[Please note: The “journey” to Realization has seven, clear-cut steps that must be taken in an exact order. The third step requires that persons first play a religious role or a spiritual role. Both must be transcended to continue, but either (or both) can serve as a step; however, it is far easier to move beyond a spiritual persona than a religious persona.]
F.: Yesterday, site visitors were invited to consider the following about religions: Via their teachings about God, what totally abnormal behavior of their God do they “normalize” in their venues? How does the "normalization" of their god's abnormal behavior and "normalization" of his personality defects either consciously or unconsciously justify their abnormal behavior and normalize their defects? The answer is this: religion “normalizes” murder and genocide. How? People sit in religious venues and hear leaders repeatedly report in a dispassionate fashion that their god killed 6000 here, killed 120,000 there, and eventually killed everyone on the entire planet except for one family. Current news reports quote certain religious leaders who claim that their angry god killed thousands with a hurricane or by knocking down some towers or by any number of natural or man-made disasters, the origin of which they assign to their god. If those reports in worship services that deal with a murdering god do not include an explanation that the leader and all his congregants find such murder and genocide to be abnormal, outrageous, and totally unacceptable, then the listeners will automatically conclude that such conduct must be normal and acceptable. Worse than not questioning the conduct of a god who commits mass murder, the leaders speak calmly and almost proudly of those killings as if such murder and genocide were normal. The result is that congregants take that to be the case and “normalize” murder and genocide.
You may list all of the "advantages" of your religion or religious experiences that you like, but nothing can outweigh the harm that humans have suffered in the relative existence as a result of the religions of the world that present as “normal” (1) an unbelievably abnormal god with (2) lethal personality defects and (3) a totally dysfunctional relationship history with “his children.” Then, the greater harm comes when the religion’s members are encouraged to become godly—to be like that god of destruction and thus to be abnormal and dysfunctional and destructive as well.
You are invited to reconsider the earlier example of the effects on a child who grows up in a totally dysfunctional, abnormal family. Next, place that child in the typical religious venue of a temple, church or mosque and see that the same results occur. That child, as a result of having seen nothing else by way of contrast, comes to believe that the dysfunctional and abnormal is the functional and the normal. That child will automatically be conditioned to believe that it is normal behavior to cast people into fiery holes, to send them to be slaughtered by an army, or to kill most of the population of the planet if you do not like their behavior or beliefs. As a result of their religious training and programming, Jews and Christians have been doing just that for 4000 years. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have been doing just that for 1300 years. And when not fighting members of other religions, the Christians separate and fight by denomination and the Jews and Muslims fight others who are of their own religion but of different sects. You want to focus on what you call religions' “advantages,” but are you seeing any of the disadvantages of such programming and conditioning? Are you now seeing why certain religious leaders today are sending out armies in the name of god to kill others who have different beliefs and values? Are you seeing why religious people are also willing to judge "others" and break relations in their states and cities and homes? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
