Many dictionaries define religion as an organized system of beliefs in a sacred god or gods whose worship is adorned with strict rules, solemn ceremonies, and (blind) faith. We at Modern Age Movement (MAM) define religion as an unexamined belief system powered by irrationality and gullibility. In spite of religionists’ assertion, religion is not sui generis; it is merely a deliberate cultural construction of meaning to mesmerize vulnerable people to believe in fallacies. For that reason, it must not be linked with the sacred or spiritualism.
The tendency to be religious has always been with humankind; many natural and unnatural occurrences have been frightening us from the very beginning. One of the only few options at our disposal was to concoct a stratagem to thwart whatever we concluded was the cause of our fears, and latch on to a Force we assumed could save us from our problems and punish the aggressors. It was primitive and unorganized.
About 11,000 years ago, we started organizing this phenomenon, and it has been one of the biggest blunders ever since. For some people, this blunder is very hard to detect because we have managed to intertwine religion with morality, and justice. Yes, you are right; the fear of not making it to heaven has also been blindsiding us too. Those who have allowed religion to amplify and hammer this trepidation into their heads are very far from recovering. Sadly, some of those who dare to put religious dogmas aside and question everything, still pay lip service to religion out of fear of being discriminated against or (wrongly) judged by peers. There are others born into religion and are not given the opportunity to think for themselves or leave religion. Some other vulnerable people see religion as the last hope, so they don’t care whether it is true or not. Also, because there was no democracy, people in authority legitimized their power by referring to it as divine consent and that, of course, further elevated religion to become the mess it is today. Some other people’s faith rests on this logic formulated by Blaise Pascal in the ‘17th century’: If Mr. A believes in God and God exists, then Mr. A will gain eternal life. If Mr. A believes in God and God does not exist, then Mr. A loses nothing. Conversely, if Mr. A does not believe in God and he is right, then he loses nothing, but if he does not believe in God and he is wrong, then he loses eternal life.
Does this mean people in other religions who believe in God are going to heaven? If they are, that means Jesus is not the only way, correct? Just because one does not believe a word of the Bible or other religious books doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t believe in a higher power. It is also important to realize that if a man believes in something he does not understand, something that is improbable, he could lose a lot: his commonsense, time and money spent to make a fool of himself, and his dignity, especially by arguing over every simple truth that contradicts his scripture.
Christians, we don’t think Pascal was speaking on your behalf. If he was, then he didn’t know the real God who wouldn’t get bothered whether you believe in him or not. God is not in vanity business; he is not petty like the human-made deities in religious books. What God cares about is for us to clear off hate, bias, envy, wickedness, blind faith, religion, and other primitive ideas, from our minds so we could relate to one another amicably.
You need to abandon the view that those who don’t believe in religion are by default advocating for a utopian society. That, in itself, makes religion overbearing. Most people want everybody to be morally upright and be considerate of others, but please, take religion out of moral principles; take religion out of our lives and send it back to the cave dwellers. God is nonreligious; morality is independent of religion, so religion is the odd thing in society.
Surprisingly, these Christians are so varied in their beliefs, practices, and approach to their deity. It seems their deity must have confused them by speaking different things to them. They don’t even agree on which day of the week is the most appropriate to worship. Some of them believe in the inerrancy of the Bible while some others believe it is not 100% factual. There are several editions of the Bible; not all denominations use the same version. The Catholic Bible includes the Apocrypha (the Nicene Creed), which is not in some Protestant versions. Mormons use the Bible and the Book of Mormon, which they believe those who wrote the Bible forgot to include in the Bible. Baptists don’t even consider Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness folks as Christians.
They can’t agree on the alleged birth and death of their savior or how to commemorate the events. Some say Christmas shouldn’t be celebrated because it was copied from pagan festivals, but others ignore that and say although Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible, it should be celebrated to acknowledge Jesus as the savior who came to save them from their sins so they could live with him forever. Almost none of them agree that December 25th is Jesus’ birthday. They admit it was chosen to blend in with many Romans’ celebrations. Because the Bible failed to tell them when Jesus was born, those who want to celebrate Christmas equate that to mean they won’t be punished since there is no law against it. Those who don’t want to celebrate Christmas believe that is an indication that God doesn’t want them to celebrate Christmas. (How about God doesn’t want you to be in religion, period?) Yeah, they fight over the Christmas tree too. Some say the Bible forbids them to bring trees into the house and decorate them. Others say the Bible is only talking about cutting down a tree, carving an image out of it, decorating the idol with ornaments, and worshipping it. (If you decorate something with trinkets and adore it, does that count as worshipping it?)
Some of them believe that the only way to salvation is through faith in Jesus; your excellent work and righteousness can never be good enough for God; salvation cannot be lost once one is elected by the grace of God. Others say salvation is only assured through faith and continuous display of good work and godliness. Ordination of women is sacrilegious in some denominations while others ordain women. Some of them terrorize their infants through baptism while others only baptize the adults. Some observe ‘mass’ rituals, others don’t. Some of them have concocted some weird ways to go around the doctrine of trinity while others remain traditionalists about it. A few of them flatly reject the doctrine of trinity—they don’t believe there is a separate Godhead called the holy spirit, they don’t believe Jesus was God or resurrected. In regard to Mary, the mother of Jesus, some say although she was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, she was not conceived of the holy spirit; therefore, born into the original sin like everybody else. But others beg to differ; they say she is the Immaculate Conception without original sin. (To our readers, please, know that there is no such thing as the original sin.)
The Muslims are also fighting amongst themselves. Following the death of Muhammad, Islam split into two main factions: the Sunnis and the Shiites. To say the least, their relationship is venomous religiously, politically, and economically. The following are some of the dogmas that further drive them apart.
‘Shiites focus on the lineage of Muhammad’s family through a series of imams and idolizing the imams as saints, Sunnis hate that and instead focus on following the Prophet’s examples, which is probably why they are more devoted in their prayers than the Shiites; however, the ideology of Wahhabism is also causing big divisions within Sunnis’ (Chuck, 2016x). Here is our question: How do the Sunnis self-righteously criticize the Shiites for honoring human beings, but they [the Sunnis] are not able to see Muhammad as a human being who doesn’t deserve to be idolized?
The first time we observed this ritual where Shiites flog, mutilate themselves, and beat their chests with sticks so much that they bleed all over the place just to commemorate the death of a guy who they revered as a hero, we were perplexed wondering how on earth they’ve got their minds so twisted to that level, but you know what, we were not alone. The Sunnis abhor such practice and see it as not reflective of God’s kingdom. (Where is the government to outlaw such a dangerous custom? O’ it is tied up in the same religious predicament too.)
‘The way to paradise, as far as Shiites are concerned, is to believe and follow Muhammad as well as the twelve imams, but the Sunnis say one must have faith in Allah, believe in his prophets, the Quran, and accept Muhammad as Allah’s last prophet and yet it is still up to Allah to let anyone into heaven. They also disagree in regard to praying at gravesites. Sunnis opposed it because it indicates that an adherent is relying on entities other than Allah alone, but Shiites see it differently. They feel that although a fellow Shiite is dead it doesn’t mean he has strayed from Allah, so it is the same as asking a living person to pray for them’ (Weglarz, n. d.)
Generally, the role of women in Muslim society is causing friction mainly between the young and old Muslims. They argue whether women should wear burka or not, work or not, sit at the back of the mosque or not. It is a mess, and many of them are beginning to see religion as complete nonsense.
As for Judaism, the main practices are observing the Sabbath, eating kosher, and Torah study, but like every other human-made religion there are differences of opinion as to how to worship their deity. The split in Judaism is not only between Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews. There are a few sects, which have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude that is even worse than that of the Orthodox Jews. We are not going to bore you with their rituals.
‘The main differences between Orthodox and Reform Jews is that of rigidity and the level of freedom in interpretation of the text. The Reformists are significantly more progressive minded and flexible about religious laws while the orthodox Jews are mainstream traditionalists whose understanding of religion is in line with the ancient religious thought which was based on blind faith and high reliance of religious authorities in matters of laws and other life related concerns. The orthodox keep men and women separate in synagogue, and prominent religious roles such as Rabbis and Cantors are reserved for men. Reform Jews don’t fool themselves with any of that and, unlike the Orthodox, they don’t bother themselves that much about kosher food. The Orthodox believe that a future Messiah will come, build a temple in Jerusalem and gather all the Jews to Israel where they would faithfully abide by Jewish law and practice. They also believe that on judgement day, people will rise from their graves and God will condemn sinners to hell and send the righteous to heaven’ (Ewan, 2019x).
All these differences and arguments among religious sects prove that God is most likely not in religion. Man is simply the one bothering himself for nothing, because he is naturally predisposed to create God of his liking. So, it is a horrible sin to associate the real God with the Bible, it is a horrible sin to associate the real God with the Qur’an, it is a horrible sin to associate the real God with the Tanakh, and it is a horrible sin to associate the real God with any other similar book. Don’t be the last to abandon religion.
Modern Age Movement
–Universal Cordial Beliefs
References:
Chuck, E. (2016x, Jan. 4). What are the differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims? Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/what-are-differences-between-sunni-shiite-muslims-n489951
Ewan, D. (2019x, April 4). Differences between Orthodox and Unorthodox Jews. Difference between similar terms and objects. Retrieved from http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/religion-miscellaneous/differences-between-orthodox-and-unorthodox-jews/
Weglarz, L. (n. d.). Key differences between Sunni and Shia Islam. Retrieved from https://www.ranker.com/list/sunni-and-shia-differences/lindsayweglarz
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