The End Is Near

To whom this may concern – Chapter 3/5 (we’re halfway there!)

Foreword

I apologize for taking a long time to put this up, I merely waited for a few weeks after people returned from the conferences/congresses and have unwinded from their hype after the aforementioned annual activities. I feared that posting these chapters right after the conferences and the responses would’ve looked something like the result of diamagnetism (the force of when two magnets repel each other).

As I wrote on the previous chapters, I aim not to attack people of faith, only merely poking their curiosity and logic; in an effort to try closing the snare of the relentless beast called religion and draw more skeptical attention to its potentially harmful effect on people, mankind’s existence and this world we dearly call Home. Anything that I write that might seem offensive towards people’s faiths is not meant to offend the person in general.

I hereby take full responsibilities for what I write (as I always do in any writing that I do), to provide guidance on this fragile subject - not just with personal thoughts and opinions but also regarded acknowledged truth based upon studies and investigations; and not just my own but also those from other more merited people.

As I’ve also made clear in my earlier writings, I’m not on a witch-hunt and aim not to seek the persecutions of religious followers… that would be completely malevolent and not benign as I intended from start, so don’t be afraid, I won’t bite…-yet.

Piece of cake!

What is Pi? No, not the kind that smells and tastes delicious; the mathematical pi. Generally, people have the knowledge of that pi is 3.14. And that’s it. Checked, learned and accepted. Now let’s have a piece of that mouthwatering pie!

But just hold on a sec, that’s it…? Nothing else brings about any other curiosity? How it was thought up, what it’s for, where it could be applied to, is it necessary to know at all and will we be less of worth if we died not knowing or understanding about it?

We’ve some time in our lives had moments where we cling to something; whether to an opinion, a person or a particular belief, and we then get caught by this ultimatum: “…so if they jump off a cliff will you jump off too?”

The choice whether to throw away your life proving your dedication or point and being acknowledged for your dedication rather than waking up and realizing you’ve got far better things to do than wasting your precious life may seem like a coin balancing on a knife edge… but the answers lies within rational curiosity.

First of all: is the cause worth it? If it is: for what and whom? Has this cause everyone in general in mind or just a selection of chosen people?

With regards to religion, it differs from group to group due to the varieties of ideologies and foundations. But I’ll focus on the two largest monotheistic faiths of modern time, Islam and Christianity; not just because my opinion of their (if not all of the other systematic religions) definition of faith and foundation is, among others: surprisingly unfulfilling, confusing, perversive, manipulative, conceiving, discombobulating and retarding but also because of the conclusion of its lack of purpose…. not just for religious people, but for mankind in general and its strive to progress.

Islam continues to grow and is currently the leading world religion with most registered followers, followed by Christians as runner-up. Congratulations to both Muslims and Christians… give yourselves a round of applause for this astonishing feat!

Now, let’s get our hands dirty: both Islam and Christianity have been accused of using force to bringing forth their “message” unto others over the past centuries from the start. Accusations justified by both camps claiming it were holy deeds backed up by divine word or command. To this date, only one of the two groups has realized their faults and made acknowledging apologies for some of the macabre things they’ve done in history and skewed their goals towards a more peaceful and virtuous path; Christians should bookmark Pope John Paul II for this one.

And the other group has kept its intentions unmoving and lately been fuelled to unleash its power just to prove their point and dedication to their goals and their prophet’s vision, backing up their intentions by claiming (among other claims) that they’re and their faith and tradition’s being attacked by unclean western ideologies; all this while proclaiming that they are people of peace. I would like to emphasize that I do believe that they are a people of peace, although their religion and its ideologies are not… no matter how much they try denying or objecting to it. And this is not just about the Muslims; this goes out to Christians and Jews as well.

Standing behind causes

I don’t want to bring out too much about the hypocrisies that religion brings for there are just too many of them it is downright depressing. Neither will I do so about the double-standards nor the self-contradictions it poses and imposes; I simply don’t know where to begin on those matters so I suggest you question yourselves and your religion (not your faith, just religion… they are two highly different things) and try to find answers and reasons to them with logic and not with simple faith.

If you’d like a sample of this (if not the few ones I already wrote on ch.2 was enough), one need not look further than one of the things in the bible that the church and people of faith hold up on a pedestal: the life of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Right after receiving the commandment tablets with ten God-given laws including the precious 6^th commandment: Thy shall not kill; Moses went, gathered and ordered those who are “on God’s side” to go from gate to gate and slay idolators (and also sent them to battle against another tribe/army, if not more than just one army or tribe).

Another delicate cookie of this is that part about the slaying of idolators; since having other idols breaks the first three commandments (the first three commandments was just about protecting God’s liability and ego) it was considered as all the green light they needed to go be negligent and passé of commandment number six.

Then we have Islam, a religion of peace which also literally translates peace, whom among many other irrational things believes that to protect their faith it is reasonable and alright to enslave or kill those who oppose Islam or spread out depictions of their prophet Muhammad. As a Muslim, you’ll have limited rights (especially women), you could also be sentenced to death according to the Sharia for apostasy (leaving Islam), also could be sentenced to be stoned to death for infidelity, even if women get raped they get away with the worser punishment than the men (and if in self-defense they kill the men they get sentenced to death too). All of this and so horribly much more can be backed up by supposed sacred word. Only with religion, can this happen.

And thus is just one of the much irrationality that religion can contribute to the rights of mankind. Once you begin to delve within the flaws in the stories of whatever holy book you read, you’ll see an even greater depressive picture when you find that people actually believe what they read in those books, filtering out the boring stuff and only looking for the meaningful passages to guide them spiritually.

I personally believe that the Judeo-Christians messed up the whole Commandment thing (ok, a few of them are understandable truth), for the Native-Americans got the correct concept of the Ten Commandments. (insert picture).

Another argument of mine, which I quite frankly like to argue passionately about, is that of the Vatican and Catholic Church’s stance on helping end certain problems in the world.

Of course I won’t discredit them completely; they do have several charities all over the world aiming to help draw in money to help out the needy, homeless, parentless, landless and etc. That’s really great, eternal praises for doing at least something. And also of the pope going around the world, especially in developing countries and tells of the importance and sanctity of peace, fidelity, procreation, togetherness and unity. That’s also great of him to bring out that message.

Now on to my arguments.

Firstly, am I the only who thinks that the Vatican and the Catholic Church holds a great amount of wealth? Aside from being preposterously and ridiculously tax-free they possess a gargantuan collection of antiquities and priceless artifacts and with just one auctioning or pawning of a handful of them could probably provide food, shelter and medical treatments for an entire war struck country in Africa for more or less a months time (and it’s only from a handful, imagine the larger scale)! Alright, maybe sounded a bit exaggerated but you know where I’m trying to get at with bringing this mentality into awareness.

Here’s my challenge to the Vatican and other church-branches of Christianity on GIVING:

• Follow what your very own hero (Jesus) said to a rich young man who asked him how to inherit eternal life and how the rich may get into heaven: “…go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven…” (Mark 10:17-27)

And with this challenge, including the entire Vatican and all it possesses; from St.Peter’s Cathedral to other church buildings it has in connection all over the world along with the statues/sculptures/paintings and other precious works it has claimed in possession… if all of these are sold/auctioned/pawned and the end-resulting cashed-out wealth gets distributed/shared to the developing countries who are in most need (of food, clean water, shelter, life-saving medicine, better health, much-needed education, financial-social-agricultural restructuring, etc) THEN they’ll truly be doing a great (if not one of the very best) contributions ever known to mankind and they then will help make the world a bit more improved and better for mankind’s future and existence! Just imagine; it could probably cure diseases if not help provide funding to get steps closer to curing them, put a clog to poverty, provide basic homes for the ones who lack one, provide much-needed education… this and so much more imaginable!

If they truly want to call themselves philanthropists, this solution is their jackpot and for the ones who are in most need this is the treasure at the end of the rainbow. But I highly doubt that’ll ever happen in this life. So to the Vatican and the Catholic Church, prove me wrong… I’d love to see you try!

Secondly, I seriously hope that the Catholic Church’s perspective on preventing the spread of sexual transmittable diseases such as Aids and HIV change soon, if not ASAP! Of course they’d like to help prevent it and have expressed their concerns about it, but they still persist on keeping their religious dogma rather than help save numerous lives by opposing the use of contraceptives, mainly condoms and deem it as “not the answer/appropriate tool for the fight against HIV and Aids” and that condoms are rather a threat than of any help.

I’m aware that many religious people nowadays know of the importance of safer-sex with the use of contraceptives such as condoms, and that they oppose the Catholic Church’s stance on this issue but sadly those in developing countries who are in one way or another attached to the Catholic or Evangelical Church are not as fortunately well informed about this (reasons can vary from lack of organizational outreach to lack of enough education and suffer from dyslexia).

If anybody would like the freshest example of this, look up on Pope Benedict XIV’s recent tour to Africa earlier this year and his remarks on condoms could make the African Aids crisis worse.

One other scratch on the head is the illogical talks from religious leaders, priests, cardinals, bishops and popes of the importance of fidelity and marriage, when they themselves have committed vows of abstinence and most likely don’t even know how relationships and marriage feels like. I haven’t married yet and I don’t advocate divorces and infidelity but all I’m saying is that, although it’s a nice thought of them to raise awareness of that family is important and shouldn’t be split up, I don’t find them in any position whatsoever to be telling married people to reconsider divorce and warn them (among other things) of the divine repercussions if they do divorce.

I will leave this part about the double-standards, self-contradictions and hypocrisies for you to continue on your own, so I can pave way to the next points without drawing out too much on this subject for it is too vast you could write books about it (and there are already).

And of course you might question, what’s the point of reading this if I won’t bring arguments to convince you? Let me point out that I am not out to convince you, nor even try to. It is your faith, you convince yourselves. Now that we’ve left faith behind, I’ll move on to religion. Yes, you read correctly. One thing I would like to think people would have rationed out logically and reasonably already is the distinguishing of faith and religion, or if you want to be picky about it: religion and systematic religion.

With the example I wrote earlier it’s vital to keep in mind the point of it all, which is to firstly separate faith and religion, and then religion separated from politics. It shouldn’t be anywhere near each other, to begin with.

Even if politics kills, in a way, it’d be far less killing without having religious motives or catalysts affiliated with politics. And that’s a start, to say the least.

But when you have people supporting and voting for political leaders, not for their political stances, but for their stance in faith you are bound to advocate ignorance and idiocy. Would you like an example of one? The former president of the United States, George W. Bush. And it’s not that I plan to throw dirt on him and his bad policies, it’s the fact that many precious and life-changing votes went to him just because he was a man of faith, now see how great those 8 years of Bush were and how much the enormous money spent on a ridiculous war, that shouldn’t have been started to begin with, could’ve gone to so much more for the Americans and the world…. it also contributed largely to the huge financial setback of that country.

One last thing about this; probably one of the most nonsensical but alarming attributes of the deeply religious Christians (without forgetting Judaism and Islam also have their own accepted version and belief of it) is the clinging to the hope of the coming of the day of Armageddon (the final battle between good and evil) or the end of Times with the second coming of Jesus, unfolding various prophesized events such as: when Jesus brings the chosen faithful ones with him to the kingdom of God, and also when he raises the souls of all of the ones buried by the cemetery in Jerusalem and walk with them over the walls of- and enter to reclaim the Holy Land.

The symptoms of the wars fought out by religious countries (including America) tend to show that they are somehow longing for the destruction of the world in hopes of getting a moment closer to Judgment Day. In my opinion, all to see whose side can be proven righter than all the rest depending on whose savior appears; that very depressingly egoistic longing and desire just to be a part of the chosen ones.

This mentality tends to drive people to strive to be better people instead of being it naturally; out of fear of that they won’t reach Heaven if they don’t do good deeds and keep in the back of their heads that God is watching and taking notes. Instead of focusing on how to be of good in this life religion advices people to make an insurance policy for the next, told by people who haven’t even been there yet.

Another self-contradicting point is the disregarding of that thought that we are all equal in God’s eyes but still are to be chosen by the strengths of our faith in It. What I meant with It is based upon that philosophy that “God created man to His own image”; since there is such a wide-range of different types of people (if excluding race and culture) ranging from heterosexual to homosexuals and span out to intersexual (people with both male and female body characteristics) I find it rightfully alright to call God It… and also because we don’t know God that much (or better yet, at all).

Sometimes I think and am convinced that that philosophy has been and still is being misinterpreted, that God created man to His own image actually should be interpreted as God created man to man’s (his) own image; destructive, selfish and desire things they don’t yet possess but who are also eventually kind and likes shiny colorful things.

One thing I’d like to repeat is the importance of distinguishing faith and religion. Faith is something we all in one way or another go through, mostly through spiritual experiences or feelings; but keep in mind that feelings and intuitions are fabrications of our own bodies and minds. It is unreliable but sometimes we sense correctly when some things actually go as we had sensed… but nevertheless it has a 50/50 predictability. Will you rely on blind chance for the existence of God or the next coming of Jesus all your life and believe it’ll happen because it has been told by ancient writings and self-proclaimed prophecies? If I’m not mistaken, even Paul was highly convinced of that the end of Times would occur during his own lifetime!

People of faith, no matter what your religious doctrines tell you, live in the Now. Whatever happens after we die, we don’t know… in fact, nobody does!

Whatever we feel spiritually is best saved as just spiritual, and religion kept galaxies far away from claiming copyright of spirituality. Not to be bold but it’s about time to distance yourselves from the nonsensicals. Be kind because you ARE kind, not because you think God checks your name on the Naughty or Nice-list.

I feel that this chapter needs to be finished off here so I’ll leave it at that and will continue in the next chapter on the eventual meeting with God and much more.

Before I finish, I would like to say that I dearly hope that my fellow friends, brothers and sisters in the CFC/CFL community do read these chapters and don’t disregard them as rubbish and baseless statements, I would probably claim the same thing about your beliefs. Once again, sorry for the long hiatus!