Is religion an outdated, oldfashioned stupid idea of the past

 

 

 

 

Some people seem to think: Hey come on isn’t religion a stupid idea of the past. Shouldn’t we believe that God(Ishvara, Allah, Dao, Jehovah) does not exist. And rather be scientifice with the argument: I can not see God so it does not exist. And was the believe in religion only a thing people did before empirical science came up and is now a stupid oldfashioned remnant of a time in which people believed in mystical stories. Is religion an outdated thing of past times or is it not stupid but rather intelligent to believe in God or Ishvara.

Look, we are dealing with a very complicated topic here. Religion is meant to be about finding the things that we can not understand yet. Religion is meant to be about finding a higher truth. A truth that we do not know yet.

So what is relligion actually? One of the main points to consider when thinking about religion is that: we are here. And we look for the best way to live. And people of all times where confronted with the same problem: they are there and so they all started to look for the best way to live. and so people of all times did the same thing: they tried to find the best way to live. and not only did they try to find the best way to live everybody just for him or herself in a one-person-efford, no they went even further and so everytime they found a good rule that made them come further when they lived by it they told other people about this specific rule. And that formed religion, that is what religion actually is. So religion describes that people of all times came together and defined the best way to live that they knew. And so religion is not at all a stupd fairytale. Religion is a compendium of behavior rules that where developed with the idea behind it that following these behaviour rules brings you closer to the higher things.

Religion is a set of rules that people thought of to be the best ways to reach a higher state. So in religion we are looking at a set of rules and ways that people before us developed that define the best way of reaching higher. Looking at what other people invented until now is very well an important concern. And looking at what other people thought to be the best way of living will always be a concern even in the future. If we build a spacerocket we will look at older constructions of spacerockets humanity has already build. So if we try to get to the secrets of this universe we look at plans humanity already made to do this. These plans are called religion. Some of the ways of religion we have so far will work to make you better, some will not work. Let me just throw it in here directly: I say being only nice loving and caring is the only way in religion that really brings you to the higher things. So since we are looking at a ruleset we are not to ask if Allah sends prophets or if prophets of the past are “holy”. We are just to try to understand what these people tried to tell us in terms of what rules or lets better say strategies they developed for becoming a higher form of being. Because even from a nonreligious standpoint the big prophets where fellow man. And a lot of people tell us that they where great people. And much of the ideas they tried to forward already seem very intelligent to us even after throwing only a short glance at their ideas. So in order not to waste the ideas that people have developed who where here before us we have to look at what the prophets actually tried to tell us about the best way to live and then discuss among ourselves and also of course test the strategies they presented. And from this more and more develope the best way to “live into the right direction”. Those people thought of themselves as teachers. So we should already do justice to them by trying to do what they suggested. If we take our own search about what is a good strategie of living up from what people already developed we will have a better starting point. Keeping a look at what other people say is always intelligent. Taking religion as something to holy, so that you may not think about better ways is of course not good.

So the big names in religion are people who claim to have experienced the higher things. But where these big prophets like Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad or Krishna just loosers who where just fantasizing? This is unlikely because they got much credit by their contemporaries which we can see at the fact that their fame spread. So we have to imagine the bigger names of religion such as Buddha, Jesus or the saints of christian church for example as being fascinating people who seemed to be very clever to the people who met them. So that means when we trust in the truthfullness of Jesus words for example we actually do not only trust Jesus, we also trust the people who met him and said: I will try to do what this guy does because I experienced that his ways are getting him somewhere. So the people who met the prophets and saints already did verify if those people where clever or just people talking inconsistend and stupid stuff. And people are egoistic in this regard, they only copy behaviour of which they think it gets them somewhere. So the prominent people who spoke of certain strategies to reach higher where thoroughly checked by their contemporaries. But not only that: We do not only trust Jesus and the people who met him and adapted his ways of living. But also because a lot of time has passed since those prophets lived the people who up to the present day lived by the ideas that Jesus or Buddha brought forward also seemingly came to good results because otherwise at some point the rules would have been completely redefined if the people who used them would over the centuries notice that this behaviour actually gets them nowhere. So there is an important aspect one has to consider when thinking about religion and that is: “Other people are not stupid”. So in the case of the big world religons the ways and behaviour rules presented have been tested by millions in regard to if they lead to higher experiences and useful development. And if they would not have lead to good results they would have been dimissed.

Religion is not stupid. The ideas and strategies a religion presents for reaching the higher self could be all wrong and yet religion itself, the pure idea to collect the best ideas is never stupid.

 

Religion is a ruleset of strategies to come to see things others have already seen. And those people where not stupid

As I said before religion is about finding a truth that one does not know yet. The idea behind religion is to help the development towards a deeper understanding and a better position in this universe. And that necessarily makes it a field of believing in things that you have not seen yet. Because that is actually the whole idea behind religion, to get to an understanding of things that are far above the things that you have seen so far.So we actually do not believe in things that can not to be seen. We actually believe in things that we have not seen but of which other people tell us that they saw them.

And the idea that other people before us really saw higher things or reached higher states with these rulesets is actually quite evidentally true because if they did not then these behaviour rules would have been dropped by the community of people over the ages.

So when you start using it religion is neccessarily a field of believing in things that you can not see. I sometimes compare it to a case in Kung Fu. Well trained masters speak about reaching points in this fighting art in which body and mind reach increadible states. But they claim that reaching these states is something that only happens after years of practice. Usually we believe that this is true because we think that these masters will know what they speak about. And we believe that they experienced these things. So religion is not about the things nobody can see or experience. It is about things that others experienced and of which they tell us that we will experience it after a long time of practice. So the idea is that after some time of following these rules you will first start to see the things that where not to be seen before and with this then understand why the applied behaviour rules where useful. Useful means that they bring you a good result. And In this case the good result should be actually experiencing higher things.

So the point in religion is to follow a set of rules that are applied to your everyday behaviour. Some people think that religion is only about believing in unseen things and walking to the temple regularily. That of course would be an idea that would not be very convincing. But that is not the point about religion. The big teachers of world religion as well as the smaller teachers did not say: come to the tempel once a week. What the prophets like Buddha or Jesus said was: Do this. And do that. And that will help you to develop.

want an example? It is passed on to us that Jesus the one big teacher of christianity said this:

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.

So those are rules of behavior: Be meek, merciful, pure in heart and be a peacemaker. And the expected result of this behaviour is also mentioned. As Jesus continues: with this behaviour you will eventually see God and be called a child of God. So those are absolutely clear behaviour rules that are supposed to lead you to the higher things and developing a higher form if you act by them.

Another example. Buddha the big teacher of Buddhism said:

• You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
• Ceasing to do evil, Cultivating the good, Purifying the heart: This is the teaching of the Buddhas
• Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity
• Therefore, bhikkhus(monks), you should train yourselves thus: ‘We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it

So also what Buddha gives us are rules that help to develope to reach a higher state which he claims to already have reached.

These Buddha citations are mostly from the books: Samyutta Nikaya and the book Dhammapad. And If you want to read more of Jesus ideas of acting that is supposed to make you develope you will find that in the Gospels in the Christian Bible. Those are actually full of what Jesus tells about which acting is necessary to reach higher things. The four Gospels are actually rather short text which you can alltogether easily read in four evenings.

So what is done in the temples and churches is that the rules that where given out by the prophets on how you best act and live your life are read to the believers who come together in the temple or mosque. That is what is done there. Somebody reads from the behaviour rules given by the big teachers. And then one of the priests talks about how these rules of acting can best be applied. People do not just go to christian church or any other temple to just go there to please God. No, they go there because the ideas of useful behaviour are recited there. And those rules are alltogether strategies to reach a higher form of being.

Now lets hear one more Buddha citation that might fit to thinking about: if the path of development to a higher form which as I said is the center point of religion is really possible

Buddha: There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

 

Religion is absolutely not uncritical. Being critical is a core element of true religion

Religion is not about being uncritical and just go and believe something. That is not how one should do it. Jesus for example used some rules of behaviour that where different from the rules of behaviour that the religion he grew up to told him to use. And so in the part of the Bible that speaks about Jesus from time to time find the sentence. This and that is written(in the religios texts), but I tell you to do another thing. So Jesus actually critically reviewed the religion he grew up with which by the way was Judaism. And his critical review brought many new ideas of new rules which in he thought where apt to faster and better bring people to develope higher. And those new strategies he presented where so many that people called this new set of behaviour rules a new religion. So christianity arose as a modified Judaism. Judaism as any other religion was a set of strategies developed by humans in a collective efford to define the most effective ways to reach being a higher form of being. And those rules where revised by Jesus. That is what Jesus is actually famous for. As much as Einstein revised some general ideas of physics Jesus revised the old strategies of development. The same revising happened in Hinduism. Buddha who grew up to the religion hinduism told the other hinduists to live by modified rules that he said where more effective at developing to be a higher form of oneself. And these changes where so radical that the result also was called a new religion. And so Budhism arouse from Hinduism. So we see: religion is never about being uncritical.

And the same happens today. People in the christian church are getting more and more convinced that when people can not help but be gay, and being gay is not against the main rule of christianity which is to be caring and loving, then being gay is probably not a thing that prevents you from reaching higher. But in the Bible is written that being gay prevents you from getting higher and developing to reach a higher truth. But this is wrong. It is a wrong statement in the Bible that being gay prevents you from reaching higher. And so today we experienced how the rules of behaviour that lead to reaching higher are modified. The rule not to be homosexual is being dropped at the very moment. We understood that the rule not to be homosexual is not leading to becoming higher and entering a higher truth. So we drop this rule from our collective strategies. Another thing is evolution. The Bible says that the first humans where formed by God directly out of clay. Today modern science tells us that animals developed through evolution. And so today the three big cristian churches which are called Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox have made an official statement that evolution is true and that the biblical idea about creation is wrong. So if you think christians would be told to believe in Creationism then you are mistaken. Some smaller christian churches still stick to this wrong idea. But this rule of behaviour or in this case rather this wrong believe has already been changed in the big christian churches. There is an official statement that evolution of species is true that was given out by the big christian churches to replace the older wrong believe in the myth of creation. So to believe in creation is one of the many rules that did not stand the trial and error system that is at work in human religion. And it is this big trial and error system that is at work, of verifying the strategies in a collective efford over the ages that makes the big religions of today a pretty good set of strategies for reaching higher. Apart from the mentioned homosexuality issue and the evolution issue also the believe how God or Allah looks like or is like has seen various changes over the ages and will shurely face more changes in the future as we learn to understand things better. So we see two things. First: religion is not about being uncritical. It never was, religion is the idea to put up a ruleset that makes you reach a higher state if you follow it and it has always been the attempt of all people to modify the rules they follow to make them more effective in reaching that higher truth. And the second thing we see: modern religion is refined, it is already the result of generations of people before us critically testing rules of behaviour through trial and error to see if they reach a higher state in their lives when they apply the given strategies and eventually modified these behaviour rules if they don’t lead to positive results. Some rules where dismissed, others where added and that over thousands of years. So the big world religions of today are a cultural treasure. The result of the trial and error experiments of millions of people over thousands of years you could not repeat all by yourself. As we have seen, the strategies of reaching higher are not to be taken uncritically because they only where developed as the results of millions of people testing them and modifying them over thousand of years. So religion is not an outdated system of stupid noncritical believe but much rather the behaviour rules and strategies that worked best for finding a higher truth.

So in the world religions as in any good science there is a theory made on how to reach closer to the higher things and then it is tested through experiments. So because the religous rules where devoloped in this way over time religion is actually a science. One of the oldest sciences of humanity: “the science of the right way”. And in that way you have work with it, always critical. But you should not go to completely dismiss what thousands of people worked on up to the present day. Rather you should cherish the work people put into the development of these strategies and utilize them for your own efford to find the truth As I said if you want to build a space rocket you look at older plans humanity already developed for this. The same strategy is advisable if you want to go out and find cosmic truth, you look at the plans humanity already developed for this. Make use of the test results that came upon you through the ages. And keep in mind what I said: other people are no idiots, especially not the ones who where themselves celebrated and whose ideas where celebrated by a lot of people through the ages.

 

Religion is not just a believe that people make up to feel more secure or convenient

The reason why religion has not been dismissed completely by now is that results can be achieved with application of the given strategies and it where people of all times who actually managed to achieve good results. So the idea that people just believe in religion because they search for comfort is a completely wrong idea. Religion is still there because it works. People like comfort but the idea that people would believe in things that they know to be wrong just for the comfort of these ideas is absolutely not the way we do it. It might comfort me to think that I own an increadible ammount of money. But I will not tell myself that this is the truth because it would not help me. I would rather make clear for myself that I do not own an increadible amount of money because convincing myself to ahve much money would prevent me from going and really earn some money. The convenience of actually having money is higher then the convenience of believing to have money. That is why things that clearly show to be not true are dismissed, that is human nature in the persue of real advantage. So just convincing ourselves of things that we just make up out of nothing would not have stood the test of time. Nobody would convince him or herself of a wrong fact like that he or she owns a lot of money because the convenience this thought alone brings is just not high enough. We would rather make some money instead. And the same thing happened in religion, people have not so much a wish for believing unprovable things for a bit of convenience, they rather go out and search the real truth. And that is what humans did in religion. It is the same thing as in science: the real truth brings a higher advantage then the things you just make up. That is why people tried to avoind things that are just made up. So it always was the provabilty of the religious strategies that made the strategies survive. The fact that people now and then indeed experienced the predicted results and then talked about that, that is what made religious rules stand the test of time. The provability makes religious strategies survive and not the convenience of a thought. We just don’t work like that. And you are not the only person who wants the truth while all other people are content with living a nice lie. Don’t ever think that the search for truth is a wish that everybody has. And this wish was applied to religion in all times. Religion is a search for truth, and it was always tested if these strategies do bring good results. And religion is not an efford for making up nice lies to feel better. Nobody would do that, the convenience that nice lies bring is is just not high enough. The convenience of nice lies can never match the convenience that useful strategies bring. And people of all times knew that. You can trust that people knew that and put efford into the strategies of religion to make them work for reaching higher. So the thought that oneself is the only one searching for truth while others did not have an interest in the truth is a wrong thought. Again: other people are no idiots. You don’t want to decept yourself with wrong ideas and all others also did not want to decept themselves with wrong ideas. If you know the truth you can develop better strategies for your acting. Knowing the truth brings a higher advantage then the comfort of wrong belives and everybody knows that. And that is why religion always was developed keeping the search for truth in mind. Because all of humaty always treasured that what brings an advantage.

 

Religion does not lead to wars as our believe in the importance of moratlity can not be tought of as being distached from human religion

There is no development of a morality codex in the form we know it today apart from religion as atheists often claim when they say things like: We would not need religion but of course we have to be nice to each other. No, the big morality idea of humanity that was developed in the past can not be thought of as being a standalone system apart from religion, instead it was religion that brought with it and promoted the big codex of morality to the point we experience it today because being caring was considered one of the top strategies for reaching higher. So the ideas that religion always lead to wars and humanity would be better of without it is a completely wrong idea. Wars are fought over riches and refraining from egotism is a matter of practice. So religion prevents conflicts as it promotes the idea of peace. The wars fought in the past and today do not happen because of religion. They happen even though we have religion but there would be much more stealing of ressources if religion would not be there to tell us that the stealing of ressources is harmful to your development. The big promotion of being caring as one of religions major strategies of reaching a higher form of being always rather prevented evil behaviour. And it was religion that actually gave our societies this understanding of the big advantage that being caring brings by constantly reminding us of that advantage. Because the advantage of being caring is actually not always directly visible. So religion rather prevents wars and formed the moral codex that atheists often want to see apart from religion. The high esteem for moral behaviour was formed through the repetition of it in religion. So religion has always done us good. And there have only been wars for revenge, material goods and land. In all wars of humanty that are thought of as being wars for religious reasons these religious reasons always only where utilized to cover up the true reason for the war. And the general idea of peace that religion promotes is just the reason why we today know so well that being peaceful is the right way. This is a benefit that came through religion and humanity would definitely not be better of without religion.

 

But in religion I am supposed to believe in things without seeing them isn’t that uncritical and stupid

Religon or developing yourself to a higher form is all about seeing things eventually that you do not see today. That is just what it means to develope to a state in which you then understand a higher truth. Religion is about becoming somebody who is more then one was before. This necessarily must include to aim for things that are not to be seen yet. But these things are not to be seen by you while others say that they experienced and saw these higher things. And once more we have to come back to the old rule that I mentioned: “other people are no idiots”. And especially when we talk about so famous people such as Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, Laotzi or Confucius. As I said those where people who as they lived really impressed their contamporaries. Because if they would not have been impressive they would not have been remembered. But as I said there are not only these big names. There where millions of people who lived according to the rules given by religon. And many said that they indeed experienced higher things through application of the given strategies. And they said things like: This rule was very useful or that rule did not help at all. And so the rules of religion where continually shaped by huminity to be the ruleset they are today and they will be shaped further by huminaty in the future. That means that religion is not an oldfashioned relict of the past but actually a cultural treasure that serves as a great starting point for you if you want to have ideas how to reach the higher truth that where tested by a lot of people already. I this regard it has to be seen that the best rules attract the most people so in general: avoid small religions and go to the big religions. And be critical to the rules given. But remember being critical does not mean to not believe everything that you yourself can not see. Because if you yourself do not see something it does not mean it is not there. Others who saw it might be right. Usually I say one would also not say: “I don’t understand Einsteins formulas so they must be wrong”. Being critical means to test the ideas through trial and error. Thats what people before already did, thats why religion is a good starting point for you.

Religion is also not about making yourselve a stupid noncritical being following some stupid rules. This is the description af a wrong religion. True religion as about becomming what you really are and doing that starting from a point where what you are at the starting point is so distorted that you have problems to see your own true wishes. Which as I say are being loving and caring, for this is your true self. Thats why people who already where developed farther in this regard gave us hints on how to come to see the higher things.

So as long as you don’t just believe in it but go the way to try the ways and always keep the right for yourself to change them to develope them to be even better then of course religion is something very great. Being a thing many people contributed to it gives us a much better starting point on our way to look for the true things. And this Idea to collect the best ideas to live by so that we can use them and develope them further will never be outdated or oldfashioned.

 

What about God (Allah, Jehovah, Ishvara) in religion

Many religions say don’t picture Jehovah(God) or believe without knowing. And some people are afraid that they are to believe in something without being critical to it. And also some are afraid that science seems to prove that all the old ideas about God where wrong and so they are afraid that God is an old fashioned stupid idea that is just outdated and that modern science seems to prove the non existence of God or Allah. So some people suspect in the idea of God the ultimate form of being uncritical.

The point with the idea of God in religion is that it is the ultimate thing. God is thought of the thing or intelligence that is most high. It is the center point of this universe connected with everything and maintaining everything. So God(Ishvara) is thought of as being very far above what we can understand.

So God is from out point not only one of the higher things we are trying to understand. it is the most high thing of all. And with this to understand God needs the most development and you will never understand God(Allah) completely.

To really proceed fast on this way you have to absolutely devote your life to living by the presented ideas. Doing nothing else then living for this aim. And so making clear in ones mind that the aim that is to be reached is much above what you can understand today is necessary to understand how complete the efford to walk on this path must be. It must completely replace every other idea of action. And the reason why these rules of living have to replace every other idea of acting is because we want to reach something that lies far above what we are today.

We are trying to reach a higher thing. A higher form of being. And ultimatly reach the “intelligence and force” that maintains the universe and all higher things that we do not yet see. So God is indeed something that we do not see. It is the highest of the higher things. never will you completely understand it even if you over time reach the highest point that you can reach.

So the people who initially don’t accept to believe in Ishvara will have a hard time experienceng something. That is what I think. And thats why we ask ourselves if Ishvara exists. So God can not be seen fast. Thats why some people say religion is stupid. Becaase we are dealing with a way here on which you have to walk on for a long time without “proove”. Because first after a few years of doing things for Jehova you will experience something in this field. But only after a really very long time of pexercising yourself you will understand some things about God and you will never understand or see God completely. So it has to be accepted that some things will never fall into our capacity of understanding. But our capacity of understanding is not the highest in the universe so it is not true that a thing that can not be seen is not there. because we have to understand that we can not see everything because of our limitation. And to get rid of these limitations as good as possible that is just the idea behind develping towards a higher form. So god is not to be sen because we are not able to see it. we get better at seeing it with developing but we will never see it completely. the idea that we must be able to see and understand everything that is there is just wrong. So God exists but we will never understand him completely. So religion tells you to believe in something here without seeing it.

And as I said another important point is that aiming at becomming a higher form of being includes aiming at things that you can not understand and in the case of God the highest point walking the path includes aiming at a thing you will never completely understand. And for walking the presented way of love you must try to put every other aim away. So for really living right you will need to accept a higher thing that wants love and caring without understanding this thing making clear for you that you have to put everything else aside and live to become something that will be differnt then what you understand today becuase it is higher then what you are today. That is why in the case of Ishvara(God) all religions tell you to believe in something that can not be seen and make this believe a neccessary rule.

Believing in a loving God can be difficult since the world is so cruel it seems to be impossible that all this should lead to something that is loving and caring. But as I said without the initial believe in a Allah who wants loving and caring and will in the end have loving and caring you won’t get to far. So we have to accept that the sytem is to complicated for us to be fully understood. And then go the way to exept a higher thing that wants love and caring and will have everything loving and caring at some time even if we don’t understand how. We have to believe in a perfect Allah without “proove” because only from this point we will come to really feel God(Allah). And that “feeling God” will take you a lot of years of practicing how to be nice. So you will not only have to accept a loving Dao(God). You will have to make it the center of your actions for many years.

You don’t have to imagine Ishvara as a person. That would bring you into the trouble to try to be somebody else if you do the will of somebody else. God makes the system that we are a just a part of. Living the rules of God means to live our own inner rules to become what we actually are. This will bring you personally to the things that you really want. “Allah” is more than we are. It is a force. A system. The world itself and the maker of the complete perfection this system is going to. Be nice for the world itself. And only nice. This universe anyway will lead you to perfection (moksha) after some lives because “Jehovah” is almighty. However stupid this might sound to some of you. You can experience it for yourself after some time if you are never not-caring.

It sounds like a good idea anyways to be nice. But also it will lead you to good results that you never could predict. With being only nice you would do better practice than any spiritual guru of today does.

Religion is nothing more than a collection of the best ideas for a right living, humanity developed so far. It is our own collection of good ideas.That is good religion. And this can never be outdated. Religion is not stupid. The ideas for reaching the higher self that religion so far collected could be all wrong and yet religion itself to make such a collection of ideas, the pure idea to collect the best ideas is never stupid.

 

Now you might think that religion was the reason for many wars in the past. But that is not true, wars are fought for resources. Religion actually diminishes war. You can read about that on this page in the article: “A Book for the Beach” that you find in the sidebar.

Now you will probably say, what are then the basic rules of religion that humanity found out through trial and error so far that are supposed to help me to develop towards a higher form of being. And you might want to ask the internet about it. But I think that some rules are more important then others and some rules are even useless when you want to develope yourself to see a higher truth. So I made an information about what are the rules you have to live by to really devolop as fast as possible. and you will find it on this page. And it is called “online course about spirituality”. you find it in the sidebar which is on the bottom of each page if you are using a mobile phone. you will also find it as the first articles if you click on Spirituality in the main menu.

For walking this path you should definitely read the self development course under Spirituality which is more precise. Really, maybe bookmark this site if you don’t want to read now, but read it. Because “making Ishvara the center of your actions” is not yet a practical description of what to do. And it is better explained in this online spirituality course.

So coming to results will take some time. Maybe you wil die and in the “next life” first come to some real nice insides about the higher things. But It is of course great if you get results in this field. For the field is named: The best things that you can do.

 

Does God exist?

How to come to God and reach or come closer to Allah?

Is it intelligent or stupid to search for God?

Science or religion which is wrong or right?

What if I don’t want to come to God?

What if I don’t believe in God?

What is God like?

How can I see God?