Now that Thanksgiving is over and the "holidays" have officially begun, I thought I'd take a moment to share my recent ideas about religion.This is a thing that has been on my mind for the last few weeks and, quite frankly, I am disgusted by what I've discovered.
What is religion? Rather, what is the purpose of religion?
Mysterium Tremendum. That which is beyond explaination.
A friend of mine and I were discussing this recently. She is a pastor at a local church and so understands what religion is supposed to provide in the way of self-betterment, enlightenment and Humanity's evolution toward these goals.
But that's not what is really happening. Bureaucracy has taken hold and thus compartmentalized religions all over the world to the point where there is separation, (to the extreme of violence), of Humanity and of the very nature of the Myterium Tremendum. Religion was never to be used as a means of social control, information hoarding or discemination, to put one's self above others, to condemn those who think and feel differently, to use as a rallying point for war, or to do anything else that infringes upon free will.
I am not against religion. But I am very much against the orginization of it. Bureaucracy is very, very bad and should have never attempted the task of controllong how religion works. Mysterium Tremendum is way beyond the materialistic and should remain so. Enlightenment cannot happen otherwise.
Take a look at Frank Schaeffer, Patience with God : Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), Da Capo Press, 2009, for an interesting take on religion and its definitions.
ReplyDeleteSuppose it's not religion itself that is the culprit, but the evil humans that corrupt its organization. When humans use something like "religion" to organize - a.k.a. separate people based on beliefs - discrimination is inevitable. Thus, becoming a huge contradiction to what most people's "religion" stand for - unconditional love.
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