For all genuine seekers..do you agree? Pls, be patient and respectful!?

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.

To Fr. Chuck..I agree with you, but they must be God's rules, not men's...

Answer 1

Beautiful explanation!!

But will the idiots, understand this?????????

Answer 2

The teachings of the Spiritual Master that is the reason for the religion will always be valid and a way to find the path to the divine. The religion itself is the interpretations by the followers of the teachings. Listen to the teacher not those who are telling you what was really meant by what the teacher said.

The Truth is singular, the paths are many.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
Buddha

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you mean by forced control of others. That is a broad statement. If you are talking about Muslim countries where they kill people who convert to Christianity, then we are in agreement. However if you are talking about an American Christian School firing a teacher for violating their morality standards, then I disagree with you. I think the heart of the matter comes down to submitting to God's will. Too often people want to serve God, but only as advisers. He doesn't ask us to do that. There is a huge lack of humility. I believe the upcoming challenge for the church will be to remain strong in the truth. There are those who try to make the bible mean what they want it to mean, regardless of what it says. They are trying to move the church in a very ungodly direction. The spirit that guides them is not the Holy spirit but their own. This is why Jesus said "blessed are the poor in spirit". We must get rid of our own spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to reign in us. I am of the opinion that many of our churches that say they are spiritual, are not of the Holy Spirit. To tell the difference we can look to the infallible word of God.

Answer 4

Are you talking about earthly or eternal punishment? If there is an earthly punishment that a church is attempting to inflict, then you're right, that's wrong. If there is eternal "punishment," then it needs to be addressed. That is, if it is God--not people--saying that there will be punishment, then considering eternal punishment is prudent, to say the least. If a church has knowledge of eternal punishment and decides not to mention this to its parishoners, then it is doing its people a mighty disservice. There are Christian churches that, today, refrain from mentioning even the word "sin." These are terrible churches, profoundly misleading their attendees.

As for the whole politics, disunity, intrigue, and war thing...churches are comprised of people. People are prone to fail. A church that undestands that people are prone to fail and cannot save themselves knows something valuable. Whether the church "officials" believe themselves to be susceptible to human failing is a whole other story. If they don't, they're in mortal peril. If they do, all is good.

Not all religions accept that God is supreme and unifying, and not all say that God is a principle. Some churches say that the devil, or nature, or even one's own self is supreme and unifying. The religions that say that God is a principle aren't talking about God. God is a being. So, your statement there about "all religions" is inaccurate. I understand the point you're trying to make, but you haven't taken into account the broad scope of all religions.

As far as progressive and elevating goes, there is no need for progressiveness when dealing with an eternal God, who is outside of time. Progressive thinking is just more thinking, and does not in and of itself lead us closer to--or farther away, necessarily--from God. It is just seeking to reach an eternal God by way of an au courant angle. Which is worthless. The Way to God has always been clear, and old and new thinking alike is of no consequence.

If an individual is not yet able to apply something in his or her life, this does not say anything about the religion. It says something about the individual.

If one finds that a church is not accurate in its teachings, one should either do something to change the church or else leave the church. But leaving a church does not automatically equal getting closer to God. People in prison, e.g., have gotten close to God--with no access to church, and/or with access to many people outside of God's grace. Church is not just a "conduit" to God. It is a place for the faithful to gather, pool their energies and resources for good purpose, rebuke and encourage each other, and so forth. To find God alone and hoard him for oneself is not good spiritual or faithful practice. Do not be deceived in the search for a church that fits you exactly. Find a church that challenges you to transform your life to God's word.

You have not necessarily lost God when engaged in the process of worship. This argument has no basis.

People should most certainly think about what they are being taught, but as for "thinking for themselves" about dogma...if you expand that concept, what you're saying is that people can determine who God is by thinking about him. This isn't true. People can't determine anything about God unless they seek and find him. So I better not be thinking up my own concept of God--I better be seeking God and asking him to reveal himself to me. Otherwise, my pursuit is vain.

I would go on, but I'm tired of addressing the logical fallacies now. I understand your quest, and I think I understand your point here, but I also see some things that you have concluded without seemingly considering the full scope of implications.

But to skip to the last two sentences you wrote: God is doing very well, yes. Many of us are not. There are numerous reasons as to why this latter point is the case.

Answer 5

there are three basic ways to gain control in a society -- through religion-the military and the political. when those in power perform their duties and all is well they remain in power when they fail others take their place. when a culture or society has need of more resources then these become a factor in one trying to overcome another. the culture and society who is the stronger will overcome the other. religious belief will become a part of how GOD favored the stronger leading to " our religious belief is better therefore we are going to tell others how to worship for we know what is best for all. thus free will and freedoms are lost by the losing culture, society. eventually leading a change into the winning culture and society belief system because of incorporating some of the defeated culture and society beliefs into their own creating change. a culture and society must change or it will stagnate and die.

Answer 6

the really sad element in the progression from relevant group to power seeking religion, is that at the beginning had the group read and practiced the directions given (for christians letters to TIM. and Mat 18) regarding the accountability of members and leaders then the group could remain relevant and in so doing grown in positive influence.

Answer 7

No while God does love all, part of mans relationship wih God has always been rules, rules of indivual behavior and rules of behaviou between members.

So I beleive that while over all love is one of the more imporant aspects, the pure fact that man has a sinful nature forces us to have rules on it.

Answer 8

Agreed. It's about a relationship with God, not about dogmatic obedience to God or an institution.

Answer 9

Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote that if just one illiterate person can be saved by grace, then it renders all of the theoretical writings and deep religious works irrelevant.

Smart man

Answer 10

There are many roads to God. He does not care which road you take, or if you take no road at all. Most of us will cross over.

Answer 11

God never forces anyone..sometimes satan can control how we worship such as , what we should do or how we should do it, and rituals etc..when it becomes ritualistic, or traditions of men (such as catholics do) that's not God.