Every religion has ‘guidebooks’. These books are written as a means of creating a set of principles and morals to help its congregates stay on course as a united entity. Some guidebooks such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam share what is termed ‘old testaments’. But these testaments tend to betray a true guidance and instead insert stories rife with considerable actions deemed repugnant in today’s society; slavery, stoning, multiple wives, etc… Yet they are still included in these Bibles. Why? Because they are considered with historical latitude.
By contrast, the Hindu and Buddhist texts focus more on finding a balance within person and nature. Thru guiding principles. Just decades ago, it was broadly accepted that one could adhere to the moral guidance of Buddhism and still hold to the New Testament of Jesus. Today, the churches are much more strident claiming that these tenets are diametrically opposed. Why?
In a nutshell – ‘My Way Or The Highway’ was introduced. “You are either with me or against me’.
Buddha is not a god. He was a man, Siddarth, who went on a walk-about to find existential peace from within. Later called ‘enlightenment’. That enlightenment meant becoming one with nature. In all its glory. The texts teach harmony, love, peace and spirituality within the vibrations of the fields that keep earth whole. The closest western design being the spirituality practiced by American Indians where God’s earth is revered. Earth is ours to steward no matter the religion.
Over the years, the Bible has been weaponized. It became a dagger of conquest, greed, and manipulation with few listening and many shouting.
Atheism has no guidebook. Without a moral code. Without teaching. For some it exists as a direct result of being persecuted by the Church. For others, it represents ‘science’. But it is a philosophy of nothingness. And thus, humans lapse into self as their own god. Without consequences for actions. Without the inherent teachings that are so prevalent in Buddhism and the New Testament.
This lack of a moral code didn’t exist in ancient times. We call them Pagan Rituals. But many of these rituals were in alignment with a cohesive balance of nature and human. I am not referring to witches and the magic as currently embraced by Judaism’s various novellas. Today, these Pagans are figuratively stoned by Biblical scholars. Despite the fact that religious wars dominate our history. Wars of conquest. Wars wherein moral codes, ethical codes, are annihilated in order to force civilizations to accept what amounts to the Old Testament in its classical warrior mentality.
In these wars we ravage the land, the natural order, the seas, the skies, humans, and all things that creep and swim. Governments exist to create this global strife in a continuum of Pachelbel. While justifying this disorder and chaos. The end game being – global atheism. A statehood of nothingness that ultimately dissolves the brain cells, beauty, and creation.
Humans need guidance. In that sense, animals would be superior in that they naturally possess the ability to love without preconditions given they follow an instinctual natural order. But sometimes the guidance is corrupted and weaponized calling for hailstorms and death upon those who do not submit to the one particular religion. Often I have heard evangelicals claim that if we had a Priest or Pastor for a President all our problems would be solve and we could live in harmony.
But harmony in Judaism, Christianity and Islam means – we are the only true religion – live by our rules or die. Conquests have proven this true time and again in history. Buddhist and Hindi wars have occurred, but predominantly as a result of defending their territory and right to their religion as opposed to ‘conquering’ for conversion. A Babel of sorts.
There can never be a singular global religion. It is a mathematical illusion. There has never been a time in history when this occurred. It isn’t about ‘tolerance’ – a strange worthless word: to endure with suffering, to bear something unpleasant, to put up with someone we dislike. Ultimately that schism will break down and the ugliness of words and physical attacks that ensue prove the illusion.
The first guidebook that should be taught more closely aligns with Buddhism, to forge a natural connection and reverence for all life from plants to seas to animals to humans. Should a person wish to extend that core to a religious text, that core would be taken with them individually and cherished as the basis for a humanity that recognizes suffering, wars, and persecution are the sins of satan, not God.
