Religion is not the answer.

#1 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 10:45 AM

As the years have gone by, I have been confused, scared, angry, sometimes even suicidal at the hypocrisies and hatred surrounding the Christian faith. Like many teenagers, I started looking a different religions, trying to find something that fits, but I never really found anything that was "just right" for me.
Eventually I turned to Atheism, because I just couldn't see how, if there is a just and loving God, all the horrible atrocious things that happened in the world (and to me) could have gone unpunished. But in my heart it wasn't true, because I could still feel something there. Something unexplained, but influential, if ever so slightly.
In college, everything started to change. I admit, there was a lot of experimental drug use, but I wasn't aware of just exactly what was happening to me at the time. I was opening a new spiritual door, one that still stands open today. With the use of experimental substances, meditation, and all around questioning and contemplation, I was following the same methods used in many different cultures around the world, for thousands of years, to increase my awareness and understanding of an encompassing Presence in the Universe. Through these methods I have come to know and (partially) understand what it is that connects us all at a spiritual and emotional level.
Let's take a moment to look at this phrase: "Thou shalt not use God's name in vain."
What do you suppose that means? There is the dogmatic answer of course, that one should not use God's name in a derogatory manner, saying things such as "goddamn" and "jesus christ" to express frustration and anger. However, I don't find that to be the right answer in the least. What I believe, is that the name of God itself is not to be uttered flippantly, and without just cause, otherwise it loses the meaning and power behind it. It becomes just another word. Herein lies the reason I have no name for what I've found to be present in all of us. But to avoid being too vague, I will stick with the over-used "god". Maybe in the future I'll find a better word.
Let us also look at the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves." I believe this holds the key to my own questioning (and no doubt yours) of a just and loving god, and how things can go so wrong in the world. When I was a child I used to pray; pray that God wouldn't let my parents beat me again, pray that they would show me some love, pray that I wouldn't feel like a mistake. It never happened, so one day I stopped praying. It took me until a few years ago to understand why. First of all, if my parents HADN'T beaten me and abused me, I wouldn't be the kind of person I am today. I would be a entirely different, most likely the kind of person that I don't like. But mainly, God didn't swoop in and answer all my prayers because that's not what God does. It's not a human-like figure sitting on a cloud watching you. If anything it's more of a wild animal, one that contains our entire existence inside of It. (And as a side note, we contain Its entire existence within ourselves

I think the Beatles said it best with "Try to realize it's all within yourself No-one else can make you change. And to see you're really only very small, and life flows on within you and without you.")
So God is within us all, we are within it...I am he, as you are he, and you are me, and we are all together (GOO GOO G’JOOB Josh). Under my physical body, I'm the same as anything else around me. Everything is everything. Really that makes us quite limitless doesn't it? So why restrain all of that creativity and potential with a set of rules to live by, created by someone OTHER than yourself?

--------------- Added 10 Jul 2008 at 11:12 am ---------------

YouTube - The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows

**Opunaya** · 07-10-2008, 11:26 AM

Hmmm...I don't know.

07-10-2008, 11:33 AM

-shrugs- Think about it.

**Opunaya** · 07-10-2008, 11:38 AM

Your last paragraph reminds me of the quote: "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."

I don't know because I've tried everything you mentioned: Prayer, doing things on my own, etc. and still all my results are nil...I've become a darker person...not brighter, my own essence tainted just from me existing.

Stossel · 07-10-2008, 11:46 AM

And I'm not doing so well on feeling out something more powerful than the own world I live in. Call me crazy, I just have a short attention span. I can't focus long enough to sit and think anymore, and really I'm just looking to make it through the times where I'm alone.

But this isn't the place for where I'm taking that, so I really have only "yeah" to say. Because I'm shallow and stuff.

07-10-2008, 11:50 AM

Hah, well, you can't hide from it forever.

Remember, the kingdom of Heaven is within you.
Your body is your temple,
Your mind is the Prophet.

I'm not by any means trying to tell you how to live your spiritual life though.
If I did I would be no better than the organized religions I condemn.

**Opunaya** · 07-10-2008, 12:01 PM

Like hell I can't ignore it.

07-10-2008, 12:13 PM

You can try

But you know it's there, lurking in your heart.
Maybe it pops out once in a while when you're laying bed in those last moments before sleep.

**Opunaya** · 07-10-2008, 12:25 PM

No, the only thing there is the aching realization that I'm probably going to be in that bed alone, forever...

Stossel · 07-10-2008, 12:25 PM

The thing that usually comes to mind is exactly how much I didn't accomplish that day, and how much I won't the last day. I've managed without a good serious meditation on religion...I just feel like I've heard it all. I dunno. I just live, if barely at all.