

We are at one with the earth, with the universe, with God and with each
other. We are always at one with God, yet we have ignored this. We
have put on blinders in the form of religious doctrine, dogma and law
which in many ways separate us from this One Great Truth.

The Truth is that, at every moment, in every dimension, we are at one
with God and at one with each other. This is the only legitimate message
of any religion, and any message, doctrine, dogma or act beyond the
communication of this One Great Truth is only social commentary and
nothing more than the attempted enslavement of humanity if alleged to
be God's law.

Any judgment or any act by any religion, no matter how seemingly
insignificant, which judges, condemns, punishes or rebukes a person, no
matter what his or her alleged sin against God, is an affront to all of
humanity. The act may be a crime against society or it may even be a
transgression against a particular religious institution, but it is
absolutely not a sin against God.

Transient social and religious laws apply only to the physical body. It is
nonsense to believe that social and religious laws apply to an immortal,
infinite soul which is at every moment at one with an immortal, infinite
God.

Inner peace comes in knowing that we are at one with God and that
one of the darkest legacies of religion has been to wrongfully instruct us
that all of humanity is not equal in God's eyes.

Inner peace comes in knowing that we can ignore institutionalized
religion without, for one moment, losing our immortal, infinite,
unconditional oneness with God.