“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe”. Voltaire
“He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife”. Douglas Adams
“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”. Mohandas Gandhi
Let’s get things right, this blog is not an attack on your God, just my view and inane ramblings on the universe.
The theme of this blog is Faith V’s Religion; the same thing you will probably say?
I would like to summarise my conclusion now at the beginning of this writing so that I do not polarize you all or antagonize.
Faith is the personal view you have, on how your moral compass should be set, which has been influenced by your parents, peers and environment.
Religion is a view enforced by someone’s teachings and interpretation of events with the same message slanted according to whatever denomination your parents, peers or partner belongs.
A quote to bridge these two together was by the eminent Dr Wayne D Dyer who said we should lead our lives being not so much Christian but being Christ-Like. This of course is re-enforced by Ghandi’s quote above.
To describe faith you have to use the model of Jesus, and feel that in the context of this blog he is a good of example as any.
Now this dude was bowling around the manor about 2000 years ago, basically in short telling everyone about the message of love and forgiveness. He seemed a pretty non threatening happy guy who was dripping head to toe with empathy.
To bring Ghandi back into the equation he was once asked is he has a message he replied “my life is my message” this of course is what Jesus intended that if he lived his life as his intended message of love, tolerance, empathy and forgiveness then this would inspire others.
I believe we are all born with a natural ability to know what is right and wrong, we of course are fallible but the laws of man will act as a visual reminder and guidance towards the morality of our actions.
This of course leads us to religion.
I suppose because man is fallible that there is religion; the relevance of large pointy hats, robes, incense and ceremonies is lost on me. However I do see the irony that every act, costume or places of worship have been borrowed from so called Pagan religions.
I am a hypocrite as do of course love visiting churches for there architecture and pomposity (I love the eccentricity), my favourite Cathedral has to be Norwich in Norfolk, this is because every pew is decorated with pagan inscriptions and it send the whole building into one contradiction after another. This explains my desire to lead a complicated life to hide the simplistic things from my own subconscious.
Western Religions are of course mostly based on the bible including Mormonism which a guy called Joseph Smith Jr. pulled out secret seer stones from a stovepipe hat.
The bible describes a series of events from the creation of the universe in Genesis to the revelations and end of days.
I will now attempt to document from memory the events from the bible and including some modern events.
· God create the Earth and surroundings in 6-days and on Sunday he kicked back and chillaxed
· He put Adam and Eve on the Forest Moon of Endor with an apple tree and a serpent
· Eve ate an apple because of the serpent was banging on about it, and died.
· Erm…….
· Noah gathered up some animals because there was going to be a flood because Cornwall county council still have not done anything about defences. The flood was caused by the Death Star blowing up nearby Alderan and the shockwaves knocked out the moons orbit.
· Moses went up a mountain and received the 12 commandments; on the way down he tripped on his sandals and dropped one of the stones. It was ok as the two commandments were 11 – Do not start pointless drawn out ceremonies in my honour 12- Do not start wars in my name
· Ben Hur, Spartacus, and Maximus took on the Roman Army and ended up dying
· The nativity story and three kings gave Jesus some presents; a donkey and a virgin were involved. Also a lunatic called Herod killed every first born male baby
· A bit of a gap!
· Jesus (the only sensible one in the book) got his game on and spread love and the message of positive thinking.
· Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and the horrid visions of Beezlebub tried to tempt him.
· Palm Sunday and Shrove Tuesday happened and Jesus ate pancakes.
· People started getting jealous of Jesus and Judas stitched him up, and some dudes (even I won’t go there!) put him on some jumped up charge, and to quell the mob Pontius Pilate decided to crucify him alongside “Brian” of the Peoples Front of Judea.
· Jesus come back from the dead and rose to heaven
· Loads of his disciples wrote dozens of conflicting stories of what happened.
· The crusades where armies fought there way to reclaim the Holy Land to destroy all political enemies of the Pope.
· The Spanish inquisition and torture and murder of all non converts
· The Witch finder General burns all supposed witches
· World War II which religious drive is similar to the past two events (I did pull Hitler and Catholicism from blog)
· The world will end and the Rapture will release all the righteous to Heaven, this is judgement day when the Cylons destroy the Earth and everyone escapes on Battle-star Gallactica
· The end
I apologise for being flippant but the above was intentional, as one thing we cannot change is that perception is reality, this is for every individual in the world today. Wars happen when people with similar or exact views conspire to change someone else’s view and do this with force.
Religion has been the basis for most wars and the willingness to defend the faith of each side involved has led to loss of life on a massive scale.
We have to break it down to the original message, Christianity was derived from the teachings of Christ and these teachings surely about love, empathy and forgiveness.
At this stage please click the following link and listen to the song; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGB7dJY0Vg
In the previous posts my journey has been documented towards becoming a better person, I have read Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion” which was all well and good but I do understand that the metaphor of God is in the centre of our internal moral compass. This brought me to remember what Voltaire stated about faith (quote on first line). The attached video or song was first heard after reading “The God Delusion” makes me think.
I do believe that “God” is our own subconscious self, this is just a metaphor but one that does conjure up a romantic notion and a feeling of security (Faith). If this feeling develops into Fear or not being accepted into a reality as detailed from an ancient book then you turn to religion.
My previous posts talked of Comfort and silence and these states are free from fear as you have great faith in your own self.
Religion is not evil but it is not a contusive part of your life when the practice, teachings and ceremonies leave you in a state of fear. The real goal of religion is to encourage you to live in accordance to the moral teachings.
I am not advocating becoming an Atheist; I tried this one for a while and decided that actually I did believe in one deity which was me! Not with ego but with an assured belief that my destiny is controlled by me and me alone.
Alongside religion there is also a growing denomination that has afflicted the youth and indigent conspirators and that is Nihilism, which will feature heavily in my next post.
These guys believed in nothing, no laws and even state that morality does not exist this of course is characterised in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche who advocated such things. This was backed up by what we call Platonism and his version of utopia in his book “Republic”.
All the above concepts will be explored in my most ambitious blog of “social conditioning”
So in summary the title of the blog is Faith V’s Religion, in all but name they both have the same purpose but Faith is something that is based on your own experiences which turns on your inner moral compass.
Religion in my eyes has been taken out of context and the original well meaning message lost amongst pomp, corruption and over complicated ceremonies.
I guess that you are interested in what my beliefs are? Well being a modern day Jedi is not truly accurate and in reality, practices more “Secular Spirituality” and very interested in “Transcendental Idealism” but as always on a journey and will explore all sources. In the past have moved between Agnostics to Nihilism but guess that makes me unpredictable. The cross denomination teachings of Dr Michael Beckwith are also a sense of inspiration parallel with the acceptance of English Spiritualism which to all my kids has all been christened.
I do however believe in The Universe; sometimes known as Ziggy Stardust and his messenger “The Star man” The 1972 Doctrines resonate within my soul and base my life on its message.
Click here for musical accompaniment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XanKGvr3w
“Star Man”
Goodbye love
“He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife”. Douglas Adams
“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”. Mohandas Gandhi
Let’s get things right, this blog is not an attack on your God, just my view and inane ramblings on the universe.
The theme of this blog is Faith V’s Religion; the same thing you will probably say?
I would like to summarise my conclusion now at the beginning of this writing so that I do not polarize you all or antagonize.
Faith is the personal view you have, on how your moral compass should be set, which has been influenced by your parents, peers and environment.
Religion is a view enforced by someone’s teachings and interpretation of events with the same message slanted according to whatever denomination your parents, peers or partner belongs.
A quote to bridge these two together was by the eminent Dr Wayne D Dyer who said we should lead our lives being not so much Christian but being Christ-Like. This of course is re-enforced by Ghandi’s quote above.
To describe faith you have to use the model of Jesus, and feel that in the context of this blog he is a good of example as any.
Now this dude was bowling around the manor about 2000 years ago, basically in short telling everyone about the message of love and forgiveness. He seemed a pretty non threatening happy guy who was dripping head to toe with empathy.
To bring Ghandi back into the equation he was once asked is he has a message he replied “my life is my message” this of course is what Jesus intended that if he lived his life as his intended message of love, tolerance, empathy and forgiveness then this would inspire others.
I believe we are all born with a natural ability to know what is right and wrong, we of course are fallible but the laws of man will act as a visual reminder and guidance towards the morality of our actions.
This of course leads us to religion.
I suppose because man is fallible that there is religion; the relevance of large pointy hats, robes, incense and ceremonies is lost on me. However I do see the irony that every act, costume or places of worship have been borrowed from so called Pagan religions.
I am a hypocrite as do of course love visiting churches for there architecture and pomposity (I love the eccentricity), my favourite Cathedral has to be Norwich in Norfolk, this is because every pew is decorated with pagan inscriptions and it send the whole building into one contradiction after another. This explains my desire to lead a complicated life to hide the simplistic things from my own subconscious.
Western Religions are of course mostly based on the bible including Mormonism which a guy called Joseph Smith Jr. pulled out secret seer stones from a stovepipe hat.
The bible describes a series of events from the creation of the universe in Genesis to the revelations and end of days.
I will now attempt to document from memory the events from the bible and including some modern events.
· God create the Earth and surroundings in 6-days and on Sunday he kicked back and chillaxed
· He put Adam and Eve on the Forest Moon of Endor with an apple tree and a serpent
· Eve ate an apple because of the serpent was banging on about it, and died.
· Erm…….
· Noah gathered up some animals because there was going to be a flood because Cornwall county council still have not done anything about defences. The flood was caused by the Death Star blowing up nearby Alderan and the shockwaves knocked out the moons orbit.
· Moses went up a mountain and received the 12 commandments; on the way down he tripped on his sandals and dropped one of the stones. It was ok as the two commandments were 11 – Do not start pointless drawn out ceremonies in my honour 12- Do not start wars in my name
· Ben Hur, Spartacus, and Maximus took on the Roman Army and ended up dying
· The nativity story and three kings gave Jesus some presents; a donkey and a virgin were involved. Also a lunatic called Herod killed every first born male baby
· A bit of a gap!
· Jesus (the only sensible one in the book) got his game on and spread love and the message of positive thinking.
· Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and the horrid visions of Beezlebub tried to tempt him.
· Palm Sunday and Shrove Tuesday happened and Jesus ate pancakes.
· People started getting jealous of Jesus and Judas stitched him up, and some dudes (even I won’t go there!) put him on some jumped up charge, and to quell the mob Pontius Pilate decided to crucify him alongside “Brian” of the Peoples Front of Judea.
· Jesus come back from the dead and rose to heaven
· Loads of his disciples wrote dozens of conflicting stories of what happened.
· The crusades where armies fought there way to reclaim the Holy Land to destroy all political enemies of the Pope.
· The Spanish inquisition and torture and murder of all non converts
· The Witch finder General burns all supposed witches
· World War II which religious drive is similar to the past two events (I did pull Hitler and Catholicism from blog)
· The world will end and the Rapture will release all the righteous to Heaven, this is judgement day when the Cylons destroy the Earth and everyone escapes on Battle-star Gallactica
· The end
I apologise for being flippant but the above was intentional, as one thing we cannot change is that perception is reality, this is for every individual in the world today. Wars happen when people with similar or exact views conspire to change someone else’s view and do this with force.
Religion has been the basis for most wars and the willingness to defend the faith of each side involved has led to loss of life on a massive scale.
We have to break it down to the original message, Christianity was derived from the teachings of Christ and these teachings surely about love, empathy and forgiveness.
At this stage please click the following link and listen to the song; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGB7dJY0Vg
In the previous posts my journey has been documented towards becoming a better person, I have read Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion” which was all well and good but I do understand that the metaphor of God is in the centre of our internal moral compass. This brought me to remember what Voltaire stated about faith (quote on first line). The attached video or song was first heard after reading “The God Delusion” makes me think.
I do believe that “God” is our own subconscious self, this is just a metaphor but one that does conjure up a romantic notion and a feeling of security (Faith). If this feeling develops into Fear or not being accepted into a reality as detailed from an ancient book then you turn to religion.
My previous posts talked of Comfort and silence and these states are free from fear as you have great faith in your own self.
Religion is not evil but it is not a contusive part of your life when the practice, teachings and ceremonies leave you in a state of fear. The real goal of religion is to encourage you to live in accordance to the moral teachings.
I am not advocating becoming an Atheist; I tried this one for a while and decided that actually I did believe in one deity which was me! Not with ego but with an assured belief that my destiny is controlled by me and me alone.
Alongside religion there is also a growing denomination that has afflicted the youth and indigent conspirators and that is Nihilism, which will feature heavily in my next post.
These guys believed in nothing, no laws and even state that morality does not exist this of course is characterised in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche who advocated such things. This was backed up by what we call Platonism and his version of utopia in his book “Republic”.
All the above concepts will be explored in my most ambitious blog of “social conditioning”
So in summary the title of the blog is Faith V’s Religion, in all but name they both have the same purpose but Faith is something that is based on your own experiences which turns on your inner moral compass.
Religion in my eyes has been taken out of context and the original well meaning message lost amongst pomp, corruption and over complicated ceremonies.
I guess that you are interested in what my beliefs are? Well being a modern day Jedi is not truly accurate and in reality, practices more “Secular Spirituality” and very interested in “Transcendental Idealism” but as always on a journey and will explore all sources. In the past have moved between Agnostics to Nihilism but guess that makes me unpredictable. The cross denomination teachings of Dr Michael Beckwith are also a sense of inspiration parallel with the acceptance of English Spiritualism which to all my kids has all been christened.
I do however believe in The Universe; sometimes known as Ziggy Stardust and his messenger “The Star man” The 1972 Doctrines resonate within my soul and base my life on its message.
Click here for musical accompaniment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XanKGvr3w
“Star Man”
Goodbye love
Didn’t know what time it was the lights were low oh
howI leaned back on my radio oh oh
Some cat was laying down some rock n roll lotta soul,
he saidThen the loud sound did seem to fade a ade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase ha haze
That weren’t no d.j. that was hazy cosmic jive
There’s a star man waiting in the sky
Hed like to come and meet us
But he thinks hed blow our minds
There’s a star man waiting in the sky
He’s told us not to blow it
Cause he knows its all worthwhile
He told me:Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie
I had to phone someone so I picked on you ho ho
Hey, that’s far out so you heard him too! o o
Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two
Look out your window I can see his light a ight
If we can sparkle he may land tonight a ight
Don’t tell your poppa or hell get us locked up in fright
Chorus x 2
This week Julie, Johnnie, Lilith and I are in Great Ormond Street Children’s for Johnnie’s annual assessment. I would love your feedback and will get back to you as quick as possible.
PS. If you are happy and your life is filled with love and abundance then carry on ; )
No comments:
Post a Comment