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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.
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