It is not Religion we need

Religion, what is it? Can you define it? Is it physical or metaphysical? A verb or a noun? Why should we care? 

Paul Tillich states "Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of the meaning of life." (Tillich)

But me, my personal definition of religion is: it is something that we do not understand; in turn we use it as a crutch for things we cannot control or are therefore out of control.

People were once scared of every thing and anything they did not understand, I know, hard to believe. At one point, thunder storms were looked at as a sign from a god, but we all know that thunderstorms are a processes of cool and hot condensations and precipitations rising and falling. Or what about the Witch burnings? Innocent people were persecuted because they did not understand birth marks, science, medicine or mental health.

Keep in mind that what we base our religions off of, is that of what mortal men has said once before us. For example: Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Constantine, Abraham, Job, Nostradamus and so many more! Let us not forget about bishops, popes and even our favorite people, those fun Jehovah witness disciples!

All the same!
So what all these people have in common? These were all mortal men who understood how to manipulate people with their words. Some how, these people were picked from the Divine to deliverer messages from their gods? I dont know about you, but I live here on earth and A. God has never spoken to me, and B. Out of all the wildly religious people I have met, only a hand full claimed that thier god communicated with them and it was all for self gain.

If you look at the history of the most dominant religions, you will see a pattern. Polytheism (belief in many Gods), Pantheism (we are all god) and Monotheism (there is one god). 

• The Polytheistic systems of belief view that God(s) as having the ultimate control of all events that were natural, as in rain, the harvests and fertility.

• Looking at the Pantheism religion(s), it is the stature that God is everything and anything, therefore everything must be God. Nature is also part of god and we must be in harmony with nature. “We must nurture it and be nurtured by it” (AAR). Mankind as a species has no difference than any other animal. To live in consonance with them, learn from them and ultimately understand them, the relationship between mankind and the elements of nature are unknown.

• The Monotheistic approach, most are very accustomed to because it has been a staple in western cultures and civilizations since before Christ. Monotheism believes that the ultimate origin of things only god can understand, and it is not for us without the divine knowledge to understand, Monotheism also is continuously trying to answer the question governing the origin of evil in a universe under the directorate of one God. Need I say more about how Monotheism faith and beliefs are used for what we do not understand? To give our ultimate concerns, sorrows, affairs and a “God” who can mend all.

The pattern

Notice a Pattern? Every one of these religions share the same perspectives untimely and that is, What we do not understand we should furnish all of it to our God or religion.

3 different religions with the same perspectives? How do we know what one is right? Will we go to hell or perish because out of the 1,000 religions there are we just so happen to choose the wrong one because of our own beliefs, our parents belief and their parent before them? Im sorry but i am not seeing the fairness here nor do I understand how all religions claim to be the one true religion that take us to salvation. It bullshit, its all bullshit. If you haven't realized it by now, religion was created for control, to control those who fear, who are at their lowest in life, money, power etc.

             

Bust of Constantine

For Example: The Roman civilization is what coined Christianity (Monotheism) as one of the most beneficial Religions to date. And, was the cause for the eastern Polytheism religion to withdraw from making its course to the western cultures. By the late 3rd century C.E., Roman power was beginning to decline.
The Pax Romana was becoming harder and far more expensive. Coinage was debased, more and more landless poor flocked to the cities, and the vaunted Roman legions were increasingly filled with mercenaries. Then Came Constantine, a man who influenced the world of Christianity. Constantine was the first emperor to convert to Christianity, making it legal to practice and a later emperor made it the empire's official religion. Then Came the church of orthodoxy, “The history of the Eastern Orthodox Church is traced back to Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The Apostles appointed successors, known as bishops, and they in turn appointed other bishops in a process known as Apostolic succession. Over time, five Patriarchates were established to organize the Christian world, and four of these ancient Patriarchates remain Orthodox today. Orthodox Christianity reached its present form in Late Antiquity (in the period from the 3rd to the 8th century), when the Ecumenical Councils were held, doctrinal disputes were resolved, the Fathers of the Church lived and wrote, and Orthodox worship practices settled into their permanent form.” (Michael Pomazansky)

Need I point it out? Fear, desperation and money!

Pastor Alph Lukau (in blue) claims he brought this man back to life

Understanding 

Not all is fallacy though, for these are just different perspectives. We need structure in our lives, and some do not have the will power to find their own, so we must turn to faith to help us find structure and to understand what we cannot. It only makes sense, without understanding and structure one could say the world will burn, like before in the previous paragraph, the world (to the romans the world was them) was turning to shambles so they turned to faith in hopes that it will bring structure. 

Even in today’s age people use it as way to find themselves. Drug addicts, porn addicts, the incarcerated, the unruly and the disorderly. We need religion and in turn we need faith to understand what we cannot control. Though we cannot understand it, it helps us come to terms with the unknown. We as mankind have become so accustomed to being able to fix things when they go right and to be able to bask when they go right, its just human nature. 

But why can we not accept? Why must we have to always have an answer for everything? For fear that is why. We are us, and we wonder what becomes of us after we have been recycled from this physical or metaphysical thing, we call Life. Life cannot just end in our eyes because that is not good enough. Life brings pain and pleasure so it must not ever end right?

Regardless of what I myself believe or what another believes we all have concluded that life is odd, we cannot understand certain aspects therefore we must try continuously to understand, without that, life would perish or come to a halt. Tillich, university’s, Constantine, the past of the romans and the many, many religions we have adopted all play a part in what we believe is to be true, we hold on to the words of those because that is the only way we can understand.

          Cited

Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: A Concise Exposition Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky pages 92-95. http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0824/_INDEX.HTM

Who is God?" (n.d.). Retrieved [insert date of access formatted: May 1, 2015], from https://www.allaboutgod.com/who-is-god.htm.

Encyclopædia Britannica® Incorporated Retrieved ( August 9, 2018) From https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism

American Heritage Dictionary Retrieved (January 21, 2019) http://web.pdx.edu/~tothm/religion/Definitions.htm

Paul Tillich Retrieved ( January 21, 2108) http://web.pdx.edu/~tothm/religion/Definitions.htm

"A Conversation With Dr. Paul Tillich and Werner Rode, Graduate Student in Theology." Film reel, 1956. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tillich