OpEdNews - Page 8 of Article: Godwho: Thoughts from a former Mormon

God cannot be proved by the intellect. He can only be known through the emotions. Martin Luther said; "You have to kill reason to know god." But if you kill reason you kill the intellect and leave man defenseless.

When a child is trained to think in the mystical modus that God is watching over him, directing him and will punish in some nether world all who disobey him, or reward him for good things done, then he begins to regard the world as down a long corridor. He thus falls prey to all sorts of holy excesses, fanaticism, self torment, prudery, gullibility and a morbid inability to meet the world. The healthy mind, the one which is free of all fetters of mysticism doesn't need to be born again. He sees life for what it is and can accept it. It is only the warped mind, the sick soul who needs to be born again to be happy.

The pretense of religious belief when one really believes otherwise is one of the greatest forces that keeps organized religion active and alive. A fear of ostracism if the family finds out a member is in rebellion from the things that person was taught as a child. There is a social need to belong to a group, or a political reasons (it gives a sense of worth to be affiliated with a popular religion), reasons of expediency, (I can make profitable connections belonging to this group). There is usually a fee, tithe, required to maintain ones membership in such organizations.

As custodians of offerings, tithes, contributions, church is BIG business. The greatest fraud of that arrangement is that the church is accountable to no one but the nebulous God who seldon if ever considers bank accounts, investments, embezzlements, misappropriations and plain stupid mismanagement.
Churches won't let churches die. There is too much money involved. When a person spouts a mysticism and money begins to flow in then it solidifies and grows. The more money a church gets the more power it has and the more it promotes mysticism. Such wealth puts much power into the hands of those who want to strengthen the church for political management. Power gives up nothing unless it is forced to give it up. Changes in churches come about not from the top but by insignificant people gathering together, realizing that changes are needed, putting pressure on leaders until they force changes at the top.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not freedom of religion which has made this country great, but freedom from religion. Religion can go just so far and then political action contains it. One particular case was the Mormons and their practice of polygamy. After more than fifty years of legislating against polygamy and having the Mormons thumb their noses at all laws concerning marriage, the Federal goverment put all the church's property into the hands of a receiver in 1889. Officially the Mormons gave up taking several wives each. Unofficially it kept going on even by high church officials until there was another confrontation in 1905. Polygamy is still being practiced by fundamentalists to the embarrassment of the present day Mormons.
If religious zealots can defy civil laws with polygamy because it is their religious belief there is danger of any kind of "kookiness" coming under the umbrella of religious freedom.

Historically the church, especially the Catholic church, has wielded so much power that mankind was literally held in intellectual bondage for over a thousand years. Thousands of people killed during the Inquisition in the name of religion. Many others deprived of their human rights. Any changes which came about was through heresy and individual disobedience. Yet in the face of such a history the church, all churches, claim to be the bastions of morality, the keeper of morality, the guardian of morality.

They announce this often and long and loud trying to give themselves a purpose to remain in existence. They claim that belonging to an organized religion guarantees that their members will have moral training. The role of churches in morality is a point to be debated. In actuality morality is imbedded in societies. Almost all moral codes tell of the necessity of caring for your neighbors, reverencing your parentage, loving your children, taking nothing from the earth unless you return something of equal worth to the earth. But those are social laws. They are not divine laws, laws revealed by God. They are univseral laws which must be obeyed if the human family is to continue.

The greatest immorality of religion is that it teaches as truth things which have no basis in truth. The existence of God. A God who directs the universe. God speaks to men. There will be life after death. You will be punished in an after life for contributions to the church which you have withheld, all kinds of punishment for all kinds of sin. None of them are honest enough to teach, "What I am telling you may not have any basis in fact. Go out and find out for yourself." In my opinion it is child abuse to fill a child's brain with half truths and whole lies until when he comes of age to think for himself he has no brain to think with. You are not excused of child abuse as a parent if you haven't established that which you are teaching him is the truth.
Even the greatest thinkers fumble and stumble when they try to deal with the idea of God, not because they are slow of speech or inadequate to deal with mystical subjects but because God does not exist and they are trying to make a falsehood a truth and that is impossible.

Man should display moral behavior because he is nature's greatest creation and should respect every other human being as of equal worth as himself. That which is good for his neighbor must also be good for all men and by arbitration all conflicts shall be settled. The same moral concern should be displayed to all of the earth's creatures and even to the earth itself. God doesn't demand it. Natures demands it. If man does not heed this moral code then nature will exacts its toll. Nature does not forgive man his trespassed.

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