Google is a good resource but today I need to voice my opinion, not influenced by Wikipedia or any other source. Actually I might need a dictionary to look up the meaning of religion, not that I do not know what it is but just to see what that word was supposed to mean. I have eyes and ears, no matter how low my IQ is some things are too obvious.
Religion defined
noun 1.
a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of theuniverse, especially when considered as the creation of a superhumanagency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritualobservances, and often containing a moral code governing the conductof human affairs.
2.
a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreedupon by a number of persons or sects:
the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
I have respect for all religions because of only one thing, they provide the guidance to seek God. It ends there. We all need to find that irrespective of how that religion define their God. Now when I say God to me it means the sense of understanding who you are and living a pure life. According to several holy books we were created in the image of God. The first step to understand God is understanding your true identity.
I don’t know how difficult that is but the moment you realize God you will no longer need to be told what to do, you will not do things just to make yourself look more religious or please your spiritual leader. God will guide you in every little thing and this is what I call faith. Knowing that you are fully covered and you do not need to worry about anything.
Some might confuse that concept thinking that if that is the case then you don’t have to go to work or cook because God will take care of all that. I prefer you see it like this, before applying for the job seek for guidance and approval, what might seem a good job to you might lead to self-destruction. This applies to everything else, this is what I call faith.
We must understand that all spiritual leaders are human beings, they are just like everybody else. I like to think of them as political leaders but more in a spiritual way. Having more spiritual powers does not cover all the flaws, just as our political leaders misguide us sometimes so can they. We need religion as we need independent states where we can live freely and have a sense of belonging.
If you are American it does not mean you approve all the policies of your country, you are a proud citizen who might even die for the country but as a responsible human being you will not support anything that you think is against humanity. This applies to our religions, being a member of a certain religion does not make you a die-hard fan, you must understand that you are also part of this universe and you need to protect it even from your own religion.
Many of us are citizens of where we were born or where our parents are from. Many of us belong to the same religion as our parents. Being born in Australia might give you access to a better standard of living than the one who was born in Malawi but it does not make you more entitled human than others. Why should your religion make you feel that you are more worthy and those who have not been lucky to be in that group are worthless?
I will leave you with these verses from the Bible for you to ponder.
Matthew 6:33; “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Luke 17:21; “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
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Regarding Christianity, there is a major issue on how the Bible is regarded. There are those who say that it is the word of God, and should be treated as such-every word holy and followed to the letter. However, some say that it is the word of God recorded by men, so contains mistakes and therefore is not infallible. (The part of the post I am talking about here is “being a member of a certain religion does not make you a die-hard fan”.) Hence, there is not much leeway for picking and choosing parts of the religious scriptures, and similarly with other religions such as Islam.
On a curious tangent, there is an interesting theory that one’s religion depends quite heavily on the location of birth-for example, most Brazilians are Christian, and only ~8% are non-religious. Obviously there will always be people who have religious experiences and convert, but they are very much in a minority.
Your post was fascinating, please would you mind explaining the statement “you must understand that you are also part of this universe and you need to protect it even from your own religion” a little further for me please?
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Thank you for your insightful comment.
I will try to explain that statement without making reference to any particular group.
Let us say your religion tells you to kill the nonbelievers and when you look around you find your school mates, doctors, social workers who serve well your community are non believers. It is clear that your society will not survival without them, will you oblige to killing your own society?
If God did not want them they would not have been there in the first place.
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(Just playing devil’s advocate a little re “If God did not want them they would not have been there from the first place.”) But if you are a believer in free will, then God will not intervene, but let people make their own choices. If that is to become a non-believer, then free will says God does nothing. However, I don’t think there are any major religions which tell followers to kill non-believers, the majority preach tolerance and neighbourly love (Buddhists teach to not harm any living being, one of their Five Moral Precepts).
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Maybe it was an extreme example but the bad thing is it has happened before in the so called holy wars.
We can not blame religions alone because extremist are just born that way, no matter the cause they believe.
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