Religious faith misguiding

[claypool4prez]

Here is a piece I wrote for Appalachian State's Newspaper. Also wrote one on profiling based on morality, and how the Dare program is counter productive. The rag fired me, it's cool because I moved on to much better things. But still...


Religious faith misguides the world
Thursday, 30 March 2006

Mike Cooper

Faith is essential to overcoming the world’s problems. Wait, I’m not Pat Robertson.

The only way we will find peace as a human race is to stop clinging so tightly to outdated religions.

You see, technology has finally caught up with the world and its war between ideologies.

Religious wars have been going on for ages. Now, fanatics on any side, armed with weapons that belong in an L. Ron Hubbard novel, could wipe out millions because they take faith too seriously.

In the wake of 9-11, the Christian Right has stepped up in this country and influenced our politics, which has unfortunately hurt innocent individuals.

So should we be at war with Islam, in a way? Yes, and we should be at war with the other
religions, too.

I’ve spent countless hours combing through piles of religious literature in my parents’ bookstores in the area. I have read every possible theory as to why we are here.

However, I found just as much evidence that Jesus was really the personification of a psychedelic mushroom called Amanita Muscaria than he was the son of God. And that cracked-out theory was proposed by one of Great Britain’s leading religious authorities.

It’s an insane notion, but so is every religion, from Christianity, Islam and Judaism all the way to Scientology.

Believing in something without proof is “faith.”

Believe whatever you want. What I’m saying, though, is that faith makes you ignorant.

When it seeps its ugly head into politics, it causes more harm than good. Most of the major atrocities committed throughout time were in the name of a religion.

Unfortunately, with the advancement in technology, we are running out of time.

And while we are here on Earth, we must learn to live together without forcing our beliefs on others.

Victimless crimes like prostitution, personal drug use and sodomy are illegal in this country only because they are viewed “sinful.”

But how about the fact part of the money given to African countries to fight AIDS goes to teaching abstinence as a solution. The Pope might think this is right, but sensible people don’t.

Meanwhile, legal drugs kill and hospitalize thousands every year here in this country while non-lethal ones like marijuana remain a no-no because they produce a euphoric state.

Approximately 400,000 citizens in the United States rot in prison right now over nonviolent drug charges and millions suffer through probation.

At least I’m trying to be helpful. Many people rest on laurels maintaining “faith” in God’s plan. I think any god would value being a positive contributor to humanity higher than being able to quote scripture.

Are we incapable of loving our fellow man, even if there was no God?

Instead of waiting for Jesus’ return, be your own Jesus. Care for others yourself and donate your money to charities, not to church.

People fear death and what comes after it, but everyone will die. Every friend you have, every person you walk past later on today. So why fear it? Embrace the splendors of this life.

Think outside of the box.

There are no people at this school who practice his or her dogma fully.

They pick and choose the parts that work for them. Why is this?

If we are going to prevent the coming war between Islam and Christianity, we all need to take the blinders off and focus on this life first.

For as far as we truly know, it might be all we have.

Civilization is not going to fall because we lost our beliefs.

It is going to fall because we won’t look past them.


Mike Cooper, a sophomore journalism major from North Wilkesboro, is a lifestyles reporter.

[BushOut06]

1. Get rid of religion, we'll just find other things to fight over

As you pointed out, many atrocities have been done in the NAME of religion. Most religions in and of themselves are quite peaceful, and preach such things as tolerance, forgiveness, love, charity, etc. This is true with Christianity as well as Islam. It's those who want to rise to power who pervert religion for their own ambitions. If there were no religion, we'd find other things to fight over. We'd fight over land, resources, nationalism, race, etc.

[ktlyon]

3. Zen Buddhism can be practiced without faith in supernatural stuff

I might suggest you and the author of this thread check it out but that would be against my religion.

[ktlyon]

2. try writing in paragraphs and in an organized way

a list is not an article but it could be an outline if you put a little more into it
also try to stick to one overall point for the piece

good luck

[Bill McBlueState]

4. it appears to have been published already

It does annoy me that journalistic style these days requires making paragraphs as short as possible.

[cosmik debris]

5. I was wondering if that is what they taught in Journalism School.

I have noticed that a lot of journalists don't know what a paragraph is or how to form one. They wouldn't know a topic sentence if it bit the on the rear. They can't compose and coordinate two sentences with similar thoughts without starting a new line. This severely limits their ability to build on or elaborate on a thought. The basic building blocks of our language are words, sentences, and paragraphs. Until people learn to use the building blocks properly, their communication skills are incomplete.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. You make some valid points

in my opinion.

But my theory is that we humans are hard-wired for violence and if you take away religion we'll just find other things to fuss about.

That's my thinking and I'm stickin' to it!

Unless you talk me out of it, of course.

[SPKrazy]

7. Interesting Perspective

although I don't agree that all faith is bad or wrong

but as to your comments about drugs

health reasons are also legitimate reasons for laws regarding prostitution and drugs, not just "sins"

otherwise, I'm surprised you were fired for this.

If I were an editor, I probably wouldn't have published it, but I wouldn't have fired you

[Jeroen]

8. Your target audience

First:
I think the way foreword is thru dialogue, by asking each other and ourselves questions.
Therefore it is essential that we try not to distant ourselves from one another in such a way that dialogue becomes impossible.

There is no doubt in my mind that you are trying to be helpful, but you might examine how religious people, your target audience, will perceive your writing.
Take this paragraph for example:

“Believe whatever you want. What I’m saying, though, is that faith makes you ignorant”

In the first sentence you say something like:
“feel free to believe what ever you want, that is fine with me”.

But I can assure you that many religious people will read it like this:
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe, it doesn’t matter what you believe”.

The second sentence will probably be perceived as an attack, as an ‘end of discussion’ statement:
“No matter what you believe, no matter who you are, faith makes you ignorant, therefore you are ignorant”.

It is likely that everything else you write, is going to be ignored because of that paragraph. As a result, your target audience will distant itself from your writing, making it ineffective. If it is your intention to provoke certain people, then your approach might be right. But I read your writing as a sincere invitation to constructive dialogue. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Second:
Your writing seems to be personal and emotional, almost like a rant (d)?. You provide a lot of thoughts, ideas, facts and so on. In doing so it becomes more or less general / global (I don't know the right term in English).
To be more effective, you could break it up and be more specific, for example:

Write an in-depth article about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the fight against AIDS in Africa (which you already refer to in your writing) It could be factual and explain that certain Christian believes (values) result instantly in the suffering of millions of people. Somehow this suffering contradicts other Christian believes. There is no need to call anyone ignorant and that will make your position / argument much stronger. Just confront people with the consequences of their believes and ideas. It will make them think and question themselves (except for those who lost the ability to do so). I know this from my own experience.

Hopefully you find my input helpful.
Good luck with your writings!

On edit: spellig.. ehh ..spelling

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. I'm late to this party...

and my only comment is that prostitution is not a victimless crime.

My opinion...others differ, I'm sure.

I work at times in my job with the prison popluation and the prostitutes are, in my view, victims of a society that views women as sexual vessels. I never met one who enjoyed her job. That's a male myth.

[dattaswamI]

10. Religion Vs Spirituality

Religion Vs Spirituality

Every Religion in this world wants you to get rid of bad qualities at least from today for the admission into that religion which is practically impossible. The reason is that these bad qualities were grown like hills for the past millions of births. This small human life is insufficient even to move them, not to speak of removing them. People can control the bad qualities to some extent by their efforts. These bad qualities are frequently sparking in the minds of even the most pious sages. If one says that he is good and he is devoid of all the bad qualities, it only cheating others, which in turn is cheating oneself. Due to this practically impossible condition, for the religious admission, people have developed allergy towards any religion because the eligibility for admission is impractical.

The religious preachers have confused the whole situation by fusing religion and spiritualism. Religion is the context of GOD to establish peace and justice in this world. In this context, you must control your bad qualities so that you will not disturb the peace and justice and will not harm any good person in this world. If you disturb the world by your bad qualities, God will punish you. But, in this context, it is sufficient if you control the bad qualities since you cannot remove them. The Religion ends here. Some religions strictly end here without any spiritualism.

The spiritualism is the context in which you have to make efforts to reach God. In this context, you need not even control your bad qualities because, God has no personal objection towards your bad qualities. These bad qualities cannot be obstacles in any manner in this context. Moreover, when you turn these bad qualities towards the God, they become your helpers. Any quality whether good or bad, is created by God only to help you in reaching Him. If you realize the original aim of all these qualities, good or bad, why should you control these qualities, which are with you as a helper? No fool controls his helpers. So, any quality when involved in spiritualism is used for its original aim, it becomes a good quality. So all your qualities become good in spiritualism and you need not put any effort to remove or even control them. When the qualities are not used for their original purpose, they become bad qualities. Therefore, whatever qualities turned towards the world, are bad qualities. In this spiritualism, there is no need of any effort even to control these bad qualities.

Then, for what, our effort should be made? Our effort should be concentrated to achieve “Bhakthi” which is the love on God. “Bhakthi” is achieved and is grown by the knowledge of God. For example, you came to know that Bombay City exists. This is the knowledge of existence of Bombay. By this you want to see Bombay. As you know the details of Bombay more and more, your desire to see the city becomes more and more. Knowing details about the Bombay City is again the further knowledge. So, knowledge is directly proportional to desire. First Rukmini heard that there is Lord Krishna on this earth. As she heard more and more about Lord Krishna from Sage Narada, her love on Krishna increased enormously. Narada means he who gives knowledge. Therefore, ‘Jnana”(knowledge) generates and develops “Bhakthi (devotion)”. Due to Bhakthi, the Lord is attained. Gita says the same ‘ONLY BY BHAKTHI I AM ATTAINED’ (‘Bhaktya………’).

In the spiritual path all your effort must be concentrated in acquiring the knowledge of God day by day. Once this knowledge based Bhakthi (devotion) is achieved, your qualities good or bad are immaterial. Whatever may be the vessel, the drink in it is important. The value paid in a hotel is for the drink only. If you have taken a cup of coffee, you are paying the cost of the coffee only whether the cup is made of glass or metal. Similarly, God gives value only for your Bhakthi and not for your quality. I will give a beautiful example here. “Sabari” is with good qualities and offered fruits to the Lord Rama who is Vishnu. A hunter called “Kannappa” gave flesh to the Lord Siva. Sabari reached the ‘World of Vishnu and Kannappa reached the World of Shiva”. Both have reached the same Lord because Veda says, “Shiva is Narayana”. Both of them have been given the similar value by the Lord because in both cases, the intensity of the devotion is the same as both gave even their food without eating. Therefore, this proves clearly that the Lord has no objection for your bad qualities. Hence, all the effort should be only to achieve and increase the intensity of love devotion or Bhakthi on God. It is not necessary to bother about your qualities that are inherent coming from millions of births. They are the born qualities. The tail of the dog is curved. Any effort cannot make it straight. By force, we can keep it straight but it has not become straight. Similarly you can control your bad qualities for not disturbing peace of the world by some force. When you come to God, you come in your natural state because you can deceive the world showing that your banded tail is straight but not the God. Whether the river comes in straight path or curved path, the ocean receives only the water with equality. Similarly, God receives your love irrespective of your quality. He received “Sabari” and ‘Kannappa” equally. Sabari with good qualities and Kannappa with bad qualities reached the same Lord, as their devotion is of same intensity.

A piece of gold is wrapped in an old cloth. A stone is wrapped with a metallic foil. Which has more total value? Similarly, the love with high intensity covered even by a bad quality has more total value than the love with lesser intensity covered by a good quality. When the blood flew from the eye of the Lord, the Priest who is a person with good qualities is trying to apply the medicine. But, his devotion is less. In the same situation, “Kannappa” plucked his eyes and donated to the Lord. Kannappa is a person with bad qualities but his devotion is the highest. Devotion is the highest good quality. Now let us evaluate the total cost of the priest and Kannappa. The devotion in Kannappa is +100. The bad qualities in Kannappa are –10. The total cost is +90. The priest with good qualities is +10. The devotion in him is +20. The total cost is +30. So, of the two who is good? Obviously it is Kannappa. Gita says, that, “Even the worst is best by Bhakthi” (Api chet….).

Therefore, what is the eligibility for the admission into our religion of Guru Datta? The eligibility is that you should be a living being. Even animals and birds are eligible to reach God irrespective of their qualities. Even serpent, spider and the elephant got salvation in Sri Kala Hasthi. The serpent has all bad qualities. God did not insist the serpent to get rid of all the bad qualities. Even if God says, the serpent is unable to understand put the efforts. When such a serpent is eligible, why not a man? All the people are depressed and dejected with the eligibility conditions stipulated by various religions. For example if an Institution stipulates the eligibility condition as that one should remove his head and come, nobody can be admitted. Similarly the religions stipulate the removal of all the bad qualities, which is impossible. Only a temporary control is possible which is necessary for you to live in this world with peace. This control is possible. In our religion also we are stipulating this condition, which is possible. So, in our Datta religion, the eligibility condition is that if your bad qualities do not disturb the world, the Lord has no personal objection to them and you need not even control them. Moreover, they will help you in spiritualism.

How to turn the bad qualities towards God and make them helpers in reaching the God? There are six bad qualities that are inherent in any living being since millions of births. They are Lust (kama), Anger (krodha), Greediness (Lobha), ego (mada), Blind attraction (Moha) and Jealousy (Matsarya). Anger, greediness, ego and jealousy come under Rajas quality. Lust and blind attraction come under Tamas quality. I give you an example to divert your bad qualities towards the Lord, which can be used as powerful vehicles. Example:- Love in cinema songs can be diverted to the Lord by little change in words. Then, the powerful tune that created sweet feelings in you is now a powerful vehicle to make you to reach the Lord.

A film song ‘Churaliya Tumne ……’) instead of ‘Sanam’ replace the word with ‘Hare’. All the sweetness of your mind is now on the Lord Krishna (Vishnu). See how a person, mad after cinema songs become a powerful devotee in his own way without any change! You can sing this as your prayer for which you need not put any effort by force. Your worship should be natural and spontaneous, which alone can be true.


At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org
Universal Spirituality for World Peace
[e-mail]