The truth about you, God and religion...Do you agree?

Question

Once a religion begins to establish forced control over others, or to make its teachings dogma that must be followed or punishment results, then that religion loses sight of true spiritual understanding. That is when it brings in the seeds of corruption. It replaces the need to promote true spiritual understanding with the desire to establish its superiority over others, which can lead to the ways of totalitarianism. Then politics, disunity, intrigue and even war become prevalent.
All true religions accept that God is the ultimate unifying principle, an omnipotent, supremelu spiritual being who has infinite intelligence and capabilities, abd from whom comes pure and unlimited love for one and all. He reciprocates with us to the degree to which we surrender or desire to understand Him. A religion which cannot offer such an understanding, or whose followers have perverted the philosophy, or who cannot apply it in their daily lives, is not a truly progressive or elevating religion. In such a case, it becomes necessary to get away from the church to get closer to God. after all, the church should not make itself more important than the true spiritual knowledge it should be promoting. In other words, when the process of worship outweighs the object of worship, or God, then you have already lost Him. Such a religion will not be spiritually successful and should be corrected or avoided.
What this means, as we head into the future, is that it will be most important for people to be spiritually knowledgeable and to think for themselves and recognize that forced dogma is not what true religion is about. We have already spent many centuries witnessing religions supressing and persecuting others and we should have learned our lesson by now. As spiritual beings, we all have an eternal relationship with the Supreme Spirit. No church or institution or its representatives can interfere with that. We do not have to participate in any religion that forces us to be subservient to a faulty creed or misleading or corrupt leaders. we must only serach out those individuals, pure devotees, who can assist us and gives us the spiritual knowledge by which we can understand and reach the Supreme Being ourselves, with or without any institution or organized religion. To become atheistic because of the failure of religions to present us God as He is is the sum total of all stupidity. God's doing very well , thank you. Whether you ackowledge, recognize, know this or not.

Source: Stephen Knapp

Answer 1

"To become atheistic because of the failure of religions to present us God as He is is the sum total of all stupidity. God's doing very well , thank you. Whether you ackowledge, recognize, know this or not. "
Very well said- I could not agree with you more.
I understand the rest of what you are saying and agree to a point. We have to be careful and have a very fine balance when talking aobut getting away from the church- yes the church should never elevate itself and its teachings above God's word, unfortunately happening too often in too many churches today- but then we have those who leave because of this, forsake the fellowship that will challenge and sharpen them, forsake accoutability and interpret God's word for their own purposes , then wind up starting a church that does the same as the one they left, only wierder- thus the birth of the cult.
I have heard way too many people tell me they have been in the "wilderness" for a time because they had to leave the church for many of the reasons you have stated, and come back with things that tell me that they have been isolated and not discerning about what spirit has been speaking to them.
It is important that we do not forsake fellowship with other believers.
I understand that when you are talking aobut getting away from the church you mean religiosity and the like, I just think we need to be really careful about how we present that .
Awesome statements, though, thanks for sharing!!

Answer 2

First you have to demonstrate that a god actually exists.

Then, just TRY to find a religion that doesn't use forceful persuasion to some degree. You're going to hell if you (__fill in the blank__).

Some religious beliefs are enforced by law. Christians are increasingly trying to do this in the USA by teaching creationism in schools, school prayer, 10 commandments in the public arena and preventing gays from marrying, adopting, teaching, etc..

George Bush claims god talked to him about going to war with Iraq. How insane is that?

I firmly believe that a christian theocracy would be just as bad as any muslim theocracy.

Answer 3

You assume there was any spiritual understanding to begin with. That would require an actual god somewhere, but there aren't any.

Religion has corruption built into it. When you have leaders getting instructions from imaginary gods, they can claim anything with an air of authority. Even when its leaders rely on an old book, their interpretations can be just about anything because such books are intentionally written vaguely.

Religion, therefore, strongly tends towards totalitarianism. All that's required is to get the followers to believe they are inherently evil, selfish, and corrupt and that the leaders have a divine solution to cleanse the "badness", and you'll get people flocking to your religion out of insecurity and guilt.

Answer 4

Do you think maybe it's possible that religions are being corrupted because they aren't based on truth? Why would this omnipotent god you speak of allow this to happen? Why wouldn't he allow his message to be handed down honestly? And how can you encourage people to think for themselves and still attack atheism?

Answer 5

Good observations

Religions divide...spirituality binds..be one with the whole of the universe and enjoy the game

Answer 6

I agree with most of it, but I don't really think an atheistic belief is stupid. Some atheists are spiritual too.

Answer 7

God does not exist.

Answer 8

No corruption comes from the heart of man. Where he has evil and selfish desires and wants to fulfill them.