I have met an elderly Jew, (a dear friend and a mentor later in my life) who came back to his country of birth (and my now former country) for the first time after the Communist regime collapsed in the late 1980s, after 35 years in exile.
Over a lunch in a nice, western looking restaurant, I've asked him about his religious orientation (something I would never ask in my new country). He made a painful grimace and said "In the name of religion millions have died that's why I am not religious."
In our country religion was banned and illegal until recently. Just a few months earlier even discussing religion would have been an apocryphal theme. And perhaps that's why even more desirable discussion to me so I was disappointed to hear that he was not religious. I've asked him if he was an atheist - something celebrated, again until recently, in my country as one of the virtues of the model citizen. "No, no", he said and smiled, "I do believe in God, I just do not believe in religion".
It was an alien concept to me back then. Separating religion from faith. God or a supreme being existing separately and independently from religion... It didn't make too much sense to me.
We have been thought that "religion is the opiate of the masses", and the photo of Karl Marx was a fixture in every classroom next to the politburo leaders. We were all atheists and proud to chant it in public. Yet in the privacy of our homes we would say every year a prayer on Christmas before dinner. We all believed in the Communist party - another emanation of a God. A recently conceived and born God - now almost extinct religious belief. But even Marx fell short of saying "There is no God."
What is sad to me now sitting in front of our big screen TV is how organized religions is trying to abduct faith. Using all possible media in a quest of "soul hunting" everything is allowed. The believer is the "customer". God's contemporary apostles are salespeople. Selling the product is the focal point of religion. In the media realm organized religion becomes somehow transposable with faith. When soliciting on behalf of God, religion is the highest authority on God.
Of all things in the universe faith is probably the only unchanging thing. One has it or not. It's so simple. Organized religions, on the other hand, has been changing since their respective inceptions and it will continue to evolve (or de-evolve) appear and to disappear until the end of time.
I do believe that evolution is a necessary for the society as it is for religion in order to survive the ever changing reality of this world. But this only could mean that religion is from man and not from God. Faith is from God. He (or She) is absolute. That's why one believes or not.
In Revaluation 22:13 God says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." In Isaiah 41:4 God elaborates: "I am he."
God is the highest authority on God. People can and do connect with God (or Goddess) if they believe without the mediation of religion or they do not connect if they do not believe and religion is of no use for them. Religion is part of the man's realm at least as much (and sadly sometimes more) as God is.
The question ultimately is personal and independent from religion and from God:
"Do you believe or not?" Man alone is the highest authority when it comes to believing or not.
Over a lunch in a nice, western looking restaurant, I've asked him about his religious orientation (something I would never ask in my new country). He made a painful grimace and said "In the name of religion millions have died that's why I am not religious."
In our country religion was banned and illegal until recently. Just a few months earlier even discussing religion would have been an apocryphal theme. And perhaps that's why even more desirable discussion to me so I was disappointed to hear that he was not religious. I've asked him if he was an atheist - something celebrated, again until recently, in my country as one of the virtues of the model citizen. "No, no", he said and smiled, "I do believe in God, I just do not believe in religion".
It was an alien concept to me back then. Separating religion from faith. God or a supreme being existing separately and independently from religion... It didn't make too much sense to me.
We have been thought that "religion is the opiate of the masses", and the photo of Karl Marx was a fixture in every classroom next to the politburo leaders. We were all atheists and proud to chant it in public. Yet in the privacy of our homes we would say every year a prayer on Christmas before dinner. We all believed in the Communist party - another emanation of a God. A recently conceived and born God - now almost extinct religious belief. But even Marx fell short of saying "There is no God."
What is sad to me now sitting in front of our big screen TV is how organized religions is trying to abduct faith. Using all possible media in a quest of "soul hunting" everything is allowed. The believer is the "customer". God's contemporary apostles are salespeople. Selling the product is the focal point of religion. In the media realm organized religion becomes somehow transposable with faith. When soliciting on behalf of God, religion is the highest authority on God.
Of all things in the universe faith is probably the only unchanging thing. One has it or not. It's so simple. Organized religions, on the other hand, has been changing since their respective inceptions and it will continue to evolve (or de-evolve) appear and to disappear until the end of time.
I do believe that evolution is a necessary for the society as it is for religion in order to survive the ever changing reality of this world. But this only could mean that religion is from man and not from God. Faith is from God. He (or She) is absolute. That's why one believes or not.
In Revaluation 22:13 God says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." In Isaiah 41:4 God elaborates: "I am he."
God is the highest authority on God. People can and do connect with God (or Goddess) if they believe without the mediation of religion or they do not connect if they do not believe and religion is of no use for them. Religion is part of the man's realm at least as much (and sadly sometimes more) as God is.
The question ultimately is personal and independent from religion and from God:
"Do you believe or not?" Man alone is the highest authority when it comes to believing or not.
