Spirituality

I think you and your legacy, are grossly overrated! While I really hope never to be one of those people, who can't even talk about you without getting red in the face, the idea of you as kindness and mercifulness personified is just a little too hard to digest. Its a bit too hard to reconcile the demonic mind reading ogre of the bible, who obsesses over the daily thoughts and actions of all of mankind, with a ps he really loves you viewpoint. There aren't too many people around now who are content to pay, pray and obey. People are so widely travelled, free to soak up, and acquaint themselves with many different ideologies and value systems. How arrogant it is to dismiss these beliefs. I think it is entirely honest to put your hands up, and say you just don't know if there is an afterlife or not.

Anyway, I think I would much prefer to go to hell anyway. If everyone who disobeyed church teaching is hell bound, then hell is going to be crammed full of spirited people with a mind of their own and the conviction to back it up. I think I'd much rather spend eternity there, rather than upstairs saying non stop rosaries with mother teresa & co. With all the elaborate religious doctrines, can someone please tell me what the hell you do all day? An eternity of boredom, does not seem like a prize worthy enough, of a lifetime of self denial and repression.

This also brings me neatly to the relationship between eternity and a human life. Its ridiculous to think that on the basis of one life, be it very long or short, that someone's eternal fate is sealed. If someone had been kind, decent and giving every single day of their life, and lived long, I still don't think it justifies an eternity of a reward, conversely even Hitler and every other evil maniac you can think of, don't deserve an eternity of fire and brimstone. Sure, give them a couple of trillion years, but not forever and ever without end. Also, what about those people who died prematurely, who really did'nt get much of a run at life?

We know for a fact that the earth is tens of millions years old, (actually estimated to be 13 billion years old), and yet because of the Christian calendar, we tend to think of it merely in terms of just a few mellenia. There is an awful big gap in between. There is so much that could have happened, and has been lost in the abyss of time. Could it be possible that in a thousand years from now, we will look back on Christianity, Judaism, islam and all the others as condescendingly as we now look back on the beliefs of the ancient greeks?

I can almost safely make the prediction, that even as today we can see the slow disinegration of the big monotheistic religions, and the slow rise of others (scientology,various new age sects etc) that the world will keep on turning. Even if we try to destroy the world through global warming or nucleur methods, that the earth will slowly regenerate herself. In the absense of gods, what next will we look to for the source of explanations, which so many of us seem to crave?

I also realise that it would not have been possible to raise any questions of religious doubt, centuries ago it would have led to death and then later and more recently social ostracism. So, a lot of people shut their mouths and closed their minds, and continued to pay, pray and obey. Some have said that the church comes in for too much criticism. I can't really accept this, as criticism of them, and their practices is still a relatively new phenomenon. Then agan why should any cult or belief system, which cloaks itself with the mantle title of religion, be automatically elevated to a position where criticism of any kind is not allowed, and all rhetoric can only go one way?

The masses are free thinking, independent and analytical (for the most part) and so a confrontation with an imposing dogmatic set of beliefs is inevitable. Religion for me equals brainwashing and relentless programming, you are born into a belief system, brought up in a particular society, go to religious school etc. We are social animals and people feel the need to identify with, and belong to a certain group. On digital tv there is an islamic channel,catholic channel and a few other channels emanating from the bible belt, with a heavy emphasis on screaming and dogged ranting. Its interesting to see how many similarities there are between them.

With great certainty and conviction, they recite the same things again and again to an unquestioning audience, who are devoted and steadfastly loyal to whichever camp they are in. If you notice, there is seldom any dialogue, the flow of conversation is almost always one way. Its a huge brainwashing process, but who is worse, the charismatic priest, preacher or imaan, or the happy clapping morons on the receiving end?

When I was younger, there was no debate, you were going to mass on Sunday at 9am final! That sort of force, doesn't exactly engender any great connection. You go to mass because you want to, you are desiring of that time for contemplation and reflection. It often seemed to me that most of the people who went to mass were just perpetuating the custom they were brought up with, and Sunday mass was a convenient way for the community to meet and gossip. There was very little substance!

Although, on the occasions lately that I have wanted to go to mass, I would inevitably fall out of the chair while exercising, or drinking a cup of tea (yes my trunk muscles are becoming that unstable), and the thought of worshipping someone who suffered for a few hours didnt seem too appealing, while I and a lot of others are being crucified daily. Compared to the plethora of problems and obstacles which we humans go through, every single day, the suffering of jesus for a few hours is absolutely insignificant!

Sacrilege? Maybe, or just maybe I'm onto something and there is some method to my madness. You don't have much choice about the family or belief system you are born into and raised with. In my humble opinion, all organised religions are cults, pue and simple. They get you while you are young (mostly through their control of schools) and keep a firm hold through sociaL pressure during life. How many people do you know who chose their own belief system? I was born into the catholic cult, but could not call myself a catholic now, even though it is a very rich tradition, and it did bring me comfort at one time, but certainly not much anymore.

I have a relation, heavily into the charismatic movement. He has a fundamentalist based, black and white attitude, but I know that if he had been born in Palestine for example, and indoctrinated with that particular brand of fundamentalism, that he would be strapping bombs onto himself and walking into bus stops, taking as many innocent people with him as possible, thinking he was doing a glorious and heroic deed.

Once a belief system starts organizing and exerting control over people's minds then some very strange and terrible things can happen. I remember watching cnn, after pope john paul II had died. They interviewed a man, who said he had left the church after Humanae Vitae, the encyclical which marked the church's opposition to artificial birth control. He saw it as a sign that the church wanted control of the person from conception to the grave.

Lets examine the evidence,
(a) you were born into a good close family while so many others have been scarred by incest, abuses both physical and mental of all sorts. There are many people still trying to overcome the legacy of being raised by a repressive unit, or maybe there was no "unit" thanks to divorce or sickness. There are so many stories of the nightmarish conditions that so many people have gone through day in day out, left with festering scars that may take a long time to redress or heal if they are lucky.

(b) You had physical & mental health unlike so many of us here that are trapped in bodies and minds which can be like prisons, with no possibility of parole.

(c)You had lots of friends and a good support system. OK you had one friend who betrayed you at the end, but I/12 isn't bad. You never knew that terrible empty feeling of going through life all alone, of having no one to turn to when times get tough.

(d) You died young. You didn't have to endure any of the negatives associated with the aging process, no cancers, alzheimers or hip replacements for you ( Bette Davis once said "old age aint for cissies" and she was dead right). So, you suffered a lot for a few hours. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant, but it certainly doesn't warrant mankind being on its knees in supplication for all of eternity.

(e) You lived a very sheltered life, lived at home with your parents,had no trials associated with bringing up kids............(let me know any more you can think of).

Indeed, the opposite scenario may be more true. I think most of us humans go through an awful lot more.Sometimes I feel that instead of the traditional notion of dying and being scrutinized and sentenced by jesus, that instead he is going to be meeting us with a big bottle of chamagne, to toast the fact that we MADE IT through all the ups and downs of life.

So it is obvious (to me at least)from all of this, that my problems and questions do not end with a resurrected christ, indeed they only begin with it.

I think religion performs a strictly social function. You worship in congregations, go to church meetings and groups. Issues become more black or white, you become more pro or anti. I think over the years, I have slowly factored god out of the equation, and it is not an easy thing to do. It seems an easier option to believe that there is a divine order to everything and that all things happen for a reason. You can wax very lyrical about god, but I think it is good that we are coming now into a post god age, where people stop looking outwards for a saviour, and start lookin