PART V – INTERPRETATION - The basis of religions 8 comments

14 Jul 2006 @ 11:04, by John Oates Just look around you at all the people and imagine what is going on inside each head. Each person, as a detached physical and mental entity, may be very different in opinion and activity but all are conducting, to some degree, a private and perhaps totally secret but essentially similar struggle in the mind. All creatures on Earth, excepting ourselves, pursue life with vigour and without question, requiring no more than the instinctive impulsion of energy, or life-force, to give them their singleness of purpose. We, having the faculty of knowing and reasoning, or intellect, require a reason for living, a purpose other than merely to live - a meaning to warrant our presence here. What we really want to know is truth, but growing understanding of truth would bring increasing desire to live by it. Existing reality is false and requires, on the contrary, that we automatically ignore, deny, or flout truth. To overcome this dilemma we have invented religions enabling us to claim morality while practising immorality. The adoption of religions further enables us to combine morality with immorality by fighting to defend our own faith against others of different faiths. That we do this despite the fact that all religions are opposed to violence indicates that religions do not arise truly from within – from the postconscious mind and via conscience - but are imposed from without. Men identify with their different religious labels rather than with their true common humanity and use those labels to justify their unintelligent behaviour. The many examples of religious war are well known, illustrating the insane contradiction between authority’s word and action and the strange willingness of men to obey orders and carry out violent acts that are truly repugnant to them.

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