Fortunately, in the
modern age we are passing out of the domination of institutionalized
religions which have controlled the world over the last two thousand
years. Religion as a belief system - the idea that one religion owns
the Divine or Truth as if it were a kind of property - is a medieval
phenomenon that is now out of date, the product of a dark age of
lack of scientific knowledge and global communication. The division
of religion appears on par with the division of nations, languages
and currencies, which are bound to disappear in time.
Religion as it is
generally known in the Western world, and its culture which now
dominates the world, projects an exclusive truth for a particular
leader, book, or group of people and the need to convert the world
to it - which is contrary to the idea that there is a Universal
Truth. It formulates truth as an external authority rather than an
inner experience and thereby denies any real inward search for God.
This exclusivist idea of religion may have one God but it has two
humanities - the believers and the non-believers - and regards the
non-believers as inferior or sinful - to be converted or conquered -
which leads to every sort of misunderstanding and exploitation.
Its concern is not union
with God but elimination of the non-believers. It does not aim at
making us better people but at changing those who do not outwardly
conform to what we think is religious. As we are beginning to come
together as a planet and recognizing our common humanity, such
divisions can no longer be accepted. They no longer appear religious
but inhumane.
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