I have always wondered. What is religion?
And why all these fights and wars!

mans interpretation of what he thinks is what god wants
wars are mans idea that they are right, everyone else is wrong.

That’s an interesting question that I’m sure everyone will have a difference answer for.

I personally feel a ‘religion’ is any ritual you do ‘religiously’ (i.e. dutifully, faithfully, consistently, etc.). Of course when this is applied to a belief in spirituality, or a “god”, then the idea behind “religion” is that you are supposed to do the rituals associated with that belief “religiously”

Unfortunately, in our modern era, the term “religion” has become almost exclusively associated with a belief in spirituality or a specific deity or “god”.

Accepting this modern definition of the term “religion”, a religion then becomes a belief in a specific spiritual philosophy or personified deity. As I’m sure you are well aware, most of the Abrahamic religions do indeed view God as a personified deity that makes rules, passes judgments, and can even intervene in human affairs (i.e. you can pray to this god to help you with things, etc). These Abrahamic religions include, Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, and the many protesting sects of Christian Protestantism.

All of these religions are based on the “God of Abraham” who, in scripture, is a self-confessed jealous God who carves commandments into stone with his fiery finger. Therefore “religion” in today’s modern world becomes a “war” between all the different interpretations of various scriptures that claim to know what this jealous angry Godhead expects from humans. Their “Holy Scriptures” which they view as the “Word of God”, even contains passages that demand that any non-believer is a heathen who cannot possibly be ‘righteous’.

So this not only pits these religions against each other’s “misinterpretations” of the “Holy Word of God”, but it also pits them against anyone who might be an ‘outsider’ with respect to the “Abrahamic Godhead”

So, in this way, the “religious war” is basically being forced onto atheists, pantheists, pagans, and what have you. Because all of these philosophies are ‘outside’ of the scope of the Abrhamic picture of “God” and they don’t even remotely respect the “Holy Scriptures” as being the “Word of God”.

So the “religious wars’ are quite often fought in terms of “Who is God?” and “What does God expect from us?”. Surely you must be aware that this is culminated with the Christians and their demand that Jesus was “The Christ”, the Only Begotten Son of the God of Abraham, in whom you must believe in order to be ‘saved’ from eternal damnation (or at least from perishing which amounts to the same thing). Not only must you accept that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of the God of Abraham, but you must also accept that the Christian versions of the “Holy Scripture” represent the Only True Word of God. That comes with Jesus in the package deal called “Christianity”.

If you refuse to accept their religion, then you have chosen to side with Satan (whether you believe in a Satan or not). Satan is a fallen angel who is a war with the God of Abraham, by the way.

There’s no middle of the road. All other spiritual philosophies are deemed to be ‘false philosophies’ and are therefore the domain of Satan. Who else could be responsible for such ungodly heathen crapola?

So this is where humanity stands at the beginning of the 21st century. Still arguing about what the angry jealous God’s of ancient mythologies want from us.

On a brighter note, I’d like to address the concept of spiritual ‘religion’ that goes on beyond the ‘wars’.

As I mentioned in my last post, “religion” originally applied to anything you do religiously. It didn’t need to have anything to do with spirituality or a belief in any ‘gods’. For example, if you wanted to improve your health you might want to stick to a really healthy diet. You then embark on eating patterns that you observe ‘religiously’. You could call that a ‘religion of sustenance’. If you wanted to improve your body physically you might embark on an exercise program that you practice ‘religiously’. You could call that a ‘religion of physique’. I’m sure you can take this abstract idea and apply it to many other non-spiritual situations that have nothing to do with a belief in any “god”.

Well, let’s now apply this idea of doing things ‘religiously’ to an idea of spirituality. In this particular case we are going to define spirituality in terms of consciousness, and conscious awareness. If you want to put this in terms of a ‘god’ concept, you might imagine consciousness as being something that encompasses cosmic proportions that extend far beyond the limitation of a single human brain. This is a concept of a “spiritual consciousness”. Although, I imagine that many of the ritual techniques associated with this type of spirituality could be useful even with a secular view of consciousness.

In any case, what happens now is that there are specific philosophies that approach ‘spirituality’ in terms of pure consciousness. Within these philosophies there are specific practices or “rituals” which can be perform to enhance a person’s psychic abilities. Therefore, a person who wants to enhance these things performs these ritual “religiously” (i.e. with dedicated persistence). Not unlike someone would do with a diet, or working out with weights, or doing aerobic exercises, etc. It’s just exercises with the mind.

So in that sense, “spirituality” becomes “religious”. Not in the dogmatic sense of proclaiming war against everyone who doesn’t believe in your spiritual rituals, but simply in the sense that you perform your ritual religiously.

I have been spiritual my entire life. By that I mean that I have always believed that my psyche is far more than the mere functioning of my physical brain. However, I have only become spiritually religious quite recently. I am now learning how to practice various rituals religiously to improve and expand my spiritual psyche.

I see no need to declare war on anyone in order to achieve my spiritual goals. I also see no need to push my ‘psychic workout agenda’ onto anyone else. Share it? Sure! But push it? No way!

In the meantime I do lob the Christian grenades back at them as they continue to toss them at me.

Why not? It’s kind of like petting a dog that keeps wagging its tail.

They seem to be enjoying the war. So I keep tossing the bone back for them to run after and retrieve again. They always bring it back panting for more.

one miriam webster definition , which I agree with is

4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith



people are human, they want what they want and they will fight for it,,,,thats why the fights and wars

religion gives them one more thing to fight over
like politics
like authority
like property

man is the cause of fights and wars
religion is just one of the convenient excuses they label as their 'cause'

religion is the combine laws handed down by a supernatural entity or the talking dog that lives next door

Religion is a distraction device designed to keep us bickering over pointless subjects like "my religion is the TRUE religion" mentality etc etc...it is a perfect way to control people (and the population count)...look at the catholic church as a perfect example of how wealthy you can become when you scare the living daylights out of people by threatening them with hellfire if they refuse to bow to a very illogical (edited) doctrine.

Ask yourself...is it really fair to send a muslim to hell because he rejected christ?...the morals are virtually the same, the God is the same but they just don't accept Christ is the way. If they would have been born in a christian country they would have likely been a christian. Or take the guy in the Amazonian jungle or the siberian forests who have never heard of Jesus...is it fair to send them to hell?...how about babies who die? Christians constantly say salvation is by FAITH but it is not when one takes the time to think a bit. The cases above prove that salvation is a matter of knowledge and also intellect as there are so many things to believe out there with very convincing arguments to different kinds of people, that it is impossible to be anything less than a matter of knowledge and intellect.

It's an abstract system of lies, superstition, myths and dogmas that are designed to satiate the public to be good servants to the powers at be, mixed with promises of eternity designed to control the fear of death. All basic religions have this at the core.