Out of all the 7 Belief systems, the one about Religion took the most time to write. I failed to see from which angle I should be approaching this. Recently, I got a most intriguing comment to my 15 September 2016 blog on Faith vs Religion: “God hates Religion”.
This comment finally made me realise that Religion is a human concept. Before I wasn’t able to separate Faith and Religion in my mind. I just felt and knew that I had to delay writing this blog until mental clarity would arrive.
To illustrate the above comment that God hates Religion, I received two supporting Bible quotes: Matthew 15:8-9 and Isaiah 29:13. These quotes may not support the word hate but they do support a sincere dislike for this concept of man-made Religion. Both quotes make clear that the human emphasis is too much on man-made Religion and not (enough) on Faith in a Supreme Being or Deity (eg, Allah, God, Yahweh).
It would be (too) easy to disregard these Bible quotes by stating that these comments just/only refer to the Jews escaping Egypt. Humans have even worsened the situation by creating religious split-offs: first Judaism, then Christianity and ultimately Islam. Within these main derivatives further split-offs emerged: eg, Catholics vs Protestants and Shia vs Sunni. Yet all these religions claim to worship a Supreme Being. Any claim that there is more than 1 Supreme Being would be genuine blasphemy.
My key criterion for any Belief system is the willingness to sacrifice your own life for that Belief. The concept of man-made Religion has provided many examples of that willingness, the most prominent being the Christian Crusades and the Islamic Jihad. This religious violence is essentially man-made despite any claim to the contrary.
The leaders in any religious institute are just humans looking for opportunities to expand their (institute’s) power. The pyramid like structure in Money (businesses), Politics (parties) and Religion (eg, churches, mosques) is a typical representation of the Power dimension in any human organisation.
This human need for creating copies of a military command structure is however contrary to nature. Quanta Magazine: “Self-organizing mechanisms are present everywhere in nature, from the development of an embryo to the organization of large animal populations,” said Simon Garnier, a biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The main difference between the various species on this planet (see Nature’s Tree of Life), is related to yesterday’s breakthrough about the 3 levels of awareness: Needs, Wants and Beliefs. Only humans have expanded beyond the Needs level. The level of Beliefs is by far the most dangerous one.
Nowadays, many people support Richard Dawkins‘ claim that Religion is the root of all evil (Wiki). Before, the root of all evil was the love for Money (Bible). I am inclined to say that 6 of the 7 Belief systems (ie, Money, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science and the Truth) are the root of all evil. And I am not sure about Love. Latter is a paraphrase of a famous quote by Albert Einstein.
Would I lie to you? (1992) by Charles & Eddie
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-duo, Wiki-song
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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