It's not a sermon, and nor is it an attack. It is just what I think, and that shouldn't bother or influence anybody else.
For the purposes of this article, I will be saying God to mean all gods, the Bible to mean all holy books, etc. This is because I am technically Christian, and so these are the things that come more naturally to me, not because I believe Christianity to be superior to any other religions.
People have asked me many times (as they ask everyone else, I suppose) which religion I belong to. I’m a Methodist. But only on paper.
I don’t go to church, or pray or anything like that. I’m not even sure if God exists. But I respect the ideas of the religion, and of other religions. The problem I have is this: Man made religions.
God may have made the Earth, and all of space and all creatures everywhere, but it was Man who wrote a book about it. God may have sent a flood to cleanse the earth, and have saved only the few who were pure, but it was Man who spread the word. God may have told us he was everywhere and in everything and that he would know everything you thought and hear everything he said, but it was Man who set up an organisation and told us that if you wanted to speak to God, you must do it through them.
Man can and has taken the words of God and used them to suit himself. He looked at this newfound religion, and thought: “here is an opportunity to gain wealth and power” and He took it.
Now you may be thinking now about your parish vicar, who is paid little, and who only tries to help his community. I believe that most vicars want little more than to help others in a kind Christian way, and I have no problem with that at all. In fact, the world would benefit from more people who are willing to devote their lives to others.
What I mean, is the Church. Vicars may not have wealth or power now, but years ago, everyone would listen to anything that he had to say. A church could have run a country. If in the 1800s, the Pope had said that everyone should support the Liberals in the General election, then the Liberals would have won office.
Think of the Spanish Inquisition. They did some terrible things to people, and they were allowed to, because they were working for the Church. People died through their tortures, and it was ok, because the Inquisition was doing God’s will. Even though God told you not to kill.
It bothers me that you should go to Church every Sunday morning, and that if you want to talk to Him, you must put your hands together and say “Dear God . . .”
If God is everywhere, and knows everything, then why do we have to do these specific things in order for Him to hear us?
Another thing. Have you ever wondered why there is a Hell, if God will forgive you for anything you do?
Well, imagine the Catholic was a television company. Imagine it is the BBC. For years, people have been watching its channels, because it is the only thing on. But now new channels like ITV and C4 have appeared, and the BBC’s ratings are slipping. They need a new program.
The Catholic church was attracting fewer and fewer people, and, in the 1500s, they created Hell, and told everyone that if they did not live a Christian life, they would spend eternity there, and that if babies died before they were christened, they would end up in Limbo. Needless to say, the Catholics were back in business.
Organised religions are like corporations, competing with each other. Is that what God wanted? So I say I am not religious, because I will not belong to these man-made things. If God had written the Bible and ordered the printing presses of the world to run some copies off, then I would have no problem. However, He didn’t. Some geezer did a few thousand years ago. To be quite frank, I could have written it. At that time, people believed these things. We could have had a religion each.
Look at Jesus. Now it is proved that he existed, although who knows if he was the Son of God.
The thing is, two thousand years ago; he supposedly did some stuff, and told us he could do it because the Lord sent him. People believed him (well, enough of them to start a religion anyway).
If he had done the same 1600 years later at least one member of the audience would have said, “He’s a witch; burn him!”
If he had done it last week, some member of the audience would have said, “he’s good, but I prefer David Blaine.
I actually find the idea of a god (or gods) to be quite easy to believe. After all, people from all over the world - on continents that hadn’t even begun to communicate - had similar ideas. Perhaps Gods were actually aliens, as in the film ‘Stargate,’ or maybe they were another species of Human, which had superior powers but have since died out (maybe the same as started theories of Wizards, Elves, Pixies, Leprechauns and the like). Perhaps they were just a way of explaining what could not otherwise be explained.
Either way, I’m not saying any of this as an attack on organised religion, I merely wanted to try and explain why it is that I am not religious. I find it hard to do, but I have tried anyway.
to those link. I have the same feeling as the link author.
I don't know how to paste a link of NIV on here.
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I actually got these two mixed up.