(Edited; 7th Jan 2007: For easier reading. Enjoy.)

(Author’s note: I’ve submitted something similar to my college newsletter.)

Disclaimer: This author is a skeptical pro-Buddhist agnostic atheist-wannabe. She only wishes to express the obvious as objectively as possible, and she doesn’t care if narrow-minded fundamentalists call her an insensitive scientist (for want of better choice of diction in a lecturer-chaperoned student newsletter).

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A friend of mine, neowakko said:

“In my persepctive of the universal language, there is a god. There’s messages being sent out by something big. Really big. That’s “god”….or advanced alien civilisation.

I’m on a personal quest to find god’s true message. Cause I believe that every single one of his prophets’ followers messed it up. Humans seem to have this flaw of feeling the need for rituals. So far, I think god condemns all religion. He didn’t give us one, he gave us a way of life.

There’s a huge difference.

The way of life, is truly universal, and efficient. Religion takes your time making you do stupid rituals.”

~

And I say:

a) My take on “God”:

Some say there is a God. And then it became up to them to brainwash those who disagree, by saying things like: “God loves you. It’s up to you to believe in Him or not, but He already gave out big fat warnings such as, ‘don’t believe in Me and it’ll be your fault that you go to Hell.’

Yes, yes, I point out what I hear from Christian fanatics with a very nasty finger and I apologize for my bluntness.

But think about this:

Why should you have faith in another being when you have no faith in yourself?

I have faith in myself, which in why God doesn’t exist. Then some people would ask me: “Can’t you have both faith in Him and yourself?” And I would question back: “Is there a need to, when I already have myself to believe in?”

He didn’t give you the answers you were looking for. You meditated in your prayers, and you found them, in God’s name.

Personally, I don’t think any “messages” are being sent out by “something big”. All theories/philosophies/concepts/ideologies are thought up by humankind. If you were to say that those messengers/prophets had to have someone/something to tell them what they told you about, think again.

They were the ones who told you about all these bollocks in the first place. They were humans. I know this sound cliché-like, but really, if God(s) was to be almighty, why can’t He tell people whatever He wants to tell, Himself? Let people decide if they want to listen to Him or not.

I make my life’s changes. Not any higher beings. And even after knowing their mistakes, people still mess up; people still get lost.

Is it because of fate or destiny that things screw up? Or is it because people took the wrong turn?

I don’t think there’s such a thing as a “wrong” turn. God’s will, they say. Irresponsibility, I say. Life is so many roads not taken. Treat your life like railroad tracks. Look ahead of you. You can make that change before it’s too late. Just switch the tracks. The next station would always be different.

I’ve switched a lot of tracks before. That’s how I became what I am.

~

b) My take on religion:

Here, the context of religion goes by definition.

Ref: Your friendly dictionary

re•li•gion Audio pronunciation of “religion” ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-ljn) n.

1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
2. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
3. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
4. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
5. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

~

i) Power-hungry behemoths:

First of all, I find religion a form of empowerment. Manipulation. Globalization. People do things in the name of religion. How many religious leaders have gradually misconstrued the main message passed from the original founders? A person can make himself heard out loud through religion. And to do that, there are such things as organized religions.

Yes, “organized” ones. I think that they successfully made the whole religion business messier with redundant labels. An excellent example would be from that of Christianity. In Christianity, there is Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Baptist, Episcopalism, Lutheranism, Methodist, Pentecostalism, Presbyterian, and Jesus knows what else.

Did the original founder, Jesus, even differentiate his teachings into at least 9 variations in the first place? I wonder.

And recently, two Christian missionaries approached my friend (not neowakko) and me at a playground. One of them said something that sounded like: “There is a new church in town. Are you a Christian? Oh, you are? Whatever. I just want to recruit you into our church and we have this brand new testament here. Yes, it’s the all-knowing Bible. All your queries about Christianity will be answered. All cynics will be proven wrong in our bible. Yes, I’m sure, dammit. Our branch of Christianity is the one true one! No, no, please don’t go. Just give me your number and I’ll convince you further later, okay? A school bus’s here. I have to rush off to brainwash other innocent kids now.”

They seriously need to read Marketing for Dummies.

If religion’s main purpose is to serve as life’s guideline, then why should its advocates recruit followers at all? And they say “Listen to me”, as if they hold the keys to the absolute truth. Religion is, after all, man made. Man has manipulated it however he wants to.

What is the truth now?

~

ii) Dogmatic megalomaniacs and morality:

Religions in this world are often dogmatic. You’re obligated to not question them and I find that that made the question of morality a lot more complicated than it originally was.

Is that how you’re supposed to live life with religion? To accept and not ask? To acquiesce and not disagree to reach a mutual understanding of truth?

If you were to take only religion as your moral guardian, you really have no stand of your own. The question of right or wrong is liable to our conscience and conscience for the normal human being rarely varies. I’m sure many people can tell right from wrong. It’s only the matter of how well they maintain their integrity. Besides, all theories from religion have been studied by generations for years.

Einstein once said: “There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair.”¹

People should think more than speak instead.

Then again, not everyone shares the conventional idea of what is moral and what is not. So maybe laws came from religion. Perhaps this is why religion is in high esteem. With that, perhaps religion still has its role in maintaining the stability of the human constitution.

To me, that’s all it’s worth today. Be the chaperon of this teenage angst-ridden world. So many people are still stuck to their teenage years.

But we’re now in an age where concepts of religions are almost cliché-like, where you can actually think up those theories/philosophies/concepts/ideologies on your own, if you contemplate on life deeply enough, as much as the original founders of religion.

It’s really all common sense, just open your minds and be receptive to different ideas.

~

iii) Evolution of the “panzees”:

So it’s true that religion is crucial for the evolution of human civilization. But that was a long time ago, the time when people were lost, and Chicken Soup for The Soul hasn’t been published yet. That was the age when self-actualization was not popular. People in the past did not have the hindsight they can easily acquire today.

~

iv) Fancy pointless rituals:

Most humans rely on rituals in order to be committed to a religion. Then again, are rituals parts of the teachings in a religion? What is the point of religion in the first place?

Religion was meant to be a guideline for life. So tell me, where do rituals come in here?

Some told me that rituals show you what’s the right thing to do, and make sure that you’re on the right path, to give you some form of insurance in the Afterlife.

But would rituals teach you anything about life?

What is the right path? You don’t need any religion to tell you what it is. Again, use common sense, please. Learn from experience. Learn from others.

~

v) Controversial “God” and “history”:

I don’t think the issue of religion would be so sensitive and controversial if religion does not bring in the entity of God(s). As I’ve mentioned, I think religions are practically unjustified dogmatic beliefs.

We really don’t know the authenticity of the foundation of these religions.

Thinking that you know and knowing that something’s real for sure are two different matters.

If you were to refer to scriptures, you have to bear in mind that scriptures are man-made. Therefore, religion is man-made. History is questionable. Too many historians practice ethnocentrism. History was never really based on facts.

It’s mostly based on the opinions of those who survived the war.

Those in power.

How many times have history texts of different nations told different stories?

~

vi) Big fat holes with loops:

There are too many loopholes in religions. Every religion deals with the Afterlife. There is no empirical evidence on the existence of the Afterlife. It’s all mainly faith and beliefs.

Blind faith, if you ask me. People tend to focus so much in what would happen that they forget to live life as the way it should be:

Naturally. Go with the flow.

Life was never all that complex to start with. The human mind made it complicated.

Is the matter of the Afterlife that crucial?

Why can’t humans focus more on the present instead of the future?

This is one big reason why many people fail to focus in creating world peace. Happiness is found in the present. Not in the past nor the future.

With so many religions focusing on what comes after life, and thereby telling you what to do with this life, what kind of healthy guidelines are those?

~

vii) Anti-risk-taking fundamentalists:

Some people lose their sense of identity when they fully delve into a particular religion, as if they’re chained to it. Moreover, their thinking has the tendency to become rigid and unreceptive of different ideas.

Anyway, I don’t think the people of today actually need religion. They don’t need to bind themselves to any religion at all. Since that the core of each religions are established, people can learn from them without binding themselves to it. They can seek knowledge, even if it simply means by asking around. If any philosophy of any religion makes perfect sense to you, great, apply it to your life. From there, derive what you need to know, and meditate on its truth on your own.

It’s the understanding of the concepts that matters.

Generations have evolved. Civilizations today have changed to a point where religion is actually not needed.

Can’t the modern human beings (especially the post-modern ones) start telling what common sense is, on their own?

Do they really need religion as guidelines? Why bother so much about religion?

And now, what’s the purpose of religion, if man can think for himself?

~

c) My final say:

I’m not saying that religion is bad. Organized religion is just not that good for the soul.

You see, religion is probably one of the most brilliant business ideas ever thought up to manipulate the world economics. And the best way to control mankind for good is to hunt down the first person (living or dead, I don’t know) who came up with the concept of religion, extract that evil bit of DNA from them, and incorporate it with my DNA for modern use.

:o)

Whoever the father/mother of religion was, they must be an ingenious mastermind.

Just the other day, after a philosophy talk under the eccentric name of “Udder of Thoughts”, I asked Jothi (a rather controversial scientist) on his view of the stand of religion in the future world.

He told me that religion will never die, as long as devious manipulative businessmen survive evolution.

Amen to that.

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Footnotes:
¹ ‘The World As I See It.’ Einstein, Philosophical Library, New York, 1949, pp. 28-29

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My more recent view on religion in general: Part 2