No Need for Religion
Historically, all major religions of the world have proven themselves to be detrimental to any society that they have governed.
The Sassani dynasty of Persia lost the most powerful country of that time to a small group of barbarian Arabs by making Zoroastrianism the official religion of the empire.
The Roman Empire, the golden-age of the ancient world in the fourth century AD, changed into the dark-age of Europe by making Catholicism the official religion of the empire. But European nations, by minimizing the power of the Catholic Church in the17th century AD, not just recovered from, over a millennium of down-fall, but they changed the fall and stagnation into the great success of the 18th century to the present time.
Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, has created the dark-age of any land that Islam has conquered by combining spiritual power of his religion with administrative duties of the land. This still is an ongoing problem in the Islamic world.
Buddhism, whose principle belief of its followers is disinterest in the material world, briefly acquired power in the early 14th century during the reign of Kublai Khan in China. In that brief period, the lamas used to commit the vicious criminal act of rape and murder against the people that they were supposed to serve.
Unfortunately, as a social animal, it is human nature to be dependant on some kind of great power. This can be solved for the nation of Iran by accepting a set of moral principles (aaeen instead of deen) to devise a constitution in the framework of that principle.
The majority of people of Iran have great respect for Zarathushtra which, according to my years of research, is a philosopher, not a prophet as today’s Zoroastrians claim to be.
According to Gathas, Zoroaster has never created a religion when he was alive and never claimed to be a prophet but just an ordinary human being. All his life he campaigned against Magies and their gods. Zoroastrianism was created after his death by his “Zorvanist” and “Mithraist” students who could not understand his doctrine.
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
However, I am particularly interested in this reflection. I am a Christian, and I heartily agree with the point of view that religion makes poor government. I am embarrassed about the fact that for millenia people have used the name of Jesus Christ as an excuse to "crusade" against folks they don't like or opinions they do not agree with. The conflict is all about control, isn't it? I believe in relationship with a living God who has everything under control and is working out of love--not law.
When Jesus was on trial and about to be executed, He told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my disciples would fight..." He didn't try to use His magnificent power and authority to exercise control to save Himself from death. He doesn't exercise it over anyone, but gives us the right to choose Him or not. So many of us Christians overlook this in the eagerness to organize and fight for control.
I believe in Jesus and His Kingdom where love of God and love of your neighbor are the two values. His ways are totally contrary to the values of this world, most of which are based on the fear of not having control--or should I say, the illusion of control. If God doesn't choose to exercise control over a person, why do we believe we have that right in the name of religion?
I also believe that it is the right of the government to wage war to protect the peace and resist the evils of this world. I am not a strict pacifist ( another religion), and I am not passive, either. I would like to believe that I would have resisted the Nazis and the Fascists and hidden the Jews and other defenseless people from the holocaust.
If Jesus somehow trusted His heavenly Father in His hour of greatest pain, I want to be able to do the same. As one who has a relationship with the living God who is all powerful, all knowing and who describes Himself as a lover of people, I can't help but believe that He is giving us a choice in this life to trust Him. When I'm really trusting God, I don't need the illusion of control. I'll just settle for the power of influence and let you choose.
Keep those recipes coming! Blessings, M<>{
Thank you
Post your comment