My problem with organized religions
-
Hello,
I am coming back to the forum after a long absence, and I hpe to visit it more often.
I just wanted to share a thought I had some time ago about organized religions.
It seems that the same schemas happens all the time and with every religions.- Usually, someone gets a revelation that enlights him about how to be a better person, make the world a better place, etc... Lets call this person the prophet, and his revelation the message.
- The revelation works for him, so, some people follow him.
- the prophet doesn't want to create a movement labelled with his name (or any name) on it, since his message is for everybody, and labelling it would create divisions, that would be counter-productive.
- the prohpet dies
- His followers try to spread his teaching
- Since the human mind needs labels and groups, they need a name for the people following the message - and they name it. lets name it "messageism" using the "-ism" suffix usually used to name ideologies/religions.
- Since the human mind feels reassured when part of a group, a believer/non believer dichotomy is created in the mind of the messageists.
- Since some people are flawed, the message is altered, either voluntary or not.
- Soon enough, messageists become more than "people following messageism", they become a socio-cultural group, with its traditions and customs. they can easilly be identified by the way they dress, eat, or the way they pray.
- That is usually when the original message becomes totally secondary in the messageists mind, they focus more on following ancestral traditions with uncertain origin, just because their fathers and ancestors did it, and because they are afraid of questionning it - Some don't even care to study the message, which is still avalaible.
- End of the generic religious schema.
Now I am aware this is a rather simplistic schemas, but it illustrates my problem with organized religions.
To me, the Qu'ran was revealed for everybody to read and study - same for the Bible, and other religious texts - not to create a separate group of people.
Not to create a movement named Islam, but to use a method named Islam.
To me, some christians, jews, buddhists and deists qualify to be called muslim - Not based on their belonging to a group, but based on the way they behave and their relationship to God.
I am now convinced that organized religions have this side effect of creating artificial divisions among people - even if it creates the comfort of being part of a group, and thus, are getting farther every day from the original goal of unity of the message.That's all for now. I just wanted to share this thought I had some days ago and maybe talk about it with other people here.
Peace,
Farouk -
Peace Farouk,
Welcome back.
I'm with you bro. Feed the spirit, discipline the mind, not the other way around. All organized religion has ever accomplished is a clear and definite boundary between one group and another. Unity and division cannot coexist. We all need to wake up to this.
I bet if you took a poll of every person on this planet, and asked, "what do you want for yourself in this life besides material gains?", you'd get answers like peace, love, happiness, trust, respect, health, humility, etc. We all want the same things in life, yet we choose to embed ourselves behind the walls of religion/culture, pushing unity further and further away.
Peace,
Tay