For so long, the existence of, the gifts from, and the belief in a God have been topics so harshly disputed that they have created diabolical feuds between schools of thought and even wars between countries.
To decide absolutely would be an obvious demonstration of ignorance, yet to take sides would be an expected manifestation of human nature.
The question as to which side you are going to be on is really not even the main question-nine times out of ten your parents already decided that for you.
Yet it is far too often that after choosing sides, we neglect to maintain a mind open enough to analyze not just the possibility of the other side being true (which many have done) but also what would one's personal life actually be like if the other side was found to be assuredly correct.
We see with eyes closed, and with mouths speaking.
We deem automatic the truth of our beliefs, because they are our beliefs.
We need to look closer.
With God out of the picture I stand in front of the metaphorical mirror.
Could it be that, by myself, I am this weak? Is it possible that all of my training, good upbringing, and self-discipline falter away at the slightest possibility, at a mere inkling? Could it be that my roots go only so deep, my creed have only so weak a hold, my beliefs only so thin a basis, and my sense of self worth only so fragile an existence that they will be, like the seeds of a dandelion, full of fluff, whimsicalness, and naivety, scattered in the first slight gust of a soft summer's breeze? Holding fast for no longer than the lion on his prey, as my ideals are attacked with a sudden viciousness and ferocity from my humanness which I so gullibly, and yet rightfully, blame for all of my lack of control.
It is true: as the ocean is deep, as the sky is light, and the hills endless, so unchanging are my failures.
In so following, humanity without a moral authority (God), at its best, is an endless, selfish search in which the sole purpose is to better one's self, in any and all aspects, at the expense of others.
Accordingly, we believe that true wisdom lies in self-preservation.
The selfishness of humanity is unparalleled in any other species, due to our uncanny ability of reason.
Every other species instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment.
Humans are the most intellectual beings this planet has ever seen, and yet we consume every natural resource, striving to better our own lives, complaining at our every minute discomfort.
Generating only feelings of distrust, our intellectual minds set us apart from these supposedly inept species.
The fallacies of man rendered by the cursed power of reason uniformly trace back to our natural selfish nature.
Ergo, our greatest gift, the very one that sets humans above and apart from all other species, becomes our greatest curse.
The irony of reason lies in the natural verity of mankind's nature: self-preservation.
Our intellect generates our stupidity.
As a result we find that our greatest ally lies only within ourselves: the sole being that is truly trustworthy.
Ultimately, aided by the continuing diminish in trust of others, our power to reason, and the key to our selfish nature, will destroy us in the end.
This only deepens the problem in which we are.
It is our very nature to rely on our self solely and fully.
This is why it is so difficult to place trust in an intangible faith-enshrouded higher power.
Ultimately, the gift of reason, given to us by God, is the very reason by which we choose to not trust or believe in God...
the irony.
Our greatest gift has become our greatest curse.
Yet, even when God is involved in a life, many people's faith in a religion is just their misunderstanding of their faith in an idea: the idea of God.
We believe in separate religions; we have faith in distinct beliefs, distinct, human interpretations of divine direction, of God: Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, and all manner of separate religions.
We fight, argue, and even kill over the belief, while the whole time we forget that belief (and faith for that matter) is an action verb: it is an action to a noun.
The very word belief means there is something believed in-the idea behind the belief, be it evolutionism, atheism, or in this specific case, God.
We have misunderstood the meaning of faith-of belief.
How can we fight over separate beliefs when they are all beliefs in God? Oh the idiocy of man.
Organized religion has been the greatest enemy of God, has been the greatest tool of "the Devil," and is literally the reason, the very source of atheism in the world today.
The world is confused.
The more fighting that is done in the name of God, the less people believe in Him.
Yet-according to a religious man, a man who believes in God and is an active Christian-even worse, the greatest deception in our world is not atheism, agnosticism, nor is it science.
The worst and most deceived are neither those who are on the outside of religion nor those who simply do not believe in God.
It is the religious, the believers, the churchgoers who are most deceived.
In times gone and past-the persecution in Rome, the Crusades in Jerusalem, the Inquisition in Spain-believers were forced to show their faith, to manifest in their faith, daily picking up their cross and daily being persecuted for it.
The Devil's tactics did not work to stifle the gospel as he had wanted, for it seemed that with every murder done, with every drop of Christian, Muslim, Jewish blood spilt, with every martyr made, the ranks of the believers augmented ten-fold.
The power of God in the hands of men forced to rely on it every hour of their lives did nothing less than spread the message of good news on its own.
Seeing his failures in the past, the Devil was forced to change-to adapt.
His tactics today are just the opposite: to let the religious live, let them prosper, let them blend in and mix with non-believers until the very line is meddled.
The religious in many parts of the world are not forced with a choice, they are not forced to pick up their cross, not forced to rely on the power of God as they once needed to.
In fact they are given the illusion of being in power or in control of their own lives.
With the ever growing apathy in God-based in the lack of communication therein-the lives of the religious become ones of indifference and no dedication to their beliefs, nor to the idea: God.
The lives led are ones of comfort, ones of unreality.
The Devil has made religion an easy decision-nearly not even a decision at all.
It is the same as deciding which shirt you will wear today, or which food you feel like eating at a restaurant: choices that seem meaningless, fickle, and whimsical.
The indifference we hold to the seriousness of faith in God is the Devil's newest and most effective tactic.
For when the time comes in the end to actually choose God or life, when we must die for our faith, it seems there will be no one ready.
Our comfortable lives have numbed our responses like some drug to which we are hopelessly addicted, slowing our reactions and clouding our visions and judgments.
We have had no need to choose anything.
In order to reduce, rewire, and revamp our commitment of and to our faith, we must make a choice every day; we must not fall into dilapidation-we must restore our resolve; we must rework our dependence on God's power and not our own.
We must forget what organized religion has taught us to be important: the politics that lie within the church's walls instead of the God who resides in the Sanctuary's doors.
"If anyone thinks he has faith and yet is indifferent towards his possession, is neither hot nor cold, he can be certain that he does not have faith.
If anyone thinks that he is a Christian and yet is indifferent towards his being a Christian, than he is really not one at all.
What would we think of a man who affirms that he was in love and also that it was a matter of indifference to him" (Kierk.
42)? We deem automatic the truth of our beliefs, because they are our beliefs.
We need to look closer and realize that there is no such thing as human perfection.
History shows us that every time we as humans create something perfect, someone else comes along and creates something better.
Even in ideas we have never had anything perfect.
The teleology of science, philosophy, religion, philanthropy, etc.
, show us that we have evolved mentally-that we have built our ideas upon the ideas of others and that human knowledge is not only a continuation of learning in a lifetime, but a continuation of learning from generation to generation.
We need to be open to the idea that we can still learn, that we can still change, and most importantly that our being perfect is neither needed nor wanted.
We need to learn to accept our imperfections in order to embrace our potential.
Learn to accept your neighbors, your enemies, and your mirror-regardless.
Kierkegaard, Soren.
Works of Love.
Harper & Row Publishers: New York, NY.
1962.
To decide absolutely would be an obvious demonstration of ignorance, yet to take sides would be an expected manifestation of human nature.
The question as to which side you are going to be on is really not even the main question-nine times out of ten your parents already decided that for you.
Yet it is far too often that after choosing sides, we neglect to maintain a mind open enough to analyze not just the possibility of the other side being true (which many have done) but also what would one's personal life actually be like if the other side was found to be assuredly correct.
We see with eyes closed, and with mouths speaking.
We deem automatic the truth of our beliefs, because they are our beliefs.
We need to look closer.
With God out of the picture I stand in front of the metaphorical mirror.
Could it be that, by myself, I am this weak? Is it possible that all of my training, good upbringing, and self-discipline falter away at the slightest possibility, at a mere inkling? Could it be that my roots go only so deep, my creed have only so weak a hold, my beliefs only so thin a basis, and my sense of self worth only so fragile an existence that they will be, like the seeds of a dandelion, full of fluff, whimsicalness, and naivety, scattered in the first slight gust of a soft summer's breeze? Holding fast for no longer than the lion on his prey, as my ideals are attacked with a sudden viciousness and ferocity from my humanness which I so gullibly, and yet rightfully, blame for all of my lack of control.
It is true: as the ocean is deep, as the sky is light, and the hills endless, so unchanging are my failures.
In so following, humanity without a moral authority (God), at its best, is an endless, selfish search in which the sole purpose is to better one's self, in any and all aspects, at the expense of others.
Accordingly, we believe that true wisdom lies in self-preservation.
The selfishness of humanity is unparalleled in any other species, due to our uncanny ability of reason.
Every other species instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment.
Humans are the most intellectual beings this planet has ever seen, and yet we consume every natural resource, striving to better our own lives, complaining at our every minute discomfort.
Generating only feelings of distrust, our intellectual minds set us apart from these supposedly inept species.
The fallacies of man rendered by the cursed power of reason uniformly trace back to our natural selfish nature.
Ergo, our greatest gift, the very one that sets humans above and apart from all other species, becomes our greatest curse.
The irony of reason lies in the natural verity of mankind's nature: self-preservation.
Our intellect generates our stupidity.
As a result we find that our greatest ally lies only within ourselves: the sole being that is truly trustworthy.
Ultimately, aided by the continuing diminish in trust of others, our power to reason, and the key to our selfish nature, will destroy us in the end.
This only deepens the problem in which we are.
It is our very nature to rely on our self solely and fully.
This is why it is so difficult to place trust in an intangible faith-enshrouded higher power.
Ultimately, the gift of reason, given to us by God, is the very reason by which we choose to not trust or believe in God...
the irony.
Our greatest gift has become our greatest curse.
Yet, even when God is involved in a life, many people's faith in a religion is just their misunderstanding of their faith in an idea: the idea of God.
We believe in separate religions; we have faith in distinct beliefs, distinct, human interpretations of divine direction, of God: Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, and all manner of separate religions.
We fight, argue, and even kill over the belief, while the whole time we forget that belief (and faith for that matter) is an action verb: it is an action to a noun.
The very word belief means there is something believed in-the idea behind the belief, be it evolutionism, atheism, or in this specific case, God.
We have misunderstood the meaning of faith-of belief.
How can we fight over separate beliefs when they are all beliefs in God? Oh the idiocy of man.
Organized religion has been the greatest enemy of God, has been the greatest tool of "the Devil," and is literally the reason, the very source of atheism in the world today.
The world is confused.
The more fighting that is done in the name of God, the less people believe in Him.
Yet-according to a religious man, a man who believes in God and is an active Christian-even worse, the greatest deception in our world is not atheism, agnosticism, nor is it science.
The worst and most deceived are neither those who are on the outside of religion nor those who simply do not believe in God.
It is the religious, the believers, the churchgoers who are most deceived.
In times gone and past-the persecution in Rome, the Crusades in Jerusalem, the Inquisition in Spain-believers were forced to show their faith, to manifest in their faith, daily picking up their cross and daily being persecuted for it.
The Devil's tactics did not work to stifle the gospel as he had wanted, for it seemed that with every murder done, with every drop of Christian, Muslim, Jewish blood spilt, with every martyr made, the ranks of the believers augmented ten-fold.
The power of God in the hands of men forced to rely on it every hour of their lives did nothing less than spread the message of good news on its own.
Seeing his failures in the past, the Devil was forced to change-to adapt.
His tactics today are just the opposite: to let the religious live, let them prosper, let them blend in and mix with non-believers until the very line is meddled.
The religious in many parts of the world are not forced with a choice, they are not forced to pick up their cross, not forced to rely on the power of God as they once needed to.
In fact they are given the illusion of being in power or in control of their own lives.
With the ever growing apathy in God-based in the lack of communication therein-the lives of the religious become ones of indifference and no dedication to their beliefs, nor to the idea: God.
The lives led are ones of comfort, ones of unreality.
The Devil has made religion an easy decision-nearly not even a decision at all.
It is the same as deciding which shirt you will wear today, or which food you feel like eating at a restaurant: choices that seem meaningless, fickle, and whimsical.
The indifference we hold to the seriousness of faith in God is the Devil's newest and most effective tactic.
For when the time comes in the end to actually choose God or life, when we must die for our faith, it seems there will be no one ready.
Our comfortable lives have numbed our responses like some drug to which we are hopelessly addicted, slowing our reactions and clouding our visions and judgments.
We have had no need to choose anything.
In order to reduce, rewire, and revamp our commitment of and to our faith, we must make a choice every day; we must not fall into dilapidation-we must restore our resolve; we must rework our dependence on God's power and not our own.
We must forget what organized religion has taught us to be important: the politics that lie within the church's walls instead of the God who resides in the Sanctuary's doors.
"If anyone thinks he has faith and yet is indifferent towards his possession, is neither hot nor cold, he can be certain that he does not have faith.
If anyone thinks that he is a Christian and yet is indifferent towards his being a Christian, than he is really not one at all.
What would we think of a man who affirms that he was in love and also that it was a matter of indifference to him" (Kierk.
42)? We deem automatic the truth of our beliefs, because they are our beliefs.
We need to look closer and realize that there is no such thing as human perfection.
History shows us that every time we as humans create something perfect, someone else comes along and creates something better.
Even in ideas we have never had anything perfect.
The teleology of science, philosophy, religion, philanthropy, etc.
, show us that we have evolved mentally-that we have built our ideas upon the ideas of others and that human knowledge is not only a continuation of learning in a lifetime, but a continuation of learning from generation to generation.
We need to be open to the idea that we can still learn, that we can still change, and most importantly that our being perfect is neither needed nor wanted.
We need to learn to accept our imperfections in order to embrace our potential.
Learn to accept your neighbors, your enemies, and your mirror-regardless.
Kierkegaard, Soren.
Works of Love.
Harper & Row Publishers: New York, NY.
1962.