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2332 Word Write-Up on Religion By a Pagan - Give Me Your Opinion

I wrote this to see what I believe on paper. Correct me if I'm wrong, or you think I'm wrong, on anything, which I may be.

God, and Jesus, have been misrepresented to a great extent... Prayer is often offered up as a proof of God. Prayer only works through the power of belief, and coincidence, and the power of belief need not false representations of deities or Gods to work. All the power of belief takes to work is for you to believe it's your birthright, or for you to believe you deserve it greatly and that it will happen. To Christians, god made us, and we can pray to god, and the bible says so much about God giving to us, about asking and receiving, they believe it's their birthright to ask and receive from the lord. Their subconscious mind thus tries to bring about the results of the prayer because they believe it's going to happen, so in many cases it does. This is not proof of God though. This is simply cause and effect. I believe the proof is everything, an argument commonly used by Christians. It's not from the complexity of everything though; level of complexity is subjective. I believe the proof of God is everything because God is everything.

The God spoken of by the world's religions is though, in my opinion, based on the real God. That God is the universe itself, and we are all a part of it, a part of God - We become one with God in this sense when we die, and were one with god in that sense right now. Jesus is sometimes offered as proof of God. I say this, Jesus was only a man; a prophet spreading positive energy(just for reference when I say positive energy I mean the results of you spreading happiness - Like good thoughs and joyful memories, and other things good causes). He should certainly not be the center of your religion, and you shouldn't have a delusion that you a living or personal relationship with a 2000 year old dead man. Although since Jesus died and became one with the universe when he died, you shall be one with him one day technically, and are one with him now.

But then again, you may believe he is God in the flesh. Well I have something to tell you, we are all God in the flesh, the son/daughter of God, and God himself, because we are all part of the oneness, but we are separated from it mentally by the gift of consciousness and sentience. We all have the potential to be Godly before we die and channel positive and good thoughts into the world, and make the Universe, God, a better place. That, I think, was Jesus's message; not that he was the messiah and you have to believe in him before you die. But that you should believe in practicing peace and spreading happiness before you die.

Most religious folk fail at this in many ways. So to do I, but them more so for holding steadfast to their crazy beliefs that cause unnecessary harm and oppression. Many Christians refer to parts of the old testament as a basis for one of their beliefs, even though their own messiah said to disregard the old laws. Many religious people show their holy text to people, even though they're book full of justifications for evil and examples of Gods that abused their power, which I think isn't true, since God has no power. God, the universe, simply is, and it provides for us everything. Through our positive and negative energy we get what's coming to us, everyone forges their own reality by how we do things but also how we perceive things. One man is given a banana and says, only one? One man is given a banana and says, I thank you for this wonderful bounty! By this metaphor I mean, things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out. What that philosophy has to do with negative and positive energy is that, being fully satisfied spreads positive energy. Contrary to that though, holding back sick or wrong satisfactions that cause harm also lessens the spread of negative energy.

You have to see past the plethora of mythology and mistranslation(books such as the bible, Torah, Koran, and such), and see what the holy texts truly mean. I haven't found what they truly mean fully but I tell you these things. Be good and positive. Don't cause harm. Don't follow the spirit of Satan. But what is Satan? Satan is within us all, Satan's not an entity or being. Satan's is the evil within. In this sense many Christians are praying to Satan when they actually think they're praying to God. When they pray for unneeded wealth or harm to others, they are not praying to the universe, God, they are praying to themselves and their evil and greed. Through these thoughts and the persons actions afterwards, whether conscious or unconscious, the prayer may or may not be made a reality, but results don't come from the universe or a magical being named Satan, they come from the evil within. When someone prays for peace and prosperity for those who are worthy, or praying for forgiveness to the unworthy, they are praying to the universe, God, because that's good to pray for if you are actually praying for it out of the goodness of your heart. A child molester who prays for little girls that are submissive and secretive about getting violated is praying to Satan - himself, his own evil - no matter who he thinks he's praying too.

What about death? Death and religion go hand in hand for most people, I'd say it's not good proof for God though. They say things about near death experiences and such... But if you enter a peace and oneness with the universe, you enter part of the consciousness or unconsciousness of everything, couldn't your brain just be relating ideas you learned like God and heaven to what it is experiencing, God being the universe and heaven being oneness with the universe? In any case, I say not to pray to a magic sky man for a better next life. I say, Don't worry, be happy. If you follow the one rule of life to the best of your ability, your positive energy should have made the universe more positive, and everything should turn out fine. What's the one commandment you should follow to try to spread positive energy? Do what you will, if it harms none.

So many religious people have a superiority complex like they're the bringers of truth and goodness. Unfortunately their 'truth' is unvalidated by labels like God, and mythology about messiahs and gardens with snakes, mystical stories of places we go after we die, and crazy old texts that aren't even relevant to this day and age. Old religious texts should be an example of how negative mankind used to be, and how we are all improving throughout the ages. It shouldn't be used as an example for how life should be lived, it should be used as an example of how crazy mankind used to be, and what crazy things were attached to the truth by ignorant men of the past.

I personally think religion is a detriment to mankind. Man shouldn't worship any God accept the one we can see and experience, which is the universe. I know some people actually do speak and experience God or Jesus within their head. I say to them, it's not God, but their own mind. Why do I say it's their own mind? Because no one has the same idea of God within their head, everyone worships a God, even two people within the same denomination, worship different gods. When I was a christian the god in my head was cool with lots of things the God in other Christians minds wouldn't be cool with, like homosexuality, and drugs. God for many is themselves, but with every detail up to their ideal. they are just speaking to a deeper part of themselves that they aren't aware of.

The problem with most religions are that they have a mythology, a untrue, mystical, magic part, and lots of unneeded rules to go along with the good life lessons and truths. This promotes ignorance. Even my own pagan faith has a mythology, I just have to ignore it and see through to the truth. I suggest you do the same with your holy text. You can still celebrate your holy texts mythology, just know in your mind it's a mythology. My faith has hundreds of Gods, but I know they're all myth based on ancient pagan warriors, workers, and concepts. I don't take the mythology literally.

Man should worship the sun, for it provides all the energy needed for life on earth. Man should worship the earth, for it is his mother and provides him all he will need to live. Man should worship the universe, for all the possibilities it provides, and the fact that it provides us with a place to exist.
Man should worship the spirit of good, for it provides him with kindness and prosperity, happiness and abundance. Man should worship the spirit of evil, for it provides lessons for him to reflect and grow. Man should worship consciousness as respect it, for it's the essence of everything. Man should worship beauty, and worship the sentience that lets us experience the beauty. Now I don't mean you should get on your knees and pray for these things nightly, but you should acknowledge them in your head. My Pagan faith worships all these things and more in the forms of Gods to honor their spirit, but the God labels are not needed in my opinion.

If you ask me what the difference between the universe, and god, I'd say it's like the difference between a Sunday and a bowl of ice cream. One has chocolate, nuts, and a cherry to make it seem better. One just is plain vanilla. While Christians prefer to sprinkle some gardens and serpent nuts, dradle a bunch of old testament nonsense chocolate, and put a nice Jesus cherry on top or their ice cream, I prefer it plain, but unfortunately that's not a obvious flavor choice when it comes to religion, I had to take some Pagan strawberry sauce over my plain religion and God, but I just scrape the strawberry sauce off.
 
I heard a message from a Show called My name is Earl recently... Call it karma, call it voodoo, call it God, it's really all the same thing. I'll add to that.. It's really all the same thing.. A substitute for the real truth that is not yet known. If it's not yet known why do I claim these things? Same reasons religious folk do. Faith, with a dash of logic and reasoning. God is ever loving, ever present, ever knowing. The universe fits this description, because it gives you everything in return for nothing, it's everywhere, and it's seen everything. Unlike the God of religions though the universe is ever changing, not static.

I know I ripped on Christians for my examples, but it's the only religion I fell for before I was a pagan, so therefore I have first hand experience. I guess my main point is, don't worship God, but the actually physicality behind them. For an almighty God, the physical manifestation is the universe - and everything if there's more than the universe. Is there an actual God behind the physical manifestation? I say maybe, and I say to all who those who believe without a doubt that a spiritual manifestation of the universe exists(God), that you should not dismiss your physical body as just bones and flesh. Maybe it is just your physical body, maybe it is your spirit, maybe it is both, just as maybe the universe is God, but it may still have a spirit outside of the physicality - I don't deny this. But in my opinion this is the spirit realm and our bodies are the spirits. Your body constantly rejuvenates itself, giving up the old cells and waste products back to the universe, and taking back from the universe what it needs to remain individually conscious. Everything has a spirit, even if it's not conscious. You're just a manifestation of the one spirit. We are all God, learning lessons during each life our understanding as a whole can be made greater. We are all one in this sense. You and me are both the same person, of the same energy, of God, the universe, in different manifestations. We are both children of the universe.

I know I doubted myself a few times throughout this, but to be truly objective you must object to yourself. The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing, and the wisest mind has something yet to learn. So, if I were to believe in religious ideas with all my heart, even though I can't since there's a part of me that always questions everything, these would be them: God is the universe. Satan is the evil within. The universe works through positive and negative energy, in a concept commonly referred to as Karma, or as Jesus said, You reap what you sow. When you die you become one with all. Everything has a spirit (which is it's physical body and it's energy; we are already in the spirit realm. I'm not dismissing the fact wayward spirits may exist, or that there may be a spirit realm, since the body is more than flesh; it's also energy. This energy might be able to reside out of the body. I don't know, I'll find out if I ever meet a ghost or become a ghost) Do as you will if it causes no harm. That's not really religious, but moral. But I guess it is religious to me since causing harm is negative energy, and I believe the universe, God, works through positive and negative energy.
 
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