My Problem with Religion

These are some thoughts I sent to a friend, a Christian, several weeks ago, and I felt like I should share them here.

It’s all bull. What’s on my mind is that I feel like I’ve been lied to most of my life. The Force? The Jedi? Christianity? Tao? Zen? God? How can I possibly know what is real, except to go by someone else’s word? Star Wars has been a poison. The Bible causes me more confusion than answers questions. The Tao Te Ching and Zen writings are all empty.

I wish I could describe properly what it is I've discovered. Some call it being awake. I see reality for the illusion that it is, and religion is by far the biggest lie invented. Have you ever thought that there may be something bigger than God? Or at least something bigger than the Christian view of God? I’ve seen it. It is beyond any words that I can use to describe size. It’s nothing and everything. But what is everything? That question in itself is too big to ask. Forget about the universe, or even a multiverse. What is beyond that?

It’s not that all religions are wrong, it’s that they all fall short. If you were to combine all the religions of the world like pieces of a puzzle, you’d barely have one piece. Our languages are too inferior to describe “the truth”. Remember how we used to call it “ “. That sort of comes close to what I’m talking about.

You’re more awake than most people I know. Your only problem is that you are still stuck in religiosity. If you were to think outside that box, you may begin to realize how shallow it all is. Of course, being awake is no treat. There’s an old very short story that goes…

The monks of a monastery heard that one of the students had achieved enlightenment. They rushed to speak with him.
“How do you feel?” they asked him.
“As miserable as ever.” He answered.

Of course, the lesson was just to warn fellow monks that being enlightened didn’t suddenly make all your problems go away. But in my own opinion, it can make being miserable easier.

It’s all nonsense. All of it. I don’t pretend to know what is true, but I’ve given up on the pursuit of truth. I’m not sure there is such a thing. Everything we’ve followed was man-made. I know that the Bible claims it was “written” by God and “penned” by man. But men are poor filters. The Bible, by the way, is one of very many holy books that claim to be divinely inspired.

Which is right? They all claim to be the one true story and all others are wrong. So how can anyone decide which one to follow?

The Bible is the most published book in the world, and yet there are dozens of translations, if not more. Which of these can we believe is the one true translation? But the reason it’s so popular is because it offers the easiest way to Heaven. Just believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins and you’ve got a ticket to paradise. But the other option is too terrible to think upon. Anyone who hasn’t accepted the gospel or had any opportunity to hear it burns in Hell for all eternity.

What kind of loving God is this? It’s sick. And if I can say that as a human being, how could an all-knowing God do something so heinous? Furthermore, why would God set up such a broken system in which ANYONE could ever face eternal torture? If he really loved us as his creation, he would have made us perfect, incapable of sin, and his only begotten son never would have needed to be born.

How is it that I can figure this out, but Christians can’t?

Are you lying there awake, and writing your beautiful poetry?
I just can't sleep, and I am so tired, it's  closing  in on  nearly  three.
I know that the  words  will come out right, if this is  meant  to be.
I know that most the world's  asleep  now,  except  for you and me.
So I lay here awake, and  write  my poetry, for the  world  to see.
Each poem that we sit and write, will be  reviewed  so differently.
Staying  positive  in all that we do,  maintaining  our independancy.
Still  waiting  for the day, that our  souls  can be free for eternity.
This is my hope and my yearning, that our  souls  can be set free!

Excerpt  from a song by Elizabeth King 

You pose some great questions Streen -

I have found many of the same faults in organized religions that you mention.

I would also challenge some of the ideas though, on all of the faith traditions you mention.

There would be some Christians that would say what you call Christianity is not truly "Christian" (there are too some traditions that are exactly what you say though, in fairness). There would be some Buddhists from different traditions that would say there are levels that haven't been reached in understanding (Though others would say that you've understood the point, you simply haven't realized it). Many following Jediism would say that the symbolism has led them to new forms of freedom and cleared them from to "poison" of other traditions they came from (Though, others have turned to other beliefs due to the same teachings).

True, many of the traditions have questionable ideologies, but perhaps there can be more to learn through them all.

It is a natural tendency to quickly reject things when we see flaws, but I find that often the most interesting lessons come when we try to understand the truths past the flaws in the different belief systems - when we look to further understand the people involved, both those who "understand" and those who don't "understand" the different traditions.

Sometimes, seeing more perspectives and understanding more people opens up new avenues to get closer to "the truth" (whatever that means).

My favorite question you pose though is "How can I possibly know what is real, except to go by someone else's word?"

Hmm... How could you? It's an awesome question that I think is worth pondering.

Hello Streen. First of all thank you for posting these thoughts. 
Although I am no Master of Jediism, and my journey as a Jedi has been fairly short compared to a lot of people here at TotJO, I still wanted to share some thoughts as I found your views to be of concern for a lot of people who have been religious or have studied religions before running into Jediism. Please know that the following is purely my personal opinion and thoughts from my journey of learning at the Temple.

I have been brought up in a Catholic school, although it was during my childhood and my memory is fuzzy about its teachings. It has never resonated with me despite going to church to try things out several times during different periods of my life. I simply found Christian mythology to be rather intersting, it has been more like a piece of fiction to me.

In your post you mentioned "...They all claim to be the one true story and all others are wrong..."

As I am not very familiar with all the religions in the world. I do hear that a lot of Christian churches convey the idea of following God's rules to enter heaven or go to hell. Jediism does not tell you what is right or wrong but rather emphasizes on finding YOUR OWN truth. Truth is a very ambiguous word and I understand the frustration you might be encountering when studying religious writings. Furthermore, I agree with you on the limitation of language. There is only so much our language can explain, and the only thing we, as well as people in the past, can do is to do our best to convey the meanings we try to share. For me, truth simply means my own reality. Teachings are generic, and we are the only ones that can decide what works for us and how to practice them in our lives to make the life we are in better. As Master Qui-Gon said: "Our focus determines our reality." We hold the power to shape our lives. As a Jedi, it is important to know our limitations, but also not let our thoughts become our own limitations.

Being aware certainly does not make your problems go away, but it gives you the power of choice. You can not exert the power of choice before being aware. And the Temple provides us many lessons not only to raise awareness but to fundamentally understand who we are and how our mind works. There are many practical tools in my Jedi journey that helped me bring balance in life and attract positivity. I have written in my lessons that I do not think Jediism is for everybody, because it is definitely not an easy path and some other reasons. But Jediism welcomes everyone of all backgrounds to find out who they are as a Jedi and thus be able to navigate this life going forward.

MTFBWY.

There's a lot here, and on some level I think I'm going to simply embrace the need to agree to disagree on some of your points. It's one of the things I'm quickly realizing I like about the Jedi path: the world is full of many, many viewpoints and we can (and should) respect those viewpoints even if we disagree with them, and take what lessons we can from them.

I do, however, want to at least challenge a few points (and highlight a few that I agree with).

Streen wrote:

But what is everything? That question in itself is too big to ask. Forget about the universe, or even a multiverse. What is beyond that?

From my perspective, what you've just described, that which is beyond the universe or even the multiverse, beyond all of it, is God. God is not alien hovering above the Earth interacting exclusively with us. He is that which is beyond everything. When asked what his name was my Moses, he responded "I am what I am" which was to say that He simply is. He isn't something within the universe, he is in a sense existence itself, the thing beyond any concept we can put to words. ("I am what I am" in Hebrew writing roughly transliterates into English as Yahweh, giving us that name). Perhaps that which you've discovered, that which is beyond everything, is God. I know it's not what you want to hear, but the way you describe what you've discovered is precisely how I would describe my understanding of God.

Streen wrote:

Your only problem is that you are still stuck in religiosity. If you were to think outside that box, you may begin to realize how shallow it all is.

Is it possible that you have this backwards? Is it possible that you are assuming your friend is limited by a viewpoint when it may be the opposite? Is it possible that just as you have come to a realization about some great truth of the universe, so has your friend? Perhaps your friend has just come to see a different piece of the puzzle than you have or realized details that put it all into a different paradigm than the details you've realized might do. While it is certainly true that many people following religion these days do so out of blind loyalty - often shaped by their parents more than any searching of their own - there are some religious people out there who are religious not because they were told to be are trapped by religion but because they've come to some greater realization that aligns with the views of that religion and the religion helps them better contextualize and process that realization they've come to, a way to make enlightenment a slightly less miserable experience.

Streen wrote:

The Bible causes me more confusion than answers questions.

...

I know that the Bible claims it was “written” by God and “penned” by man. But men are poor filters.

...

The Bible is the most published book in the world, and yet there are dozens of translations, if not more. Which of these can we believe is the one true translation?

I agree that humans make poor filters, and unfortunately this gets to the crux of many of your points, which is that much of modern religion is based on some great realization someone had in the past getting filtered through their own culture and experiences to become a difficult shadow of itself. In terms of understanding which translation to use, I had one teacher that had the perfect answer: none of the above. He had a Bible that was written in the original untranslated languages. Of course, he could also read each of those languages fluently and had spent his life studying the cultural context of the time periods the different parts of the Bible were written in, which isn't really an option for most of us. This feeds back to one of your first observations which is that the Bible causes confusion (which coincides with your sentiment that the Tao Te Ching and other Zen writings are empty). All of these texts were written thousands of years ago, in a foreign language no longer used today, filtered through not only a very different culture and the challenges of a very different time period but filtered through the inherent biases of the author. Because of that I think undertaking a study of any of these ancient texts really requires a guide who is truly well informed on that specific topic and can help filter out all the crud, bring out the meaning that might be lost in metaphor, and highlight the true nuggets of wisdom within them. These aren't things a lay person will be able to grasp without that deeper understanding of the culture, which is why I think we need guides: not to tell us what the answer are or what path we should be on, but to help us access the wisdom of the ages, to give us access to the observations of others before us who had made similar observations as we have that we can then build on instead of spending our time reinventing what they already figured out.

That in my view is the point of religion as a whole. You share some great of examples of religion not being so great. In some cases these are religions that have been warped by the cultural challenges that their fundamental texts were written in. In other cases they are warped by cultural challenges of modern leaders who wield religion like a weapon more than a tool.

Streen wrote:

Just believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins and you’ve got a ticket to paradise. But the other option is too terrible to think upon. Anyone who hasn’t accepted the gospel or had any opportunity to hear it burns in Hell for all eternity.

What kind of loving God is this? It’s sick. And if I can say that as a human being, how could an all-knowing God do something so heinous? Furthermore, why would God set up such a broken system in which ANYONE could ever face eternal torture? If he really loved us as his creation, he would have made us perfect, incapable of sin, and his only begotten son never would have needed to be born.

This does not mirror my understanding of Christian beliefs. First, one doesn't get a ticket to paradise just for believing in Jesus. It is still one's own choices that determine their future (a fundamental reality of life as much as a religious belief). It also is a fairly zealous perspective that anyone who hasn't accepted the Gospel is doomed to eternal torture. While some Christian leaders certainly have taught these notions, they are particularly zealous (and in my opinion incorrect) interpretations of the teachings of Christ, filtered again through the context of the time period and culture in which the Gospels were written. It may also be a very mild comfort to know that even the more zealous sects that teach this don't teach that those who haven't heard of the Gospel are similarly doomed to hell. The most extreme they get is to say that those who have been taught about Jesus and chose to reject Him would go to hell. Again, though, it's a fairly zealous interpretation that is not reflective of all Christian belief.

The idea that God would doom anyone to hell is in my opinion an artifact of obsessing over a few books that are again written within the context of the culture they were written in. My interpretation is that when people die, they have the chance to enter into a state of being fully connected with God (heaven), but can choose not to be (which would itself naturally be a torture), but that it is the person's choice to make. This all gets into a much deeper philosophical discussion on the true nature of sin (is it really some crime against God, or is it more just a choice that naturally hurts us and makes it harder to make good decisions). In many ways my personal issues with Christianity is similar to my issues with Star Wars: it has an unhealthy and unnecessary obsession with good vs. evil and the absoluteness between them.

Streen wrote:

They all claim to be the one true story and all others are wrong. So how can anyone decide which one to follow?

This is, as far as I'm aware, mostly a Christian phenomenon. Christians do indeed have a belief that they and only they have come to know the truth and that everyone else is wrong, and that Christians have a moral duty to share this truth with everyone they can. Most religions don't have such extreme and exclusive views. It's one of the reasons why Christianity has risen to such popularity and why Mormonism - an otherwise obscure sect that is the laughing stock of even Christians - has become so prominent: the focus on the moral imperative of forcing their truth upon as many people as they can. Most religions aren't this way. Some related religions (like Islam) do also have sects with this view, but it's mostly reserved to these religions that spawned from the middle east.

At the end of the day, it isn't my goal to change your mind (that seems like it would be an impossible task, plus I have nothing to gain by it), but your position is surprisingly absolute and seems to suggest that you believe you understand these religions better than the people who have spent their entire lives working to understand them, so I simply wanted to challenge a few of your assumptions since some of them are assumptions that I can personally attest to being incorrect, and invite you to seek out the wisdom in other perspectives even if you don't agree with them. Also, it's worth noting that just because some organized religions (ok, most organized religions) have structured themselves in a way that is problematic, forcing people onto a specific path and often hurting not only the people on their path but the rest of society as well, doesn't mean that religion on its own is inherently bad or that all religions are bad. At the end of the day, they are a way for people who have come to a realization to share that with others and to learn from others who have come to the same realization they have so they can expedite or better follow their own path.

I know it is difficult to see past flaws, especially glaring flaws that you can't unsee, but there can be a lot of wisdom even in things you disagree with. I'm going through that myself as I go through the Joseph Campbell interviews. I detest Joseph Campbell, probably as much as you detest religion. Still, I can accept that even a broken clock is right twice a day and anyone who has spent their life studying something or any group that has studied something for thousands of years is bound to have found some nuggets of wisdom over that time that are worth learning.

You are of course welcome to disagree with me on some or all of what I've said. I just wanted to challenge your absolute views and highlight that maybe not everything is exactly as it seems. At the end of the day, you of course need to walk your path. I'll end with a final quote from your letter:

Streen wrote:

How can I possibly know what is real, except to go by someone else’s word?

My answer to this is: by not just going by someone else's word. Ask your own questions, as you have done here. Ask experts when you have questions on a subject that they have a deeper understanding of, let them guide you through the realms they know well, but at the end you'll have to decide what you take from them, and walk your own path.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. Though I disagree with many of your sentiments and observations (and the points I disagree with occupied the bulk of my response), there are some observations you made that I very much agree with and even the things I disagree with I appreciate you sharing and entertaining a respectful conversation about. They are topics that get to a deep truth about who we are and we function in the world and within ourselves. It may be obvious by this point, but the filter that my perspective goes through is that I am Christian (Catholic), and also consider myself a Jedi (though still very, very early in the formal process of that). To me Jediism is more than just a path, it is religious belief. I do believe in the Force as a very real thing. It isn't really an organized religion (or at best a very loosely organized religion) but for me it is a religion. That being said, I do recognize that it is not a religion for everyone. For some, it seems that it is a path or a life philosophy more than a religious belief.