Sunday, March 8, 2015

Chapter 2. Religion, Faith, and our Social Barriers

A writer writes!

The allegedly superior human species displays behaviors that at times belies the intellect we think we have.  Presented with the mystery of life's origin, one segment of our species attempts to construct human theories and suppositions with the false belief that we are at the center of knowledge.  We think we can explain anything in human terms.  Another segment turns to faith and belief in a Creator whom we owe our existence to.  From that comes our practicing Religions.

Religion, the belief in an Almighty Creator, is a shared belief of billions of people.  Our humanistic religious beliefs are segmented and categorized under labels that define the parameters of that faith. Muslim, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Hindu, Baptist, are some of the descriptors that define our religious beliefs.  Then there are titles assigned to churches that are organized without having the global limiting descriptors of Baptist, Catholic, etc.   For those churches religious beliefs are more important than placing the church under a distinct limiting label.

Many churches and organized religions are further segmented by race, culture and income.  Like animals that roam together, "intelligent man" also tends to congregate with others that look like and sound like our reflection in the mirror.  We are united geographically on the same planet but are divided and separated by centuries of separatism.  We pray to our Creator and attempt to follow the rules we believe our Creator has given us on how we are to conduct our lives. Then we add man made rules to govern our behaviors within a religion.  Overall, we have failed miserably in being what our Creator has wanted us to be.  Our only saving grace is that even with all the destructive mechanisms we have created, we have yet to take the final act that would totally end life on the planet Earth.

Our animalistic nature to stay close to those who look, sound, and behave like "us" keeps us divided and from achieving our full potential.  We implement our belief in a Creator by creating separate silos of belief.  We are separated in our unity in believing in a Creator. Yes, there are segments of our species that have taken down the barriers and interact freely regardless of race, income, and culture. But the reality is that there are still many barriers to take down.  We criticize a generation that refuses to let the evils of the past dictate their attempts to interact with other races and cultures in the present. We place upon those in the present the pains and agonies that we remember, or that we recall from historical facts.

Those of us from the older generation are challenged to forget, but not forget, what has transpired in the past.  So it is with our faith.  Human behaviors of the past should not and must not dictate our religious behavior of the future.  Learning about other "faiths" is something we can do and should do.  It gives us knowledge, understanding, and develops a road to a common path that we can all walk upon.

Revelation shows that the material world can not be saved.  But, preparing as many souls for the Rapture as possible is another way of "saving".  In the end, there will be fewer barriers, more religious understanding, and during daily worship a mixture of races and cultures gathered together as children of our Creator without the need for a defining label.

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