Non-Religious persecution

What is it about the human mind that naturally seems to want to categorize and compartmentalize everything. It seems we must associate ourselves with religious & political organizations, feminist, race or humanitarian groups, clubs & cliques and when we don't we become wanderers, vagabonds and pretty much scowled at by the general population as "lost". I am by no means "lost."

In my experience, people who are part of any group that believe in a single god, creation from this god, a great spiritual war and a punishment/reward system seem to be the most dangerous forces. Since I associate myself with no group, organization or club it appalls me that these groups seem to know what is best for the rest of us.

Every human, animal and plant has been granted the right to exist in the universe. Life itself needs many elements to flourish; food, water, gasses, sunlight, shelter, social interactions, love. Our nature is to be curious about our universe, to explore and discover. We do it from the moment we are born. We feel love and fear, it's natural. But so many people seem to wonder into churches met with a promise that "this is what you were searching for".

The feeling of love happens when we let go of fear. When you turn  on the light, the darkness goes away. It did not cease to exist, the light is now on. When we are in fear we can't feel love. Our minds are focused on our bills, car issues, health issues or whatever. When we go to church our focus is now on a something else, a promise that everything will be ok letting "Jesus take the wheel".. That feels good, comforting and that's wonderful just like your mother hugging you after a bad day at school listening to your experience and telling you everything will be ok.

There are the rest of us who feel our existence to be something different. We focus our thoughts on art, science, children or dancing; we feel love and peace just like you.

I am not looking for anything, I am discovering everything. 

Too many times we get so focused on the end destination we forget to see the things in between. Being a painter taught me it the process of painting that creates the painting itself. One of the most bitter/sweet experiences I've had was when my car broke down and had to rely on public transportation, bikes and walking until it was repaired. My perspective of the world completely changed. I never realized how many cigarette butts there were on the road. My perspective of people changed, assumptions and judgments dissolved, found money, got a glimpse into people's lives listening to conversations on the bus, and felt a sense of convergence of beings all going to the same place coming from different experiences. It was quite eye opening.

It was then that I realized how different beliefs in the afterlife, ghosts or gods was completely irrelevant to life itself and how these beliefs manifested into judgments, hatred, pity or bad behaviors. When science makes a new discovery they advertise it making everyone aware of it's existence. This discovery may be completely irrelevant to one quarter of the population and no one forces you to change your life base on it. Religion reels people in with promises of virgins, gold, health and eternal life in love and peace. SOLD, who wouldn't want that? But it's the fine print one must read...

A hierarchy reward system listing all it's "side effects" of following a god or belief system. Hell, fire, persecution, a being that is watching you 24/7 creating "god fearing people" hiding in closets, under covers and in dark ally's. People manipulated into tithing (which oddly means tax), going on missions of recruitment, although they call it "educating", making people repent and feel guilty so they can make you feel better. Sounds very controlling to me. Create a problem, bring a solution and people will love and follow you. Classic model.

So after being manipulated into seeing the horrible sin in the world they are driven to go out and make the world a better place. Well who doesn't want that? We all do.  In their hearts they want to save people from hell and eternal suffering, it's natural to want to help someone you know may get hurt. Doesn't it make you angry when someone insists on doing it their way knowing they are going to get hurt and having an "I told you so " moment? Well when it comes to the afterlife, there is no way to have an "I told you so" moment. We are all guessing, and to claim to know a god, heaven or hell exists is just being hopeful.

Once your mind attaches itself to a belief, that belief then stops your mind from continuing to explore new possibilities. Science holds to a system of understanding that says "At this moment, given all the information available, we believe x,y,z to be true" As soon as there is more information available, the belief changes. Religion feeds off this phrase as their "I told you so" moment referring back to a god for answers.

The kindness and love taught throughout religion has been poisoned with greed, control and politics filtering it's agendas into the general population by passing laws that persecute those who don't believe or care that no such god exists taking away human rights. You have the right to believe, I have the right not to believe.  Morality is not owned by religion.

I have heard many people say "god will take care of him". ONLY perhaps if he does not ask for forgiveness. According to religion, if Hitler asked for forgiveness before he died he's going to be walking those streets of gold with you for eternity along with all the other murderers, molesters and bombers. If we're all here to learn and experience life, what's the point of a hell? Seems a pointless game of souls the gods play on us.

My point being is that if you want to educate people about your belief system, forcing laws on them, calling the names, excluding them from your circles, killing the infidels, scaring the shit out of them with hell is not the way to do it.Everyone has the right to believe what they want. Christian people would not like Muslim laws implied on them nor do it's citizens want any religious laws implied on them. It contradicts the right to practice statement in the Constitution. Which basically means "We don't practice religion, but if want to, you have the right to."  And no one is taking away anyone's right to practice in America, so why is it allowed to flow into our government? Who's being persecuted here?

WHY???? 

I have been called horrible names by the same Christian people I once prayed with. Pitied by believers and reminded of my place amongst the fire, seen lesbian friends denied rights others have and loose property to the government because they were not married and become homeless, women bringing children into the world abusing them because their church frowned on abortion then condemned them for being single parents and having premarital sex. How is this positive for peace in the world?.

Until I began to entertain all possibilities on the existence of a god and excommunicate myself from the church did I realize how nasty the people were that I spent the first 15 years of my life with claiming to be so loving. I once heard in Sunday school that "believing in Jesus was going to be hard because the devil is everywhere and trying to win the war by tempting you into sin. The world is full of sin." Making me see the world as a horrible, scary place. Church control IS the scary place, the world has been nothing but beautiful to me. When I started flowing with nature, life became easy and smooth.

One does not need religion  to feel love, to smile and show compassion towards our world. To see someone struggle should not come with persecution and judgment. Put away phrases such as "god will help them", perhaps your god is working through you to do just that. You were granted the universal gift of awareness and it is YOU who can choose to help or not. Humans make mistakes, education helps them to avoid future mistakes, not threats and fear......  

Religious messages of manipulation

I had a good chuckle the other day when a good client of mine made a comment to me.

She said with a sence of sadness and pitty, "You know the only difference between you and I? I believe in Jesus and he is going to save me."

"Uh huh..." I said with a big smile and a splash of you think you've figured it out sarcasm. Yeah ok, I just go with the flow, hell she's 68 years old and still under the influence of Jesus. I just wanted to have a good ol' talk with her about anything non religious based. But over the years, conversation after conversation about kids, recipes and everything else, I knew contemplating the universe with her was beyond her comprehension or willingness to expand her mind since every decision was from the Jesus point of view. To her I was just a messenger of satan trying to stear her away from Christ. *big sigh*

Another client of mine asked me one day where I think I will go when I die. I told her I had no clue and really didn't care. You should have seen the look on her face as she jumped back in her chair 10 feet.

"Certainly I hope I just don't cease to exist when I die" She said in shock.

"Why not?" I said curiously. "Where do you think your consciousness or soul goes, if there is one? Where can it go? Into nothing? A dog? An alien being? Or an image of a young healthy you in a heaven?"

Seriously, who cares. As Deepak Chopra said so wonderfully. "Don't live in the future, you'll never be present when it gets here."

Why do we as humans live everywhere but here? I remember one day a friend of mine told me that I didn't know how to live in the now. My mind was always in the past or the future, she was right. But how do you live in the now? I'm still working on this but am figuring out it has alot to do with letting go. Letting go of the past, realizing it's over and there is nothing you can do to change it. PERIOD. It's the hardest thing to do. It's easy to stay mad about something, sad about experiences or hold on to resentments towards others or yourself. Know that you may never have answers to what happend and waste valuable time in creating new experiences trying to figure it out.

Living in the future goes beyond the "what if" mode. A brief thought of a consequence like touching something that may be hot is not living in the future. My father was a master of residing there. Everything he did had an entire lifetime of possible events attached to it, a story of  future events foretelling what would happen if  he lent me $20 bucks. Somehow the storyline in my mind was totally different and didn't see my future heading that direction. I wonder why he never capitalized on his great power? Because it was his reality.

As I sat clicking through channels of nothing on tv I was intrigued by the Christians on a particular channel. Now remember, I spent 20 years in that mindset. I just couldn't help hearing the underlying messages behind the loving stories.

1. "You'll never get to heaven unless you believe in Jesus."
First, you believe in a heaven that may or may not even exist. Second, that a man that has been dead for over 1900 years is the only way to this heaven. No one today was there during the time he walked on the earth. All we have are writtings of accounts of what possibly happened and supposedly what he said. Think like a movie writter. Think of ALL the possibilites of munipulation, control and fear that could have led to Jesus being viewed by the world the way he was and is today. Munipulation by his mother, control of  people, or just an ordinary good guy that saw people being persecuted giving hope to enslaved people leading them to freedom. People believed illusions then and saw science as work of the Gods. Until Christianity changed it into witchery and devil work. Then we slaughtered them like animals in the name of this loving God. The Catholic church has seen to the destruction of massive documentation and books around the world especially pertaining to that time period. What is left is hidden away from the rest of us under the Vatican that no one can view. But I'm supposed to just go with it...

2. The pitty they see in people that question the universe becuase they have the end all, be all answer; God.
Anytime the human stops thinking we stop our evolution. I'm not talking about monkey evolution I'm talking about intelligence, awareness, discoveries leading us forward in health, science and spiritual consciousness. Religion stumps this process, it hinders the mind to keep thinking. People that "search" for the meaning to their lives and not lost, possibly they are following someone elses life not their own. Expectations from parents, friends, co-workers, feeling guilty of not being sucessful or looking for recognition thinking they will be happy if they are popular, famous or wealthy. Everyday you help someone at McDonalds, finish answering phones at work, or smile at the lady in the checkout line behind you, you make a diffence in our existance. A kind word, letting someone merge in traffic, telling someone to have a nice day are profound, simple things that contribute to us all. No God needed...Love is all things. There is no need to "search" for anything, you've already got it. Look in the mirror! :)

3. Fear God, be submissive and serve.
Why? This is a human condition of the mind. He is sold to us as all knowing, all loving, all forgiving but tells us in the bible about sacrifice and killing. Oh yeah, that was the old testament. Guess he changed his mind half way through? That he is revengeful, jealous, only answers prayers to some but has his reasons for not answering the rest, obviously created cancer, plagues, viruses, satan, and allowed my friends father to be brutally murdered. Oh, and let's not forget about all the "holy land" wars of these loving followers that rape and kill millions of people in his name but abortion is wrong...?#(*&%$)@

4. Live for the afterlife.
Again why? I remember my mother telling me as I was growing up to be kind and help people in need. I never understood why I needed a God to be nice to other people. Especially when they are only nice to certain groups, not everyone. So, God is a prejudice score keeper, good deeds and kindness gets our name written in the lambs book of life to get into heaven. So if I live my whole life as a good person, I'm saved and screw up and not ask for forgivness before I die am I screwed? It's like fine print at the bank, too many conditions! Depends on who you ask. So how do you know your group is right?  We should always be kind to everyone all the time, you may never see that person again.

5. God is watching and judgeing you.
This one just bothers me. It's hard enjoying life thinking someone or something is watching everything you do. How do we feel comfortable knowing we have zero private time? Feel guilt and shame for scratching your butt or being sexually active. I thought it said somewhere in the bible that we weren't given the right to judge others yet that seems to be all they do. There is no unconditional giving or love towards others, only to whom they deem worthy. Sounds like many of our laws. You can fart but only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between the hours of 6pm and 9pm, upwind, wearing boxers, holding a flower and standing on one leg, amen. All other conditions not permitted.

Once I decided to educate myself on science, explore other philosophical ideas, sit quietly and think the more I realized on a universal scale how closed minded, insignificant and pointless religion is. It separates humans into groups that are driven by ego claiming right to knowledge that can't be known at our present state of consciousness. We are not fortune tellers, shape shifting beings hovering above the ground with telekinetic powers, our brains are not that evolved yet. I suppose somewhere in the universe there are cultures that have evolved to that point but until then, religion is useless.

It evokes wars, arguing, judgement, isolation of outsiders, mass suicides, bombings, laws that take away human rights and feul the "club" mentality. When I turned my back on religion my life changed. I no longer lived in fear of some hell or guilt that someone is watching me. I felt a sense of peace in my heart that I was free. With that new found freedom came a little fear, knowing now that I, and only I am responsible for my actions. I don't need to ask forgiveness from a God, only from myself that I have acted irresponsibly. Knowing that everything you do is because you did it changes your prospective on life. You can't blame others for something you could have done differently. Don't send me hate mail, I'm not talking about being broadsided in an intersection, mugged, raped or broke your leg tripping on the rug. Life is full of "accidents". There is no "the devil made me do" or " I was weak to some external force" or "I'm being punished", I DID IT. I am a better person knowing I need to watch my own actions, words and thoughts. I help people, just becuase it's the humane thing to do.

Time and time again I hear religious and non-religious people talk of personal experiences they have; visions, voices, signs, dreams that seem real. There are endless possibilites of explanations to these experiences, I've had them myself. I am not capable of knowing what they are and am not comfortable with a group or person assuming he knows and has all the answers. Can you deny the peace and love they feel when praying to God? Absolutely not. Any person on this earth that chooses to connect with whatever the regional label may be, can expereince it. It urks me to no extent when religious people assume that non-religious people never get to feel the love they feel from Jesus or a God. I now know how ignorant they are. Most religious people know nothing about other religions, beliefs or cultures and little about their own religion but boy can they judge and come up with some doozies!

I laugh when I see "In God we trust" on a federal note. Why even put that on money in the first place, it's completely irrelevant! "One nation under God" Everyone has the right in the US to practice whatever they want. I find it pretty prejudice assuming all Americans follow a God. The constitution was not religious, there is no need. It's nauseating to see politicians fighting in congress over religious based laws that have no place in government in the first place. My father was a die hard Republican that voted for every Christian that ran for office. "We gotta get the Christians in office" he muttered every election. "But that's a belief" I said knowing I was gonna get a ear full. Religion and politics are like apples and sourkraut, they just don't need to in the same bowl. But when you're dealing with someone under the spell of religion, it's useless to even try and reason with them. It's like two people standing on opposite sides of the wall trying despirately to convince the other what their side of the wall looks like. Ya just gotta see it.

"There is nothing to fear, but fear itself." - FDR

The argument arose the other day about whether or not WalMart was good for business in smaller communities. The pro and con list grew and grew. One thing that stuck out was the statement,

"If their employees were treated so poorly, nobody would work there."

Once upon a time I believed that. I've walked out of jobs that were unfair with their borderline illegal labor isuses and just plain crapy business ethics and I always hoped my co-workers would do the same. But time and time again the morral went south, people complained and moaned but no one said a word. They took it like dogs!

Why are people so beaten by employers? What are we so afraid of?

"What are ya gonna do?" with their heads hung low.
In our independently thinking nation the cumulative united we stand, divided we fall moto has become empty words of bullshit submitting to fear. I asked many of my co-workers involved in illegal paycheck dockings and why they never said anything? They didn't want to rock the boat because they "liked their jobs."  Being in a small town there is nowhere else for these people to do what they like, make the money that they make to afford the lifstyle they are accostomed to. Problem is, the employer knows that.

A monk once told me, "There are only two emotions, fear and love." We've separated the word fear from all the others, even though they all start with fear. Greed, envy, anxiety, anger, aggresion, control, sadness, lonliness, depression, loss, etc. Why do people drive fast? Anxiety? Fear of not getting somewhere on time? Adreniline rush? Why do we yell at our spouses? Anger towards our boss, money issues, someone else hurting you in the past? Why do we find the need to accumulate things, money or people?

We're not affraid of jumping off the roof. We're affraid of what might happen. We're not affraid of telling our boss he's doing something illegal. We're affraid of loosing our job and not paying our bills and we're certainly not affraid of toilet paper, but of running out.

What are you affraid of that is causing your state of mind? I talk with friends sometimes that are angry or depressed because of the loss of a loved one whether through death or break up and the same pattern exists, they won't let go and move on. I too have been through that phase and it's human nature to want answers as to why, from friends, a god or who ever. There are no answers, it just happened and there is nothing anyone can do to go back in time to change anything. All you have is right now and the future. This is all you got. We can choose to sit and ponder the situation or we can move on to other things.

Reflection helps us move on, to hopefully not repeat destructive patterns. But how long do we go over things insanly in our minds before we accept things and live?

I always encourage people not to pass their fear off on others around you. Everyone is on their own path, dealing with their own fears, trying to enjoy life and follow love. Love does conquer all. Fear can not exist in the face of love. If anxiety has crept in during love, then fear is there, not wanting to loose what you've got. You are not enjoying love. Light can not exist in the darkness. If you light a match in the dark, dark is gone. They can't exist together.

Find love inside you and remember that feeling when you do anything. FDR said a lifetime of words
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."

Holiday Greetings...Such confussion...

I got a good laugh the other day as an old aquantance of mine made a comment on his facebook page telling everyone, in his kindest regaurds to have a wonderful holiday. His post read as follows:

"Merry CHRISTmas! If you don't like it, you can kiss my Jesus loving a**. I'm sick of all these idiots taking Jesus out of the holidays."

As the wheels turned in my head, along with my eyes, I couldn't help but to remind him of the decorated tree in his living room, the Santa on his profile picture, the antlers on his dog and the many other "commmercial" things surrounding his "CHRISTmas" that he is contributing to. Christmas attacted many diverse groups of people, religious and not. Think about all the things that are NOT Christmas which fuel the "commercialism" of this holiday.

Christmas trees & decorations, lights, home decorations, candy canes, wreaths, mistletoe, snowman, a magic performing, psychic Santa Clause, elves, flying reindeer,
The only thing Christian about Christmas is the nativity and why you celebrate it.


 I also couldn't help but remind him that Christmas is not the only holiday between November and January, and living in such a melting pot of what America has become it only makes sence to include everyone in this joyful message.

Hoidays such as:
Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Boxing Day (St. Stephan's Day), New Years Day and the Epiphany.

As I searched the internet for origins to such greetings as "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" I noticed two common threads.

1. That the terms were meant to include EVERYONE as to not assume the person you are greeting observes any one particular day.
2. That the Christians seems to be the only ones offended by anything other than "Merry Christmas".

My personal opinion on holiday greetings comes from a point of respect and tollerance. I believe a "Happy Holiday" or "Season's Greetings" is an appropriate greeting if you are unsure of what they observe. A specific greeting such as "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" should be shared with those you know celebrate that holiday. Why would you just randomly say "Happy Kwanzaa" to someone who may be Jewish?

However you decide to greet someone this holiday season is up to each of us individually. Observing a day or time of year is special to us all as humans be it a birthday, aniversary, or religious day it's a time of reflection and rememberance. A smile and a wish for someone to have a happy day, whatever day they decide to observe is the point. There is nothing more to it than that...