I told you about how I was raised by 2 organizations. I told you one was public schools. The other one was religion.
It doesn’t matter what the religion is. I believe they are all fundamentally the same. They all believe in a higher power. Be it God, Allah, Jehovah, supreme being, universal intelligence.
Every religion has crazies. People who blow themselves up. Pray with poisonous snakes. Or set up a compound in Texas. They all have the passive types who don’t know any better and need something to believe in. They all have genuine people who truly believe and try to live a good life.
They are all just like a bureaucracy. Hierarchies that to a major extent promote dependency and discourage thinking.
I don’t take a stand against religion. I do however stand for using our brains. The one thing that sets humans apart from almost everything else on this earth and elevates us above all. I stand for thinking.
I will not try to take anything away from an individual’s belief or faith. I will encourage them to question what they have been told to believe and come to their own answers.
I don’t know much about other religions. But I know a lot about Christianity. I know that Jesus told us many times to question, think, and come to our own conclusions.
Jesus told us, be ye not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind. How do you renew your mind? By thinking. How do you not fall into conformity? By questioning.
Pompous Piolet asked Jesus flat out if he was God. Jesus asked Pilot: Who do you say I am? Jesus wanted Pompous Pilot to think for himself and come to his own beliefs.
Why is it that, 2000 years later, Christians still do not understand that they need to start thinking for themselves?
Why? Because Christianity is just like any other religion. They are all fundamentally based on dependency. Christianity is based on being dependent on Jesus as the only way to access God.
There are many things in Christianity, as I’m sure with other religions too, that just don’t add up. When I would question these things, I was always answered 1 or 2 ways. 1: An answer that just beat around the bush and never answered anything. 2: I was told, “that’s just how it is.” Which never answered anything.
I stopped asking for other people’s views and started thinking for myself.
One question I asked myself is, what truly is the one unforgettable sin? According to the Bible, the one unforgivable sin is blasphemy of the holy spirit. You guys should know me well enough to know I’m going to look at this from other angles.
A lot of people think that if a person commits suicide their soul automatically goes to hell. How exactly does this fit into blasphemy of the holy spirit? It can be stretched to get close but will never fit.
What if I blaspheme the holy spirit before I even know what the holy spirit is?
I thought Jesus could wash away all sins. So how does an unforgivable sin even exist?
To me, the answer is simple. To me, there is only one sin and it truly will keep us from knowing God.
Blasphemy of the holy spirit, believing that God is not living in us. Blaspheme: To speak or think irreverently of God. How could you have any less reverence for God than to not believe he is a part of you.
I had amazing “spiritual” experiences during my days as a Christian. I’ve had these same experiences on a much more profound level, with absolutely nothing to do with Christianity’s dependency on Jesus.
Christians, along with every other religion, even different faiths within the same religion all think their way is the only way.
So how can it be that I experienced things much more profound, not listening to any of them?
By believing that God (however you consider him/it) is a physical part of me. I view God as a universal intelligent energy that is in everything. From the tiniest particles that make a grain of sand. To the energy that allows us to be visible from millions of miles away.
I believe this energy is what fuels my thoughts. Makes my cells multiply. My heartbeat. My views filter.
Short of killing myself, I can’t stop any of these things. The only one of these I can even come close to having any control over is my thoughts.
The energy that causes these things to function has always existed in us. God, the holy spirit (same thing) has always existed in me.
Pentecostals (I was one) and Baptists (also one) both believe that when a person gets “saved,” the holy spirit at that point enters the person’s being. Not before.
I’ll get back to this in a minute. Here are some fun facts.
Pentecostals believe the holy spirit is the source of power to do miracles. A person must pray and ask for these powers such as speaking in tongues, healing, etc.
Most Baptists believe the holy spirit to be mostly symbolic. They pick and choose which spiritual gifts are of the holy spirit. Healing is fine, that’s from God, speaking in tongues, oh hell no! That’s Satan himself. I’m a bit bias about Baptists. Sorry, not sorry.
I’ll keep this short because it really doesn’t have anything to do with changing our thinking. I want to show you a bit about who my main influences were growing up in the Baptist religion. My examples of godly men.
It’s crazy I’m not an atheist. I had a pastor who, without fail, would talk shit about and belittle his wife from the pulpit every week. A principal of the Christian school who called me a fag when I got my ears pierced. Then told me I was going to hell for wearing baggy pants.
A youth pastor who wrestled me to the ground then put his knee in the back of my head on the asphalt. All because I refused to give him my radio and play some stupid games. He was at least 30 I was 8. I might have been 70 lbs. He was at least 250 lbs.
Men of God, my ass!
I don’t have that same view for all Christians. And really not even all Baptists. I know 1 or 2 decent Baptists.
The youth pastor at the Pentecostal church I went to was pretty awesome for a Christian, and person in general. The head pastor French kissed his wife from the pulpit on Valentine’s Day. In my eyes, that’s pretty cool.
I wanted to go on a rant for a second. Not sorry.
I was saying that Christians believe God/holy spirit (something) doesn’t become a part of us until we get “saved.” For me, this flat out isn’t true. It is true however that this power called God/universal intelligence may become stronger at the point of salvation. This is because we have acknowledged it as a part of our being. Deciding to allow that power to be free within us.
God, as I see it, has always been a part of us. God has always been the cause of our heart beating. The energy that makes our thoughts. He is part of our DNA before we are born. Part of our DNA before our parents were born. There is no beginning or end to the energy that is God. It makes no sense to me that there would be a magical beginning to when he enters our being.
Many people can’t fathom themselves as being divine. I believe this is the main reason Jesus came to Earth. Not to forgive us for hating, or smoking, or cussing, or even getting a tattoo or pierced ears. But to allow us the opportunity to see ourselves as being connected to God.
To give us an out for the only sin. Blaspheme of the holy spirit. Not acknowledging that God is apart of us. This is the only thing that can keep us from God. Not believing that he is truly a part of us.
If you need to, go back and re-read the beginning story in this section and the statements about my sister’s capacity to forgive and love unconditionally.
If my sister is able to forgive my words and actions. If my sister is able to forgive me for believing she wasn’t there for me. Then allow me to build a relationship with her. How much more is God willing and able to do the same.
If I hadn’t acknowledged that my sister has always been here for me, I wouldn’t have the relationship with her that I do.
If I hadn’t acknowledged that God has always been a part of me, I wouldn’t be as connected to him as I now am.
When we acknowledge that God is and always has been a part of us, the organization of religion is no longer necessary, and more. To continue to follow one belief and disregard all or any other beliefs only hinders your ability to connect with God fully. God created all. To separate yourself in some way from another group is to sperate yourself from a part of God.