[Vision2020] A Perspective Different From Cultmaster Wilson

[Art Deco]

*Has religion become obsolete?*Tim Martin/for the Times-Standard
Eureka Times StandardCreated:09/16/2012 02:28:56 AM PDT

The world is in a constant state of flux. We're witnessing increasing
social, climate and political change. Technology and business environments
are undergoing a huge transformation. Even modern-day families are
evolving. The only thing that isn't changing? Religion. We're still hanging
onto our outdated, archaic God as a catch-all explanation for life's
events. We pray for the shallow rewards of eternal bliss, 72 virgins, being
reincarnated as a wealthy person, and being saved from an eternity of fire
and brimstone.

What's wrong with us? It's the 21st Century and we're worshipping gods that
are narcissistic, condescending, pompous, resentful, gods who become
annoyed if you don't pray to them several times a day. From dangerous cults
to mainstream religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Hinduism and
Buddhism, fear plays a big part in our devotion to a higher power.

It was the same story when I was a kid back in the 1960s. I went to church
and sat in the pew, amused and bewildered, thinking, “This guy believes he
has a direct line to God? He wants us to accept that suffering is all part
of the plan? And we can expect even more of it in the afterlife if we don't
belong to this particular church?” None of it seemed rational to me, even
as a child.

Throughout history, religion has been used to manipulate people, to gain
wealth, to obtain votes, to support wars, to provoke racism, and to acquire
power. I would never dispute the fact that there are good, kindly people in
every faith, but religion engenders a lot of intolerance. Especially toward
anyone who is not a member of the “in-group.” The problem is that religion
is man-made. It's not only a belief, it's a membership into a club.

I'm not trying to come off as some sort of rabble-rouser here. This is not
a hell-for-leather attack on organized religion. I simply think we need to
reexamine how we worship God. There's nothing wrong with believing in
something, so long as the belief does no harm. And there's the rub.

Intentionally or not, religion has often been used in a manner that causes
damage. The Catholic-Protestant war in Ireland is one example. The
Inquisition is another. So is the Nigerian conflict, the Lebanese Civil
War, and the World Trade Center attack. This week there were embassy
protests, which spread to 20 countries and killed four Americans,
reportedly brought on by outrage over a film ridiculing Islam and the
Prophet Muhammad. The list goes on.

In his book “God Is Not Great,” Christopher Hitchens railed against
religion and called it “a blight on human progress and well-being.” Sadly,
the author failed to understand that angry atheism, pursued with the zeal
of a religious fanatic, is no different.

Here in America, the Christian right wants to force their God and their
political views upon everyone. Evangelicals see the rapture as imminent and
welcome strife in the Middle East in order to hasten Armageddon.

Maybe it's time we stepped out of the Dark Ages and created a new belief
system. One that allows us reconcile a loving God with rationality. A
belief system with no leaders or sacred texts, and no words that can't be
spoken or thoughts that can't be thought.

Deism is a good example. This philosophy states that through observation of
the natural world one can determine that the universe is the product of a
creator. Deists believe in God, but not in religion. They reject
supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, and hoaxes like the
mother ship behind the Hale-Bopp comet, tending instead to assert that God
does not alter the universe by intervening in it. This idea (also known as
the clockwork universe theory), holds that God built the universe but
stepped aside to let it run on its own. Several of our founding fathers
were Deists, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Deism doesn't require a holy book or a preacher to instruct you. Deists
find God through their own personal belief and self-discovery, and not
through words written millennia ago that cause guilt, self-doubt, mayhem,
massacres and suicide bombings.

What good is religion if it frustrates you and causes you to live in fear?
Letting go of such an encumbrance is liberating. It frees you to respond to
reality instead of ecclesiastical propaganda. It gives you solace and
reassurance to know that there is a God, and that He/She is watching over
you.

We should all confront the fact that we exist with wonder and with
gratitude. It's not irrational to believe in a divine force that animates
the universe. What is irrational is to believe in the literal truthfulness
of books like the Bible, the Jewish Torah, the Hindu Vedas, the Quran, the
Adi Granth of the Sikhs and The Book of Mormon.

As John Lennon once so prophetically said, “Imagine no religion.” I think
it's time to heed that advice. How about you?

Tim Martin resides in McKinleyville.



-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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