Religion – Safety Net?
January 3, 2016
A condom is a safety net that couples use to prevent ‘accidents’. A seatbelt in your vehicle is a ‘safety net’ in case of an accident. Not guaranteed to work, but well, it’s safer. Safety nets are all over, most we are not aware of. Even love is a safety net from making the wrong ‘love decision’, but only if you’re aware, and discerning, of course, or really love yourself without attachments to past problems that knowingly or unknowingly affect ‘choices’. Is love of self a guaranteed ‘safety net’? Depends on who you love, and the ‘blessings of life’. Lots of variables!
Fast food is ‘comfort food’ or food that is quick, easy, and palatable while not necessarily the best choice. Humans have the unique capacity to not only think about survival, but question what happens when the journey stops? Is that all there is? What about people, which is most everyone, who don’t from birth (or before) to old age, have the chance to look deeply into how life works even after the spirit leaves the body?
It is okay not to believe in a supernatural authority as long as you have the capacity to rely on yourself and your own strengths, seeking meaning and values internally, taking responsibility for your actions, crediting yourself for your success, and blaming yourself for your failures. Of course, if you can become a strong person by believing in God, that is fine too. There is a virtue that believing in God will foster.
Throughout history, gods of various forms and assigned attributes have been created and worshiped by people in different parts of the world. People who have been worshiping these man-made gods have been acquiring the same comforting feelings and benefits that devout Muslims receive by praying to Allah.
However, how about the illiterate who are also not economically well off, and with no real opportunity to choose their fate, but have to acquiesce to the milieu they are in? On the other hand, I cannot fathom those religious apologists who are living comfortably in the U.S. or other developed countries and who are possibly educated in fine universities, but possess the mentality of the medieval era or personify someone who lives in Timbuktu. Even though they have an iPhone 6 in their pocket and use state-of-the-art technology to spew all sorts of nonsensical stories off and online, they keep 6th century’s thoughts in their heads. That is indeed oxymoronic. They think that there is a big brother in the sky watching their every move and recording their every deed, someone who takes the blame for their every misdeed and the credit for every success.
Do you think we will eventually enter an era in which we have to face life’s tragedies or love’s without relying on the benefits of religion and embracing ‘self love’ as part of a superconscious self? Open the mind and heart for seeking, questioning, and being a ‘finder’ rather than a seeker. Knowing love and believing in love are totally different.
Arhata~