There are no rights or wrongs in God's world. The Universe does have fundamental laws: Gravity, Electromagnetic, the Strong force, and the Weak force, but that's it. It doesn't JUDGE anything. There are no SHOULDS...
Right and wrong is the domain of mankind. Churches and Holy Books are created by Man. Their greatest function is to keep their congregation on the same page, which gives the group power, mostly power over outsiders (read: non-believers and/or believers in a different "book").
How did this begin? Let's think back to our hunter-gatherer forbears, where all of our behaviors developed through natural selection. Back in those days we mostly lived in small clans. These groups were ruled by a single leader, who passed the rule down to his son. No fuss-no muss with campaign finances or any of that. Since this was how it was done if you were born outside of the "royal" bloodline, you were out of luck, kind of like in North Korea today! This left a lot of people on the sidelines. One day, an enterprising man recognized, that if he could claim the inside track to the Gods however, the "blood" rulers would have to give him a seat at the table, and thus was born religion. Not only would the "rulers" have to bow to the wishes of this messenger, he/she would have great power over the rest of the clan. And so it goes...
We call these early religious leaders, Shamans, Medicine Men, Witch-Doctors, Sorcerers, etc. Today we call them, Priests, Reverends, Pastors, Rabbis, Imans... Throughout history, whatever we called them, some were pure in spirit and motivation, and some were mere charlatans. Most were some combination of both, then and now.
There has been a power struggle between churches and rulers ever since. There have also been massive struggles between churches for supremacy. The Crusades are a particularly good example. How about the endless hatred between the Jews and Islam? What is ironic is all three of these religions come from the SAME book. Yep... Their arguments stem from further books. Their life and death power struggles continue...
Pretty much all religions use the "golden rule" as a guide, simple rule of thumb. Now look at the world today. What part of, "Do unto others as you would have other do unto you," don't you understand? A five year old gets this! Do you really think that GOD commanded people to, "Spread the word, or I won't save you!" No, it was the men writing the books that needed to constantly expand their power base that wrote these "words of God." What is truly memerizing is how smart people, people who normally can recognize manipulation immediately, leave their brains at the door when it comes to religion.
If God is ALL-LOVING, then God considers you and your congregation no better than ANYONE else, or any other congregation, regardless of what book they use.
If God is ALL-KNOWING, then God knows how you and your congregation are scheming to manipulate and buy elections. God knows that you and your congregation believe you are superior to others. God knows that you and your congregation engage in (support) murder and death of non-belivers and believers of different books as a method of gaining and maintaining control over them and their resources.
If God is ALL-POWERFUL, then God doesn't need you and your congregation to proslytize, to recruit, or to convert. These are strategies of Man, to increase power.
When I was in first grade, a nun told the class that ours was the ONE TRUE GOD and that all others were false gods. I asked, "Don't you think the other religions tell their people the same thing?" I got pinched and told in no uncertain terms not to ask that again! Seriously, if a six year old can see it plain as day, how is it possible to deny the inherent manipulation in the statement, "Ours is the one true God?"
If YOUR one true God was standing next to you, what would he/she think of "your" attitudes toward: gay people, minorities, liberals, democrats, Atheists, Jews, Muslims, Christians, immigrants, and all the rest of "your" hated, feared, "less than you" brethren? Could you even get the words out of your mouth without dying of shame?
Today, when you hear family, friends, members of your congregation, media personalities or co-workers, denigrating, testifying or attacking "others" as evil in any regard, recognize that these "others" are YOU in the eyes of God. The Universe has no political agenda and no need to gain power or control, and GOD is all-powerful already remember?
Duffyd
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