Genuine history shows that each of the three sister monotheistic faith systems of western cultures were launched as an insurrectionary movement against an established social order which had tended to honor a broad based tolerance for diverse spiritual practices. The hard-line monotheistic faith systems which dominate western cultures today expanded and have maintained their power hold only by indoctrination practices which have included perceptible intimidation tactics and even terrorism (such as is brutally demonstrated by Muslim extremists this day). The underlying fact is that the whole purpose of monotheistic practice was to establish a closed “spiritual” environment in which each person is doggedly conditioned to submit and obey an upper echelon of the system’s hierarchy.
The methods of any by-the-book faith system’s empowerment is to inject subconscious fear of godly retribution by withholding any promise of attaining a glorious afterlife if any seeker fails to obey the faith system’s representative. With that improvable assertion of a paradisical afterlife for the alleged favorites of God the “flock” is persuaded to sheepishly submit and obey. To keep faith system discipline the contention is put forth that the all-enfolding Life Principle (personified as “God”) favors them alone. However, that assertion is the very antithesis of spiritual freedom, inner peace, tolerance, compassion, fairness, justice, ethics, morality, and all other true qualities which elevate spirit into an evolved state of existence.
As a consequence the formalized by-the-book religions that are today presented to us as spiritual guidance are faith systems which are man-constructed and characterized by constant arguments over artificial objectives, empty symbols, phony prophets, shallow judgments of others, prejudices over superficial and pompous ritualism which intentionally keep seekers blind to our interrelationship to all the rest of the universe. What this shows is that man-made faith systems are essentially geared to regulate material greed and self-promotional events, not to guide seekers into personal attuning with Creation’s forces. When man-composed “holy word” texts are primarily assertions about godly nit-picking and jealousy, accounts of wars, invasions, killings and similar irreverent acts toward interrelated entities something is tragically inappropriate for authentic spiritual enlightenment. Certainly the glorification of such provoked conflicts with life’s intended diversity and variety only encourage the practices of prejudice and self indulgence, and should not be held as the foundation of ethical/moral attitude for social interchange.
Only in fairly recent times has the means been established to provide the capability to check the reliability and truthfulness of many “holy word” accounts. That painstaking science is biblical archaeology. For well over a century of digs throughout Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon there have been uncovered factual details of everyday life during the timeframes and events that make up the bulk of Hebrew Scriptures. The discoveries have often stunned and dismayed the archaeologists, and the implications have horrified those who want to believe that the books thought of as “holy word” were God’s true revealed word. The truth that is exposed is that the books of Scriptures were not even codified until the 8th/7th century BCE—or generations after the alleged events. And the reason for that labor of codifying such works was the political crisis which loomed over Judah in the timeframe following the fall of the kingdom of Israel to the north which had fallen to Assyria. Thus the origins and purpose for writing the stories of “God’s chosen ones” have to be reassessed with an eye kept upon the political crises that motivated them.
Likewise the New Testament, composed within the Roman Empire timeframe, should be reassessed with an eye on the political crisis that the Jewish fanatics in Palestine presented to the Empire. During the Roman occupation of Palestine the Jews pointed to their priest-written “holy” works as proof that they were answerable only to God and therefore the Roman Empire had not authority over them. That belligerent attitude of exclusivity with the Creator, not surprisingly, brought the Jews into constant friction with the Roman Empire and that characteristic is still at the heart of Judaism.
In assessing the “holy books” of western culture faith systems it should also be remembered that the Arab region had no prophet or written work to unite them in collective belligerence until the timeframe of Mohammad (570-632 CE). The fundamental tenets of Islam are: 1) There is but one God (Allah); 2) Man must submit and obey Allah [as determined by select men]; 3) The world will end with a great judgement. These tenets have direct and undeniable association with Judaic and Christian system beliefs–which Mohammad just happened to have been exposed to during his many caravan travels.
Lost in these by-the-book faith systems’ contrived rituals, unfortunately, is any means of perceiving one’s own personal spiritual alignment with the highest essences which are the foundation of our real self. The exploration of our inner self with the motivation to establish meaningful balance with nature and the universe is not a feature of any of the three heavily regimented faith systems of the western world. Everything remains focused on the faith systems themselves, which subconsciously suggests to seekers that the individual is not of any particular importance to an imagined human-like deity. Nothing in this form of faith system commerce is even suggestive of addressing the actual spiritual qualities which are inherent within every being. Instead every seeker is instructed to submit and obey their man-written holy book instructions but are not shown any means of opening themselves for the experience of true enlightenment. The difference between practicing a religion and making oneself open for spiritual vitality is as different as taking or receiving. If the emphasis is on ideology and ritual, then it is just religion, for religious practice can only take its authority from those who relinquish their spiritual energy to it. On the other hand, that essential spiritual quality which is the essence of each personal identity can align with Cosmic Conscience only by achieving a reflective state of consciousness, for what we term “spirit” is itself a reflective component of that higher Creative Conscience. If personal attention is grounded in what is nothing more than a theatrical performance then the path into the higher state of spiritual awareness remains blocked.
To be blunt; A person’s genuine spiritual evolution begins to malfunction as soon as exterior authority is imposed upon it.
These website postings have often referred to ancient lessons which concerned Creation/cosmology and life purpose, and those prehistory lessons were illustrated by using the universe itself as background. There, emblazoned upon the infinity of space, groups of stars (constellations) were used to illustrate the lessons. That prehistory means of instruction was not corrupted with any pretentious claims that universal truths were accessible only through some regimented, club-like membership-only faith system. There was then no merchandising of our spiritual connection into that higher power: there were no claims of a monopoly on universal truths. Unlike today’s by-the-book faiths those teachings did not distinguish themselves through hostile competition for material gain. Mankind must awaken to the fact that there can be no expansion or attainment of spiritual enlightenment from corporate-style by-the-book faith systems when those systems are demonstratively superficial in the universe as a whole, and are too implausible and unnatural to technological cultures on the smaller scale. Clearly what humankind is desperately in need of today is not the pretense of faith system exclusivity but a new dimension of consciousness.
Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog 