RELIGIONS

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

Ó April 2010, The Center For Development

What is religion? The word religion, from the Latin, means to hold fast, to hold back, or to link back together. In practice, that which constitutes a religion is a set of dogmas or beliefs, a set of behaviors or rituals, and a set of ethics or rules of conduct. This may be said to be the essence of organized religion.

In addition, religions can have many other facets such as helping people survive, helping people to organize their lives in a safe and creative way, preserving knowledge such as that which occurred during the dark ages in Europe, controlling the people, as occurs today in most nations, social organization, helping to define gender roles, dictating sexual, marital, and child-raising behavior, and much, much more.

Religion has also served as the way to answer many questions. These concern the nature of life, who we are, where we came from, where we are going, why we get sick and die, and many other basic questions that science cannot yet answer and may never fully answer.

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGIONS ON EARTH

As civilization has progressed, and as technology and understanding have grown on planet earth, religions have necessarily evolved as well. This process is happening ever faster today because technology and science are learning so much that it tends to challenge the old dogmas and rituals of the prevailing religions of today.

The oldest religions. What are called primitive societies usually have religions that permeate the lives of the people and are aimed at helping them survive in a low-technology, dangerous world. Their gods are usually multiple and they are often called magical, pagan, or polytheistic (multi-god )religions.

In addition, they are often superstitious types of religions in which strange and powerful objects, animals, people, gods and places exert control and cause catastrophes and misfortunes. Mankind must learn about these power and gods and do whatever is necessary to appease them, work with them, control them and hopefully overcome or at least live in peace with them to survive and prosper.

More advanced religions starting with Judaism. Mainly in the West and the Middle East, the teaching of Abraham, Issac and Jacob brought a new type of religion to the earth. This style of religion was much less superstitious than the magical religions that preceded them.

Also, there is generally only one God or power in the universe for mankind to deal with. Objects are seen as simply objects, though they can be imbued with special powers at times, if the one God wishes it so. For example, the staff of Moses was such an object, as was the Ark of the Covenant.

This style of religion is far more legalistic, as it were, in that a covenant or set of specific rules of behavior are established that are written down and passed on from generation to generation. These have evolved into our Hebrew and Christian bibles, the Koran , and many other volumes that are less well known but important such as the Jewish Talmud and Gnostic gospels of Christ.

These religions are still magical and superstitious, but less so than the older ones as they arose at a time when science and technology were far more advanced. They are thus designed to help people survive and prosper in a world in which writing, military technology, social organization and so forth are far more developed on earth.

Newer religions on earth. The style of religion found in Judaism and Christianity is still the most prevalent on earth, but some others that at least call themselves religions have arisen as well. The most important may be 1) modern science, 2) the modern “back to earth and protect the earth” movement, or environmentalism and 3) a few others, perhaps.

Today’s newer religions believe in the perfectibility of mankind. Unlike Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the newer religions are often more upbeat. That is, they focus less on sin, evil and ‘dark forces’, and instead appeal to people’s sense of wonder, sense of adventure and that life can be wonderful if one follows the rules.

This is the opposite of following the rules out of fear of dying, or fear of hell, for example. It appears that these motives are less powerful today, and that it may be better to motivate people with promises of adventure, good health and great happiness rather than running from evil.

The only problem with this stance is that most people on earth are still motivated by selfishness and fears. Therefore, when relieved of the “burden” of sinfulness by their new religions, they allow their lower impulses to rule them and the result has been the Nazi movement, the communist movement and much of today’s environmental movement, which is extremely authoritarian and even hateful in its expression.

It has also caused a tremendous gullibility among followers of these newer religions that opens them up to great exploitation by unscrupulous leaders. Once again, we need only look to modern China, modern Russia and Nazi Germany to see what happens when people trust human leaders rather than trusting and believing only in a metaphysical God, or a holy man such as Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus taught to “love thy neighbor as thy self”, yet Hitler convinced a lot of Germans that we must cleanse the entire planet of all but the Aryan race. This is such a perversion of the Christian ethic that one wonders how in the world he accomplished this feat. The only plausible answer is that he essentially set himself up as the new Christ and his national socialism the new religion and he supplanted or replaced the old Christian value system with a new value system. This is the great danger whenever a new religion appears that appeals to the ego of the people.

THE OLDER POLYTHEISTIC WORLD RELIGIONS

These religions include that of the native American Indians, most oriental religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and practices including witchcraft, voodoo, casting spells, exorcising demons, the old Greek and Roman gods, and others.

Common features of these types of religions include:

· Many gods or power centers. There is not one god or one power, but rather that power is found in many objects to varying degrees. This is not quite true because most of these religions postulate that there is a central power source of some kind, such as the “great spirit” in native American culture. However, usually there are many lesser spirits or gods in these religions, as well.

· Death-centered. By this I mean that an underlying theme of these religions is that life is difficult, and one must take it upon oneself to do what one can to placate the gods, or those in charge, who are often mean-spirited, unpredictable and perhaps downright hateful. In other words, god is not love.

Definition of white and black magic. By the word magic or mystical religion, I mean one that suggests and employs the manipulation of subtle energies to make things happen. The idea of magic is sometimes divided into the idea of using magic or mental methods of control for positive things, and this called white magic. Whereas, a more destructive use of mental energy or invoking powers is called black magic. There is also plenty that is haphazard and somewhere in between these two.

Devil worship or satanism defined. Christianity, in particular, acknowledges that there are subordinate power centers in this world such as power objects, powerful people and so on. However, it warns against using these powers to either make something happen or to avoid misfortunes. When one goes to a lesser power for help, Christians and even Jews and Muslims call this devil worship or Satanism.

Satan was allegedly an angel, one of god’s helpers, who decided to go off on his own and set up his own power instead of spending his time worshiping and helping God or the main power in the universe. This is the origin of the word satanism. It means going off on your own to become your own power center instead of adhering to and praising and loving the main power in the universe, which is called God, Jesus, Allah or a similar-meaning name.

Other modern examples of the older type of religious practices. Witchcraft or wikka is becoming more popular in American pop culture. One uses the powers found in flowers, animals, or other inanimate or living objects to cause things to happen for whatever reason one wishes. Movies and TV programs like Buffy And The Vampire Killers, Bewitched, Charmed, Harry Potter books and movies, a few science fiction shows and many others depict this kind of belief system.

Some are humorous like Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, while others appear quite serious. However, this is not so important as what they are teaching people about how to live.

Modern environmentalism. Some people feel that environmentalism has become a new religion. It has dogmas that one cannot question, such as “climate change”, which means that mankind is causing heating or cooling of the earth by our actions, although there is little to no evidence to support this contention. Also, its members believe that by invoking laws of various kinds, they can change the earth’s temperature, even though there is no evidence of this at all.

By contrast, a more Judeo-Christian-Islamic approach to climate change would be simply to ask God to protect our earth and our planet, and leave it there, knowing that since God is all-powerful and all-knowing, nothing more needs to be done about the problem. There is no need for cap-and-trade legislation, carbon taxes and all sorts of other ideas that are questionable at best.

Modern medicine. Modern medical care is another magical religion, in my view. The high priests are the doctors and the places of worship are the hospitals, clinics, laboratories and even the doctor’s offices.

Here, people come to pay their respects, have their bodies mutilated too often, and receive their mainly toxic potions and esoteric-sounding drug formulas.

If one does not go along, then we are told on television hundreds of times each day that bad things will happen to us. It makes no difference that this is a complete lie and that, in fact, the medical remedies themselves are one of the largest causes for disability and death in every nation that employs and supports them. This, to me, sounds like a magical religion, not science, as it is portrayed on television and in the news. To be fair, the entire system is not this way. Some of it is excellent, but too much is not based on rigorous, open-minded and unbiased scientific data at all.

JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM

These are newer religions, in terms of earth’s history. None are much older than 2000 years, which is not a long time in the total history of the earth and its peoples.

These religions differ from the religions above in the following ways:

· All power, and all knowledge is found in one source. In other words, there is no special power in objects, affirmations, rituals or other “idols”. The first of the Ten Commandments is, in fact, a warning that there is only one god and to shun “idol worship” which is the setting up of subordinate or additional power centers. Subordinate and multiple power centers was the focus of the earlier magical religions.

· This source of power or God is metaphysical, meaning not a physical thing. If we want to get scientific, we could say that God is an energy or force, rather than a thing.

· All have stricter rules of conduct than the magical religions of old. These newer rules are found in the Ten Commandments or the golden rule, for example. It is taught that if one follows these rules, one will have a good life and be rewarded in the afterlife. Whereas if one disobeys these rules, trouble will follow for the whole of humanity. These rules for living are largely about getting along with others, although there are plenty of rules about eating, sex, money and other important aspects of any modern society.

· Religions of love and life. Particularly in Judaism and Christianity, god is depicted as loving, just, fair and wise. All one needs is to “do thy will” and life will go along fine. This does not mean there will not be challenges, but these are understood to be tests or lessons for us. We need not worship idols or do special invocations to attract god’s attention or please god, but rather we are to live well and to praise the loving god to have our lives go well.
In fact, according th Judaism, Christianity and perhaps Islam, when human beings use their own will to try to get things for themselves, or even to save their own lives, they often forget about god and make a mess of things. This is very different from the older religions in which god was not your friend and all sorts of rituals are important just to survive.

Islam, a rather special case. Islam, understood in this context, is a kind of hybrid religion. It takes much from Judaism, for example, but it rejects a lot of it as well. It also draws upon Christianity in some ways, but rejects Jesus, for example. It also draws upon some of the more primitive religions that existed at the time of Mohammed. Thus it is not as “modern” as Judaism and Christianity, yet it rejects some of the features of the older type of polytheistic religions, meaning religions with many gods.

FUTURE RELIGIONS OR RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF SOCIETY

I believe that as mankind advances further, the difference between the two basic types of religions described above will become clearer, and we will move toward another type of religious experience that is identified in this website as mental or spiritual development.

This will not negate Judaism or Christianity in the least. However, it will help people realize that the power of the one god is within each of us, and that power can be harnessed and expanded infinitely, if one will take the time to do so. Also, specific elements are needed to rebuild the bodies at this time in history that are provided by nutritional balancing programs.

Some will say that holistic healing and nutritional balancing are not the future, but simply new forms of devil worship or Satanism, just like the ‘new age’ religions. For more on this subject, read Is Nutritional Balancing Satanism, New Age or Devil Worship?

WHAT DOES THIS RELIGION LOOK LIKE?

It is quite simple. People will “worship” their bodies and minds in a somewhat selfish way because this is needed to focus on one’s development. However, people will also begin to make better decisions, have better relationships, and pick better leaders as a result of developing themselves.

Also, this new type of religion involves the entire nation and eventually the entire world because we must clean up the air, the water, and the food supply in order to avoid intoxicating the bodies with toxic metals and toxic chemicals. It is also necessary to clean up the technology so that more chemicals will not be produced that will harm human health.

However, this is not the same as modern environmentalism. The latter is an authoritarian attempt to redistribute wealth around the world, and in fact has little to do with reducing pollution. The environmental movement must mature a lot to realize that capitalism and corporations are not the real problem, and in most cases they are the solution by coming up with newer, safer, cleaner technologies.

Other aspects of the new religion. In addition, human relations must change because developing oneself takes time, energy and a peaceful home life. Stressful relationships must end or be changed.

In addition, the medical profession must undergo a complete overhaul. Too many of their tests, drugs, operations and procedures are invasive, toxic and dangerous. Far safer methods of health care exist that are also far less costly. However, in order to implement them, the medical cartel must be broken apart so that simple, natural methods of care can compete openly with patent medicines on an even footing. Corruption at the Food And Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Institutes of Health and hundreds of other government agencies will have to end, and it soon will, I predict, because the people are tired of the waste of money and the poor results of these agencies.

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