Previously, I wrote an argument that is a validation of all religion, but only through the yoga(union) of religions and it was meant as an argument against those atheists who like to ignorantly discredit religion and use the corruption and abuses of man within religion as evidence that god does not exist, to which, I find a lack of logic and an abundance of assumption. But there is another side to this issue that I need to address as that which is human within me erred in not discussing it within the original post. And that is the issue of adherents to a religion needing to define themselves by a singular religion and need to believe in a historicity related to their prophets and the myths surrounding them as validation of their belief. The act of association with a single religion whether it be Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism or Islam, etc. is an act of mental violence by the ego. It purports that MY religion is the one true religion, it is an act of spiritual divisiveness which I opine is a precursor to all violence whether it be verbal or physical. Sure you may express tolerance of other religions, but tolerance is not acceptance and it most definitely does not include understanding.
The fact that there are so many integral similarities suggests that the message of god is consistent and universal and that the only real difference between these various religions is the cultural aspects; the man made aspects. And as Terence McKenna says,"Culture is your enemy." And when it comes to the word of god, it has most definitely been the enemy of man along with tradition and blind faith. For it has been these elements that allowed the organizations to rise up and morph into the power structures that are more concerned with oppression than with truth, hoarding wealth than alleviating the suffering of the poor and more than anything else, being the supreme power on Earth.
There is an absurd tendency among certain religious devotees to have to need to believe in the miracles of their prophet, and such belief gives them the justification to divide themselves from the rest of humanity with the declaration of their faith. They have no doubt that whatever miracles are ascribed to their prophet that they must be real even though the immutable laws of physics say that it is an absolute impossibility. Mind you a large part of the problem is that they were raised to believe the miracles as an aspect of their faith, that to not believe the miracles could result in being punished by spending eternity in hell. And the people who taught such beliefs largely did so because they really had no idea what they were talking about. More often than not, ancient scripture is riddled with ideas, imagery and concepts that are multi-layered and/or codified and in some languages such as Hebrew, were deliberately written with this multi-layered dimensionality to it which then often becomes lost when translated. Take for example the myth of a Savior born of a virgin; a common theme throughout many religions throughout the world, but, when looked at with a little astronomical knowledge, it can be easily seen that the reference is toward the rising of the constellation Virgo(the Virgin) on the Winter Solstice right before god's only sun/son breaks the horizon as viewed from around the equator.
It seems to me, that such blind faith in one's religion is the greatest act of disservice that you can do to your religion and yourself. It includes a level of ignorance that has been passed down as well as a certain abdication of personal sovereignty that is your free will. The religious devotee is told to accept as truth the teachings of their church, to not question the church's authority that the church leaders have insisted is theirs by Divine right. Yet, when one researches the history of their religion and the church one finds a history that should raise questions about the veracity of the teachings as well as ignobility of the church leaders of the past responsible for many heinous crimes against humanity. How one can honestly have faith in the teachings of a church that has protected its agents from persecution for their criminal activity, even when that criminality goes against the church's teachings, is beyond me.Mind you, we cannot paint everyone within a church as being corrupted, abusive, many are the sincere devotees who strive to be following scripture with all things that they do and these are those that also tend to do the charitable works that are not reflected within the hierarchy of its leaders.
This need to cling to an alleged unprovable historicity does not bring validity to their belief as they want to be believe, in fact it brings a justified criticism and even ridicule from the ego of the disbeliever. It becomes a deterrent and worse a mockery as it is no more than faith in fantasy and presupposes that blind faith in a miraculous fantasy is enough to further one's spiritual journey, where-as the truth is that it makes one vulnerable to the abuses by the corruptible power structures within a religious organization and without it as there are those that will make claims of associations with a church in the hopes of finding favor with the devotees of that church.
Many religious people when confronted with the deeper meanings within their scripture and the similarity in their prophets react violently against such information. They seem to feel as if it destroys the validity of their blind faith and want to reject it. Yet, the truth is quite the opposite. Yes, it may take away from the false belief of a historical prophet, but it doesn't detract from the core of the prophet's message which was one of love, compassion, humility, forgiveness, etc. Yes, it may reveal that your church someway along the way has lost its way and this would be due to that most adversarial human element we now know as ego and it is ego that needs to cling to these misunderstood myths. Acknowledging the fact that the miracles by which a believer defines his/her belief are the same miracles recorded by religions throughout space and time is not a validation of the miraculous, but the first steps in understanding causation, to which the religious miracle is the effect. As I wrote in the previous blog, this is not due to imitation and the belief that it is such is quite fantastical and reveals a lack of critical thinking considering the millennia that separates these religions as well as the thousands of miles of ocean. The fact that many atheists accept this as evidence that all religions are false is ironic as it seems that it is a belief accepted without critical thought and therefore is nothing more than blind faith; the stuff of religions. But don't tell an atheist that as they will become quite emotionally vociferous in their disagreement.
A more likely answer to the the question of similarity in religious myth is that they were all inspired by the same source, or largely the same source, for as one investigates this subject they will discover that there is more to it than they realized. One of the most obvious source of such inspiration is the movement of the heavenly bodies especially those of our solar system as their cycles were the easiest to chart. Another less obvious source is the entheogens that have been associated with many if not all the fertility based religions that were an extension of the early sun worshippers that predated monotheism. This history of the evolution of religion is all the validation a rational person requires to know the true value of the prophet's messages of love, forgiveness, compassion, humility, generosity,etc. Especially as these qualities are as common as the mythologies themselves.
So, the real question that still lies unanswered is how to bring about the truth through the union of religions and is often the case within mysticism the answer is really quite obvious, to which I shall explore further in upcoming posts. But I shall leave you with this tidbit of a thought tease; all dualities are actually trinities.
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