issues, questions, and possibilities

Why is it that so many people believe organized religions?

People are scared. Whether they deny it or not, they are scared. They have been thrown into this life by the powers that be and look for some sort of foundation as security. That security is interpreted (subconsciously and consciously) as "whatever is popular is right." If there's a church on every corner then the church must have something good and true to say. Hell, if billions believe it then it must have some validity, right? Those chapels are mighty pretty, yes - there's something holy about them, something divine.

These people are not stupid or ignorant, they are simply human beings who have fallen to the games of their mind. Fear is an animal emotion, and whether one realizes it or not, it is the cause of false beliefs in fake gods. Just as the Greeks had their gods, we have GOD today. GOD who will bring you here only to judge you. GOD who will cut you down if you are too human or go against the commandments of antiquity.

The problem of organized religion is a problem with no immediate source. It is a problem fed my misinterpretations, ego-infused mindsets, animal emotions, and the passing down of falsehoods from one generation to the next. It is the pain of being an animal that has people rushing to believe something better must exist. This is also the reason poverty stricken people tend to have stronger religious convictions. They want to have faith that a time of prosperity is drawing closer with each passing day. It is also why the wealthy tend to feign true, devote religion. They are so satisfied with this life (for the wrong reasons) that they give up any efforts towards something else sustainable.

In truth, hope in the future, hope in another life, and hope in a heaven will only bring one temporary and false security (just as money does with the rich) and take he or she out of the true life that surrounds them. When they reach that future, they will wind up just as dead, with no heaven to comfort them. Why believe in those things unknowable and unprovable when life at its core has so much to offer?

And why the hostility towards those who question today's prominent religions?

Those who question Christianity, Islam, etc. pose a threat. Not a threat to the divine order of things as those followers would have you believe, but a threat to their own comfort and security. When you tell someone who has all but convinced themselves that there is a specific God, a Heaven, and a Hell - that what they believe is bollocks - they resist. Why? Because you're showing them reality. You're telling them that beauty, serenity, and peace are not something of tomorrow, they are something of today, if you reach for them. You're telling them that they can no longer find comfort in an untrue future written by men of the past. You're telling them that they are animal and that they will always be animal because they are an animal in the now. And now is all there is.

Witchcraft doesn't exist. Magic doesn't exist. Rituals do not work. Praying does not work. It's a fierce reality, but it is reality that must be accepted one way or another if people are to truly live. I will tell you that you're dead loved one is not in Heaven (or, for that matter, Hell). I will tell you that praying for someone who is ill is worth nothing, accept to comfort the griever. Throwing a penny in a wishing well and making a wish will most likely not bring you that wish. If that wish does come to you it is from your own doing. Do not thank the well. Thank yourself.

If you tell people there's no such thing as good luck and bad, right and wrong, they get defensive. Because they must question all they thought they knew. Nature does not know superstitions, it only knows balance. Just as you should give yourself credit for achieving your wishes and goals, you should give unknowable Nature credit for your being, not a fake God seeking only to judge, condemn, or save you.

Nature is a product of God, no?

No. God is Nature. All things, no matter how synthetic, come from it. We are it and we need it to survive. Nature is not something "God" created, Nature is God. One thing that is truly amazing is how far astray we have been led in regards to nature. It's almost as though we think ourselves above it. You are nature through and through. Your species, the human race, evolved in it and you now survive off it. No matter how far humanity gets in its evolutionary progress, it will never escape the fact that everything it does, everything it is, and everything it senses is Nature - a phenomenon, and nothing else. The Earth is not simply a disposable structure made for our endless use. It is a necessity. Men would not be able to walk if it weren't for their legs. Men would not be able to think if it weren't for the complexity of their brains. Apples would not taste good if it weren't for the intricate taste buds on men's tongues. These were not given to you by some other. They simply have evolved out of that thing undefinable, that thing called Nature.

Humanity has forgotten what it means for something to be natural. Something natural is something undefinable. And why define something you can't define? Let it be and realize that some of the most profound things in life - life itself, most notably - have no need for a definition. Life asks nothing of you but to live. Your body wants nothing more than to work... work so that you may experience this life in this body, and so on.

Faith gives people hope? What's wrong with that?

There's nothing wrong with hope. But someone who is truly fulfilled and grateful for their existence has no need for hope. No matter what arrives at their doorstep, they can see the beauty in it. Only those who are unfulfilled have to hope. Of course, being fulfilled is no easy step. After all, it would be hard to accept something like terminal cancer as just a fact of life, with no Heaven after for comfort. But one must see the overall picture, the idea of a truly vast universe with an unbelievable amount of life. Those consciousnesses must be filled. Filled with you.

And although reincarnation is not provable, life is regenerating all around us. It may not be hardcore evidence, but one could see it as a sign. The infinite amount of animals, bugs, and plants show that life is constantly going and returning. Nothing is permanent, yet nothing is truly impermanent. Energy - whatever it truly is - will always find a new place to lie, if even for the brief moment that is life.

Faith in itself isn't bad. We must have faith in things. Like ourselves, our friends... our faucets to pour or our cars to work. But false faith, that is faith in things which have no proof whatsoever, is wasted time... wasted faith.

There was an eclipse recently in Asia. In India, the superstitious were performing all sorts of rituals to ward off the evils they thought that eclipse would bring. Take the frame back a second and you'll see that such rituals are wasted energy, wasted faith. A bunch of people waving sticks in the air and shouting things while wearing bright, colorful paint will not ward off "evil energy" from an eclipse. Just as praying to a God will not save a loved one, and eating a piece of bread that's supposed to represent Jesus' flesh doesn't mean anything. In the end you are only dancing around and shouting, talking to yourself, and... eating a piece of bread. Or, in other words, experiencing life... So why not just experience life without all the strings attached, without all the incentives and wasted energy.

This is one major problem with the organized religious of today. They hear what they want and filter out whatever it is that disagrees with what they think. When someone prays for a loved one and they get better, they automatically thank God and assume that he must have had some part in it. When they pray for a loved one and that person dies, they say something like "it was his time" or "God wanted him." That is insane. It doesn't make any sense. And it is truly and clearly picking and choosing for the comfort of one's own mind. It is selfish. If a loved one survives something like say, an accident, it was not God who saved them. It was their own effort to live on and the chance of nature. It was random. It was spontaneous. It was not destined. It was not written. By the same token, if 35 people die in a tornado, God didn't "have better plans for them." They died because those things happen. Because the tornado had to hit someone's house. The tornado was not on any set path, it was simply going on a natural course in a natural world.

And in that natural world, humans reign supreme, yes?

Yes and no. Human beings are at the top of the food chain. There is no denying that. Our evolution has far surpassed that of other animals. We have created cities, made art, and proposed all sorts of scientific theories. That doesn't come easy. We do reign supreme, but it is was not set by anything divine.

The fact you are in a human body is most likely chance. I say most likely, because as one who is at the top of the food chain, one who has the unique ability to think and reason, it is impossible to say without a shadow of a doubt that any other animal exists by free will as we do. The fact remains that most of the world's creatures are on an entirely different plane than humans. That isn't to say a lower plane, but most definitely a different one. Animals live by instinct, a natural sort of urge to grow, survive, and eventually reproduce. Humans, as animals, do too. But the ability to think and reason and the presence of a powerful mind gives us an entirely different playing field. It makes us stronger in ways and weaker in others.

We have risen to great heights because of our minds, but we have also created a mind-world where superstitions, conspiracies, false beliefs and all out paranoid madness persist. Our mind has given us a lot as humans, but it has taken a lot of life away from us, too.

Babies have simpler minds and because of that they live more for the now. Animals have simpler minds, and they too, live for the now. Adults, however, get lost in the world our collective mind has created, and thus, a vicious cycle has started, where generation by generation we get more and more lost in an illusion of the right and wrong ways to live life.

Humans have the capability to be the best creature on earth, but also the potential to be the worst. Like we respect ourselves, we must respect others, human or not. Reincarnation most likely does exist. If you are living one life and are surrounded by an infinite amount of other life, it can be assumed (though it is not provable) that life does continue. After all, you're a part of it now and you know it continues after you leave this body. So why believe you won't tag along for the ride?

The form you take may be unknown, but that doesn't mean you won't be taking one. What exactly reincarnation means, or if it is influenced by say, karma, is too unknown. As of now there seems to be two options in relation to animal life: 1. animals are controlled by some sort of natural force and have no real, complete, controllable consciousness. And 2. they are just like you and I, but with less developed brains, more instinct, and more life. Either way, the chances are you have experienced and will experience a vast array of lives in a vast array of inconceivable or predictable bodies. Just think about how truly unique this life is. From polka music to calamari - this world is strange/great/unique.

And in this world live many plants and creatures. Whether or not plants can sense is a true mystery. I'm inclined to say no (although no one knows for sure). There most likely just a part of our vast, singular, Earth, which is living, breathing, and providing day and night continuously. But it is safe to say by most accounts that the animals that live on that Earth are just as aware as you and I, and that they are just as much alive. We must not forget that in the end we are part of the animal kingdom. We share more similarities with animals than differences. They live among us and experience the world, but from a different perspective. They are not here for us, but with us. Just as the Earth is not here to serve us, but to help us along on the journey of life.

More random issues, questions, and possibilities to come...