INTRO: Before introducing you to a pragmatic change that deals with God, religion and morality, we should examine what are the ingredients of thought that fall into the category characterized as philosophy?
To present a meaningful philosophic view, the philosopher should be able to relate his ideas to facts and experiences that logically lead to perceptive conclusions. However, an important part of philosophizing is the human element of love or empathy for humanity. To not include an answer or views that better our lives becomes an exercise without a purpose.
It is hoped that the following article will stimulate your thinking about God, religion and morality. The background of a constructive article on these subjects is a deep love for people. A love that is similar to the love of a mother and father in forming a sound foundation in their children to be able to cope with the many challenges of the future but also to develop a frame of mind able to comprehend how their lives can be more meaningful and satisfying.
I recently opened a book with just a sense of revisiting what I wrote. The book title is Allah, We, Our and Us. It was written to inform people about the religion of Islam, what is in the Qur’an, and unveil lies taught unsuspecting minds by Islamic religious leaders. An article featured on this post, Allah is Represented by a Party of Men, provides conclusive evidence that the Qur’an was written by religious leaders to command their followers. It unveils the lie that it is Allah as ‘We, Our and Us’ that commands armies of men to kill innocent people. The truth is that We, Our and Us is a party of fanatical religious men who speak for Allah. Their objective is to create an Islamic Theocratic Empire under the control of one world religion – Islam.
Religions Must Change to be Relevant for Humanity
The commentary and conclusions presented in Allah, We. Our and Us would not be complete without providing some perceptive thoughts about the Islamic religion from an outstanding author of religions and history, D.M. Murdock/Acharaya S. She has written numerous books and articles and voiced her insights on many talk shows. Unfortunately she passed away last year. Below are her concluding paragraphs extracted from her article, The Origins of Islam.[1]
“If this planet’s inhabitants would simply become educated to the origins of their traditions in full, we could live in a world of tremendous beauty and knowledge, as opposed to ugly, superstitious and repressive ideologies that are exclusionary and bigoted. Islam arose because of the repression of Christianity and Judaism, as well as an unbalanced female-oriented culture. Like those traditions, Islam is utterly out of balance, and we may all suffer for it, particularly if the predictions come true that Islam will be the most dominant religion in the world in the next decades.
As previously stated, there are few non-Muslim women or men who would wish to live in such a world. Because of this aversion, we would expect to see in the future innumerable ghastly battles and wars waged in the name of one god or another, as has happened far too often in the past, especially with these monotheistic Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All told, these three are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, so why are they deemed “Great religions?” The “greatest” thing about them is their death toll.
If this world is to survive into the coming age, we will need as many people as possible to drop all of these divisive doctrines. What we need on this planet, right now, are honest, caring and whole human beings who are motivated not by potential favors and rewards from sadistic and ethnocentric deities in the sky but by innate decency and integrity. Only in this way can we all live in peace rather than fear, which is the weapon wielded by religion to convert the faithful.”
The concluding thoughts by Acharaya surfaces the question, should the monotheistic religion institutions be preserved within a civilized society or are they all by nature myths that propound dogma that causes discontent, division, and hate with the eventual action of violence and death of many innocent people? It is clear that although the Judaic and Christian religions have a history of wars and the killing of millions of lives, it appears they have extinguished the desire to increase their membership through coercion and by forceful expansion of their faith.
In contrast with the Judaic and Christian faiths of today, Islamic religious and political ruling leaders continue to apply a theocratic government of control with the objective to unify people of all countries under one common reality defined as the ummah. The Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr has defined the ummah as “the totality of different ethnic and cultural groups of people who are Muslims that constitute the Islamic world. The ummah may be characterized as a single religious community bound by a sense of brotherhood so emphasized by the Qur’an and the Prophet.”[2]
The leaders in free democratic countries have become vigilant of the insidious indoctrination by Islamic religious leaders and forceful expansion of Islam by Muslim extremists. In Allah, We, Our and Us a list of atrocities of men, women and children killed by extremist Muslims are listed in Appendix 1. It is conclusive proof that it is the Qur’an, Sharia law, and the Sunnah that work together to cause discontent by protesters in many countries experiencing Islamic expansion. There is no doubt that Islamic religious leaders use the Qur’an as an instrument to indoctrinate the minds of people to commit murder and suicide to further the ummah objective using Allah as the authoritative source.
The solution is clear. The Qur’an must be revised to eliminate the abominations it advocates. Allah, We, Our and Us provides recommendations to assist religious leaders of the monotheistic religions to work together. It can do no more than to define the problem and propose a solution, which is short of advocating forceful overthrow of the religious institution by the millions of followers.
Having reviewed the state of discontent predominantly induced by Muslim extremists, let us return to the question; are religions necessary for any civilization in light of the discontent they create around the world? To answer this question it becomes necessary to examine why religions have become a vital institution throughout the world since mankind started living together in communities.
Is it practical to do away with our religious institutions? They do serve a purpose to provide moral instruction to growing minds and reinforce the ideals of truth, justice, and righteousness. But aren’t these attributes the ones originally taught by the Egyptian priesthood? Was not Egypt the greatest civilization that left a legacy of not only the belief in one universal God and left extraordinary monuments, pyramids, and temples that have been emulated by the Greeks and Romans? The Egyptian religion served to make Egypt one of the greatest empires of the past. However, the Egyptian religion was corrupted and changed by other groups of people who wanted their own god to be supreme. The arrogance of leaders to gain power by the application of the tenets of a man-made god has worked in the past but it is with a painful truth that they have used the belief in God to further their ambitions to expand their power, wealth and control over people of other countries.
So why continue with the belief that society needs religious institutions to promote morality, decency, respect, and cooperation among their people? The religious institutions are, in a way, surrogate parents who guide those who are not blessed with parents that are capable of being fine role models that teach the Word of God. Unfortunately, many parents and unwed couples are stressed with the hardships of making a living or unable to raise a child with the morals and integrity needed for society to function and prosper as an integrated unit. This void can be fulfilled by a religious institution that has representatives of God groomed to guide others with the teaching of morality and love for others.
The other benefit of having a religious institution within a society is that it provides a uniform code of conduct that cannot be provided by the scientific method or by educational institutions that develop their own perceptions with a multiple of different approaches. The code of conduct to achieve honesty and integrity with the concern for compassion and assistance of others has been developed through the thousands of years of interaction between people who have devised rules for a peaceful society. Leaders within a society have realized that rules of conduct were essential for the viable function of its citizens and state. Hence, the spirit of mankind, which is the inherent desire to love and be loved, has evolved the conception of a God that has created all there is. It is this God they desire to please by following His commands of morality and someday share His eternal presence. This novel idea is the capstone of many religions; the possibility of joining their god after death for an eternity of love, peace and happiness.
Today, people have become more educated and are able to discern what is best for them. However, after thousands of years that righteous men evolved codes of conduct, it would be foolish to do away with religious instruction that reinforces the attributes of truth, integrity, love and compassion for others. These attributes were not found by the application of the scientific method but by experience of hard knocks in the real world.
Although there are many intellectuals who believe they can conduct their lives without having a moral code instilled in young minds to lay the foundations of morality that guides reason and logic, they must not forget that the mind is conditioned just as an athlete’s body is conditioned to perform well. If people were to devise their own code of conduct with their various preferences and individuality the result will be a quixotic world with a mix of values that will cause more confusion and discontent.
Therefore, in answer to the above question, it is this author’s contention that religion does serve a purpose within a society. However, that religion must be led by men of God who are perceptive to realize that their long held dogma of beliefs must be revised. Changes are needed to benefit their followers by employing one sole command from a man of God that stated it three times – love one another. This command has many implications and is at the root of all relationships to promote one’s happiness with others. It requires sincerity, truthfulness, compassion, and love to be a prime motivator for one’s decisions throughout life whereby relationships become more solid, meaningful, and wholesome.
Can religious leaders of the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic religions work out a way to unify the belief in one universal God? It may appear to be an insane idea to believe these representatives of God can work together. Yet, this is the only logical solution for as religious leaders it is their mandate to teach the Word of God. They may continue to do nothing, which will result in the eventual collapse of their religion, destruction of human life, and possibly our planet. The alternative is to work together to dispense with religious dogma made up of myths and revise the Scriptures that will further the spiritual nature of mankind.
Another reason it is not practical to do away with our religious institutions is that human beings do have a spiritual nature. They will always reflect and think about how did our star, our galaxy, the millions of galaxies and their billions of stars come to exist? They will always think of an unknown entity or force they conceptualize as God being responsible for their existence and all that has been created in the universe.
Was it energy or was it matter that first formed the first atom, the building block of all organic and inorganic matter? No scientist knows; even though they love to start with the “Big Bang,” a concept that they have concocted without knowing how the first atom was formed. They may determine someday that there is a force, a consciousness that pervades our universe. If so, human beings are thinking organisms that stimulate a consciousness energized by the building blocks of atoms that formed all things. It may be this inherent consciousness of humans that tries to reach out and understand the cosmos from whence it originated.
In Sigmund Freud’s book, The Future of an Illusion, he states that a psychologist does not deceive himself about the difficulty of finding one’s bearings in this world but makes an endeavor to assess the development of man, in light of the small portion of knowledge he has gained through a study of the mental processes of individuals during their development from child to adult. In so doing, the idea forces itself upon him that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis, and he is optimistic enough to suppose that mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis.[3]
Freud goes on to state that the primacy of the intellect is in the distant future, but probably not in an infinitely distant one. A future whereby the same aims one expects from beliefs in God are achieved, namely, the love of man and the decrease of suffering. He then criticizes religion for advocating a state of bliss begins directly after death and writes his God promises no compensation for us, who suffer grievously from life. Freud foresees that on the way to that distant goal of eternal bliss, religious doctrines will have to be discarded, no matter whether the first attempts fail, or whether the first substitutes prove to be untenable. His conclusion is that in the long run nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction which religion offers to both is all too palpable.
The logic Freud provides has its merits but he fails to acknowledge the thousands of years of experience acquired by mankind to develop rules of conduct. True, those rules of conduct have been embodied in the framework of religious dogma, such as the thirty-seven protestations of guiltlessness the ka of a dead Egyptian professes before Osiris and the forty-two protestations he appeals before the posthumous court of judges to convince them he is worthy of eternal happiness.[4] The moral code of conduct was followed by the Egyptians over two thousand years before they were engraved on the temple walls of the Eighteenth Dynasty, 1580-1350 BCE. Much of it has been tailored by Moses to become part of the commandments he set down in stone and wrote in his Book of the Covenant.[5] Experience by mankind to formulate a moral code of morality, truth and righteousness provides the tested ways a society may function in harmony as its citizens have the same expectations of right and wrong.
The next phase of spiritual development of mankind is to pressure and force religious leaders to forego the myths and dogma that utilized the concepts of fear (hell) and reward (heaven) and replace them with the Word of God – love one another. This new approach must embrace knowledge acquired by the sciences and logical, ethical thinking, based upon reason and compassion that improves the lives of our sisters and brothers around the world.
The spiritual nature of man will always exist because of a consciousness that pervades the universe and has manifested its essence in the intellect of human beings. It has allowed us to think of the greatest inventions and innovations unknown to man only a few hundred years ago. It was the creative ability of the mind by our greatest inventors that has built a reality we enjoy today. Who ever thought we could talk to each other miles apart and yet see each other’s face? We enjoy television and the computer as a natural way to receive news, entertainment, and are many times more productive. See my Homepage post, Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe?
Yes, science has been a way to improve our reality but the spiritual nature of mankind will forever endure as it is our minds that help us to create our world. Therefore, God, that unknown force will continue to be a part of the thinking mind. However, let us use our minds to make that God proud of his creations by living decent, trustful and loving lives. Perhaps, someday, we may live long enough to travel to other parts of our galaxy and find there are other creatures of God that may enhance our knowledge. Let us dispel fear of the unknown and be optimistic that we may be able to enjoy the community of life in the universe.
[1] D.M. Murdock/Acharaya S, The Origins of Islam. An article from the Internet, http://www.truthbeknown.com/islam.htm
[2] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam Religion, History, and Civilization, page 15.
[3] Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, published 1961, pages 86-89
[4] Nicholas P. Ginex, Future of God Amen, pages 79-84 and AMEN, pages 124-128.
[5] Moses, Holy Bible, KJV, Book of the Covenant, Exodus 24:4,7.
