Please Can We Abolish Religion? – Part 2

In the previous article, we discussed the great divide over the question of religion. Would the world be a better place if we abolished religion from the face of the earth? Religion does seem to cause misery and strife, yet it also provides for the poor and unfortunate. Keep in mind, that no civilization has been able to completely eradicate religion from its population.

As a child growing up in the Bible belt, I wondered about all the hoopla surrounding religion. My classmates went to Sunday school, Wednesday prayer meeting, Vacation Bible School, and participated in other church events. Since I belonged to a non-church going family, I felt left out. Later as an adult, I did get very involved in a church and enjoyed belonging to a community of faith. As circumstances would have it, I have also experienced the horrors of having my soul annihilated. I have seen both sides of the equation. I have experienced the elation of spiritual belonging and I have experienced the devastation caused by spiritual initiation. This led me to find out why my spiritual path became a spiritual nightmare. Along the way, I was able to ask some very deep questions about religion.

Is what we see on the surface of religion all that there is to see? Why do some people thrive and some people suffer in any particular religion? Does the answer have to be a yes or no when it comes to abolishing religion? Could there be a different way to look at this question? Is there a deeper understanding that the ancient peoples understood that is now lost? What is the purpose of religion? Are there underlying principles that explain all religion? Is it possible for religion and science to join hands? These are the many questions that popped into my head.

So, I went on a quest to answer these, and many other questions. I had come far enough in my spiritual growth to understand that those who initiated me were not being malicious. They truly believed that what they were doing was for my benefit and could not understand why I was not enjoying the experience they so graciously bestowed. Instead of rejecting religion outright, I started examining the depths of my being to see what went wrong and how to fix it. Like a detective tracking down a mystery, I found some obvious clues that can lead to a deeper understanding of religion.

The first thing I noticed was that every religion has two sides. Christianity has Protestant and Catholic. Islam has Sunni and Shiite. Buddhism also divides into different schools that fall on each side of the line within a dualistic framework. I found that I could divide the spiritual belief systems into two distinct groups: Peace and Compassion. On one side, there were those who spoke of Peace within and letting your being flow with the currents of life. Grain-based offerings like bread and milk rice dominate. The emphasis, for this group of religions, is to control the mind. The other side stressed the need to actively abolish false-self and grow in compassion. Blood and ritual sacrifice are the main tenants of these religions. The emphasis is on opening the heart. There has to be something here. This is a clue that most have not picked up on.

There are the “fairy tales” that repeat around the globe and throughout time. Many academic researchers have noted that religions that could never have communicated with each other have the same stories. Why? Why is the story of The Flood found in both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Christian Bible? To date, there is no archeological evidence that a global flood occurred on planet earth. Why are there dozens of Virgin Births that produce a son and never a daughter? Why do most religions include the Golden Rule? There has to be a common human experience that governs the storyline.

If there is to be peace among the religions, then there will need to be an understanding that all religions can agree upon without sacrificing their precepts and practices. How could there ever be a consensus when there are so many different viewpoints? Is there anyone that sees a way for all religions to be harmonious with each other? I have found that not everyone totes the, “My god is better than your god,” banner. There is a group of spiritual people who can see past their own religion and agree on basic spiritual principles that apply to all spiritual belief systems. Who are these people? What kind of education is required for everyone to be magnanimous in regard to the many denominations and sects of religion around the globe? The one thing we all have in common is that we are all human. We all are bound by the workings of the physical body. Scientists are studying the spiritual adepts from many religions. They are putting these mystics through the paces of their religious practices while hooked to scanners, monitors, and MRI machines. What they are finding is astonishing. Science is now confirming that the religious practices affect the body/mind complex in ways that change our brain waves and our experiences of self. These men and women are able to manage and adjust their brain patterns. They are able to regularly enter parts of the brain that most people access only on rare occasions. These scientific studies are beginning to put some of the pieces of the puzzle into place.

Last but not least, what is the purpose of religion? When you put aside the morality teachings, it seems that religion strives to communicate information about the invisible realm of the soul. The goal of religion is to develop and transform the soul. So, what is the soul? We know that it is invisible and that it surrounds us. So, what exactly is the soul? Here is a simple way to experience the soul. Most of us understand the concept of personal space. You know that creepy feeling when someone is standing too close? Why is it that you can feel a person’s presence without them touching you? What is extending out past the skin and bones that is perceptible to our senses?

These are the clues that are hiding in plain sight. Next time, we will put the pieces together and see the revelation that these clues reveal.

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