Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods
You are about to go on a learning journey that may enable you to see things that very few people understand, but you may be able to comprehend the real world by using your own common sense and logic.
That in itself, will make you special, because most of us have learned the sum of our knowledge from parents, ministers, teachers and the media, so our thoughts and beliefs are pretty much programmed into us from the very beginning.
Once we get out of school and get away from home, we only have each other, our own personal experiences and the media to increase or at least maintain our intellect and understanding of how the world really works.
From the time of birth until we die, we are barraged by groups and individuals that try to mold our minds and bodies without regard for what we feel or think personally.
I have long thought that I learned much more from my children than I ever taught them. We, as parents unconsciously try to produce mental and physical clones of ourselves. We hire nannies, teachers, tutors, coaches, priests and surrogates to raise our kids.
As parents, we think it is our duty is to raise our kids to be just like we are. We lavish our children with electronic toys that actually play with kids, we send them to church schools and pre-kindergarden schools because we, ourselves don't spend enough time or effort to teach them curiosity, creativity or independent thought. By permitting others to teach our children, their "reality" becomes someone else's ideology.
It is no wonder that our culture, social structure and "family values" are crumbling. We have become insulated, isolated and excluded from the realities of nature and resort to imagination, spirits and prayer to cure the world's ills.
And so, we got religion.
"Religion is the opium of the masses" - Karl Marx 1818 -1883
98% of the world's population believes in and relies on some kind of supernatural, imaginary entity for guidance.
This in itself will make mankind extinct because nature is based on reality and has been for billions of years.
Humans will show up as a brief and fleeting aberration on Mother Nature's family tree. As you read this article, we are devising more and more effective methods and weapons to kill entire populations of fellow human beings instead of spending the time and money on preserving and prolonging lives and figuring out how to live with one another.
Religion, based on imaginary spirits, is the greatest anomaly of all time elicits one simple question:
How is it, that all religions have such great sociological similarities yet exhibit such intolerance and hate for each other, to the extent of killing each other by the millions for the sake of their god?
The answer lies in a simple formula that combines religion, ignorance, man’s incomprehension and fear of death, the ambiguity and inaccuracy of language, verbal and written historical accounts ie. bibles, that go back as far as 5000 years, the evolution of generational disillusionment and finally, power hungry, self serving individuals that feed off all the above while masquerading as "saviours" and leaders.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
RELIGION, IGNORANCE and FEAR OF DEATH - About 6000 years ago, humans started what is commonly and generally referred to as civilization, writing (hieroglyphics) and religion. The origins of religion were born in primitive man's fear, ignorance and insecurity. In the days before organized religions, people did not have adequate knowledge and could not understand the real nature of their life and what would happen to them after their deaths.
They could not understand the causes of natural phenomena or natural occurrences. Quite naturally, they suspected there must be unknown forces which created all these pleasant or unpleasant things and experienced a sense of awe and dread towards these powers which they felt could harm them in some way. Not being able to see, or talk to these forces in ordinary language, they felt that these powers must be appeased to protect themselves by offering sacrifices from food offerings to the lives of their fellow humans. In this manner, they thought they could at least, partially control their lives and destinies.
They credited these "forces" for their good fortunes yet, still did not understand the reasons for calamities and death. A divine power seemed necessary to allay our innate fears, suspicions, worries, disturbances, anxieties and cravings.
Knowing the nature of the human condition, they developed various pacifiers in the form of religious beliefs and practices. To help them better understand what they were trying to communicate with, they gave each force a name and a form - either conceiving it in human form or in some bizarre, non-human form but always evoking a sense of awe and fear. Different cultures have translated ideas and concepts into physical form and developed particular rituals to honor and worship their many "Gods".
Finally the actions to enlist the favor of the "forces" became ritualized into forms of worship. There were Rain Gods, Sun Gods, Moon Gods, Harvest Gods and devils and evil spirits, angels, a virgin birth and many, many other magical entities.
Later, as early urban settlements began and social control became a necessity, certain socio-religious practices were employed to develop and promote moral behavior and to guide citizens in a path to ensure the well being of the community.
Thusly, the "forces of good "and the "forces of evil" were born. Imagination, fear and ignorance eventually fused together to become religion.
Religion, throughout the history of mankind, has had a tremendous hold on humankind. The first organized, social institutions of mankind were religious in character. Even today, religion is of primary importance to millions of individuals worldwide, who try to live by it and give it a special place in their lives.
Theistic religions, such as Judaism (from which Christianity evolved) and Islam, place "transcendency", ie., that which lies beyond the ordinary range of perception, abstract, theoretical and supernatural, at the center of their beliefs.
These religions give supernatural explanations to perfectly logical, natural phenomena that seem incomprehensible to the masses. Religion is based solely on faith, fear of death and a fervent desire to achieve eternal life. The concepts are easy to sell to an ignorant, uninformed public or "flock"; the terminology that religious leaders prefer.
Science has proven that at the time of death, all organisms are merely transformed into different molecular structures and at their death, restructured into other molecular forms and the process continues endlessly. This concept is what mankind does not want to accept or understand and therefore, needs an acceptable answer and that is the promise of "Eternal life".
Eternal life or "Heaven" is described in a huge variety of ways and by various groups and religions, but "immortality" is the common theme and provides the incentive for mankind to follow a prescribed set of guidelines to gain entry into Heaven. Non-compliance will result in going to Hell, which is also a widely and variously described condition, that also lasts for eternity. Religion has claimed to be the only method to get to Heaven. Marketing and selling this concept is certainly not difficult.
Religions are generally accepted in the following numbers:
Christianity: 1.9 billion (33%)
Islam: 1.8 billion (25%)
Hinduism: 900 million (15%)
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million (14%)
Buddhism: 360 million (6%)
Chinese traditional religion: 225 million (4%)
primal-indigenous: 150 million (3%)
African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 14 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 6 million
Jainism: 4 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 3 million
Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 700 thousand
Scientology: 600 thousand
Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand
(Note - These numbers will not add up precisely and change on a daily basis as one might well imagine, due to changing populations and religious conversion rates)
The masses of the world have, and continue to rely on imagination and fantasy to escape the realities of nature, birth, death, pain, fear, success, failure and frustration. It is obvious that "God" has not only catastrophically failed, but has expanded our ability to create worldwide violence and genocide. Religion has stifled individual and independent thought.
To this day, individual, open-minded thought, is harshly criticized and disparaged. The phrase, "Love it or leave it", is lauded as a method to rid ourselves of those who question authority, established doctrine or governmental policy.
The "leader" that can sell the most people on his/her own particular religion, will predominate, until a newer and more comfortable and believable "leader” appears. Most Christians are still waiting for the "second coming" of Jesus, or "the Messiah", Yahweh, Christ, Baha'u'llah, God, "Theos", Elohim, Gott, Got, Gode, Gade, and Guth (gud). Yahshua, Yahweh, or El Elyon, Gad, and in Hebrew, GD, to save us all from the grasp of the Devil.
Jesus is purported to be the literal son of God and gave his life to save mankind which poses a logical question - did Jesus ever really exist and was he God, or at least the son of God? It is quite arguable, contradictory to basic science and really doesn't matter anymore. There have been hundreds of thousands of dedicated people that have given their lives for their own "just cause" and thousands that have taught the basic sociological principles that help guide mankind into a tolerable and ordered structure of living with each other. Their lives are just as meaningful and important as anyone else's.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGUAGE -
There are 6,800 known languages spoken in the 200 countries of the world and scores of others that have disappeared in time. Additionally, and to add further to the confusion, there are certain select people that speak in "tongues", all "God inspired" yet unintelligible to any others except themselves.
Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language into another language. The goal of translation is to establish equivalence between the languages and communicate the same message, since words and ideas cannot be expressed identically in different languages and one has to contend with contexts, idioms, dialects, inferences, innuendo and varying rules of local and dialectic grammar.
Thusly, a problem in communication arises from the way in which language is learned, either by familiarity or by instruction. It appears that the more learned the person, the less capable he is of making himself understood. By the masses. For example - There is a single Vietnamese word that means: "someone leaves to go somewhere and something happens at home so that he has to go back home".
Language translation is only the beginning of learning why there is such worldwide intolerance, hate, war and misunderstanding.
The largest English-language dictionary, contains some 616,500 "word forms", (a word that can be used to describe or identify something). Of these, about 200,000 words are in common use today. An educated person has a vocabulary of about 20,000 words and uses about 2,000 in a week's conversation.
We further confuse our language with Roget's Thesaurus, the first edition of which was published 150 years ago and has sold 32 million copies since. It is in every school in America
---------------------------------------------------------
BIBLES
Religious texts (Bibles) are based on:
Parables - short fictitious narratives of something which might really occur in life or nature, by means of which a moral is drawn; such as the parables of Jesus Christ.
Miracles - events that appear inexplicable by the laws of nature and so are held to be supernatural in origin or acts of God.
Polemics - controversial arguments, especially those refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine.
Euphemisms - inoffensive expressions that are substituted for ones that are considered offensive or indelicate.
Bibles abound in coincidences, allegory, story telling, similes, fables, symbolization, fantasy, legends and fiction and are at best, abstract and arbitrary.
Each and every religion or doctrine has its "Bible", that can be as basic and simple as the Desiderata or as difficult to interpret as the Koran. Each religious entity, validates its teachings and scripture by its own particular interpretation and is considered beyond question or doubt.
There are many Bibles and as many, or more variations, versions, interpretations, translations and re-translations of each, as follows:
American Standard Version - was translated by 100 men in 1901 who came from many different religious backgrounds. They were not all religiously "conservative" (Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change), nor were they all "modernists" (people who conform to modern ideas, practices, or standards).
New American Standard Version - was translated in 1960 by 58 men, all of whom were conservatives. It has gone through several revisions since 1960 to enhance its accuracy. The latest revision is the 1995 edition.
Douay Bible- was the foundation on which nearly all English Catholic versions are still based and owes its existence to the religious controversies of the sixteenth century. Many Protestant versions of the Scriptures have been issued.
Confucianism - the teachings of Confucius emphasizing love for humanity; high value given to learning and to devotion to family (including ancestors); peace; justice; influenced the traditional culture of China
Hinduism - is a religion with various Gods and Goddesses. According to Hinduism, three Gods rule the world. Brahma: the creator; Vishnu: the preserver and Shiva: the destroyer. Lord Vishnu did his job of preserving the world by incarnating himself in different forms at times of crisis.
Buddhism - A major religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha who lived in Northern India at the foot of the Himalayas in the 6th century BCE.
Luther's Bible - translation of the Hebrew Bible into German.
The Hebrew Bible - The core of the Hebrew Bible is the Torah, the first seven books which define who the Hebrews/Jews are, through story and law.
Revised Standard Version - was translated by 15 men, nine of whom were modernists or "liberals" (people not limited to established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas and are open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others). All were language scholars, and affected by their individual, private words, opinions and concepts. The New Testament was translated in 1946, the Old Testament was completed in 1952. This version was created by the translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
King James Version - Major bible translation made in the English language. Although its language is now rather archaic, it was rather controversial in 1611 because it was a translation into the English spoken by the common people at the time, so that all could read and clearly understand what God was saying to us.
New English Bible - was translated in 1961, with a complete revision being completed in 1970. It was translated with the British English speaking world in mind.
New International Version - was translated by a committee of 100 conservative scholars from five English-speaking countries representing 10 different churches. The New Testament was published in 1973.
The Phillips Translation - is one of the older versions and was translated by one man, J.B. Phillips. He was a relatively conservative translator.
Today's English Version or (AKA) Good News For Modern Man was first translated in 1966. There were revisions in 1967 and 1971. It was translated by a man named Mr. Bratcher.
The Living Bible - The Living Bible (or Reach-Out New Testament, Living Prophets, the Living Psalms, Living Letters, etc., are all from the Living Bible and paraphrased) is translated by one man, Kenneth Taylor.
The Message Bible - “The Message” or “The New Testament In Contemporary English,” was translated by Eugene H. Peterson in 1993.
The Islamic Bible - The Koran, or Qur'an is believed to be the actual words of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad between c.610 and his death (632 AD) and originally written down (in Arabic) around 645 AD.
Any translation of the Koran immediately ceases to be the literal word of God in its original Arabic form. Many parts of the Koran are parallel to Christian and Jewish dogma, relating to morality and faith and considered to be absolutely true. Islam, like all other religions, has been divided into sects, based on individual interpretations of the Koran.
There were at least 14 variant Arabic versions of the Koran in common use around 900 AD, and possibly several more. These arose due to the method of writing and copying that existed at that time. No question regarding the original wording was involved, but rather the many variations arose due to writing, translations and copying the texts.
There are now, five current versions of the Koran, widely used. The variances between these different versions of the Koran are generally very minor, but the original texts associated with the Prophet Muhammad.
"When the missionaries came to
They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land."
- Bishop Desmond Tutu
"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says:
He is always convinced that it says what he means".
- George Bernard Shaw
----------------------------------------------
The Evolution of "Generational Disillusionment" -
From birth, we teach our children to believe in "innocent" illusions like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Tele-tubbies, the Easter Bunny, Angels and Devils, spirits, Bugs Bunny, etc. and illusion becomes part of their reality. Then, we teach them the ultimate deception… how to "pretend", which is by definition is, "giving a false appearance, feigning or sham".
Such an overwhelming barrage of fantasy produces generations upon generations of young people, obsessed and accustomed to violence through the media such as: World Federation Wrestling, Jerry Springer, Harry Potter, "reality" shows, TV and movies containing sex coupled with violence, and it is all camouflaged as "entertainment".
By having been denied exposure to the broad spectrum of reality, our children have become by-products of their parents' personal ideologies and consequently, are unable to cope with the realities of real life upon leaving the "nest" and entering the real world. Faced with the contradictions of all they have learned at home, our children seek refuge in like-minded groups whose ideas and beliefs conform to what their parents have taught them.
These groups are variously called, "governments", "gangs", tribes, fraternal organizations, churches, and political parties, to name a few. They go by such names as Hell's Angels, Fundamentalists, Kappa Sigmas, Republicans, Insurgents, Democrats, Liberals, Catholics, the Aryan Nation , Communists and oddly, the Odd Fellows.
Finally, while our children are young, trusting and naïve, we teach them the ultimate fallacy: God and organized religion. We send them to Bible study, Catechism, Kids' Church and Church Youth Groups, summer camp, seminars and retreats to reinforce their unquestioning obedience, faith and submission to a particular religion where God (a "spirit" - defined as that which is beyond the power or laws of nature") is their master.
Having been programmed during their youth by endless, unrelenting fantasy, they are only required to have a basic, belief and trust called ''faith in God'' and they are guaranteed an entry ticket to the Kingdom of Heaven
Resultantly, it is no mystery that we have produced an endless variety of unquestioning, blindly obedient clones and thusly formulated the quotes:
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth''.
''Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted".
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - 1870-1924
RELIGIOUS and POLITICAL "LEADERS"
Some individuals think they have special powers to communicate with the "spirits."To ensure that their power will be further enhanced, the "spiritual leaders" instill fear and dread in their followers' minds and if they do not behave in a prescribed manner, and threaten them with punishment by their "God", either during their existing lives or when they die, by describing various forms of eternal damnation and punishment by roasting in hell for eternity.
These leaders have all gone to school or just understand the system called, "Need and Gratification" and applied it to their own particular "flock." Leaders can be socially beneficial to all people and in harmony with nature or fulfill their own lust for ego gratification, money and power. How do you tell the difference? We'll get to that later.
As history has shown us, at some point in time, there existed individuals that questioned the logic and sense of certain socio-religious ideologies and separated themselves from the group and its common beliefs and started their own groups or "flocks" as they are now commonly referred.
Leaders, come in all forms and at all levels of society: Presidents, CEOs, priests, dictators, employers, pastors, imams, monks, evangelists, generals, managers, supervisors, mayors, premiers, professors, landlords, et al. They all have one thing in common - they desire control over others, in as large a measure as possible. The more control and power they have, the more they tend to use it to fulfill and increase their own personal wealth and power.
About 100 years ago, Lord Acton, a British historian, said "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely". In simpler terms, a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. History has proven this statement to be consistently true.
The flock, imbued with blind obedience and unquestioning dependence on its "leaders", has been persuaded to believe that war, genocide and killing perceived enemies, is justified if done in the name of God, patriotism, political ambition, "pre-emptive defense" or Democracy.
Humans have suffered catastrophically in terms of kindness, tolerance, mercy and compassion. We are exclusively dedicated to our own personal comfort and survival and only when conscience or economics dictate, do we show concern for our fellow man.
Conclusion - In the short term, organized religion has already fostered and initiated the long, protracted process of self-extinction through worldwide divisiveness and intolerance.
In the long term, the combination of religion, ignorance, fear of death, language, generational disillusionment, saviours and eventually war, will allow us to self-exterminate. We can rape and pillage the earth and each other to a degree, but in the end, Mother Nature will rid herself of us. We are merely a fleeting, self destructive species that will vanish, leaving just a tiny bit of scar tissue that will disappear from all memory, in just a few decades.
No comments:
Post a Comment