Speaking My Mind, Part 3: The Individual

Special Part III of Speaking My Mind Project, Read Part I to see the Introduction.

VI. Where Do Our Values Come From?

A.
Materialist Secularist Society

Atheism which is a spawn of secularism has a few problems: They claim to not be a religion, they claim to not have a God, "What is In front of you is all there is!" is there motto, and they are just a rebel offshoot to orthodox religion.

So atheism claims not to be a religion. If you look back in the ancient form of the word "religion" it meant "religare" which means "to rely" a similar word to rely is "to put trust in" and as we know and any atheist can agree upon they put there trust in rational and logical thought. So in this sense Atheism is a religion where instead of putting there trusts on God they put trust into logical and rational thought.

However, all religion is based upon worship and the atheist God is named "logic" and "rational thought" to the atheist this is there salvation. So you see they believe there saved by rational and logical thinking and therefore put there trust in the God of rational and Logical thought, in fact they put so much trust into it that they worship it! All religions are based on worship and atheism is no different.

Now what do I mean "God?" Well God does not have to be some personalized being with long Grey flowing hair and a long beard! God can also be the highest form of something that something could be a concept and Idea, these concepts or ideas are made to be the pinnacle point we are destined to take part in. Under this definition atheism has a God! Which in a paradoxical way can no longer be atheism because Atheism means "No God" but under this definition of God Logic and Rational thought are the highest concepts established under this belief system, and therefore they have a God.

There God says to put trust in "Logic" and "Rationalizations" However, like religion there God is perfect and the followers, the believers are imperfect. There ego like anyone else's ego tends to over-rationalize what is around them and thus like any other religion stray from there God because of this they say "What is In front of you is all there is!", because, they fall short of what they're God demands them to be which is logical and rational.

Here is a thought for all people regardless of having a religion or not: "People make gods and worship their creation. It would be better for the gods to worship there makers!" This means than that under the definition that God could be one concept or multiple Ideas serves as a possible explanation to this phrase, that we are to busy worshipping ideas and concepts instead of actually applying them!

Lets be honest Atheism is just a rebel offshoot of the Orthodox Christian religion. One such feature is that atheist have there own form of evangelism. Instead of saying "Look the kingdom of heaven" they say "Look, logic and rational thought" they simply communicate it differently by having debates and arguments with Christians. It's the greatest illusion of all time they talk a message of salvation by logic instead of salvation by faith. Both are flawed because, the worshipers are imperfect and pervert or distort there salvation.

Just like there orthodox counterpart they read the bible literally and interpret it as such. The problem is they apply there God of Logical thought to the religious writings and creates conflict! Hence, why on YouTube there are atheists fighting and debating. However, most atheists I see on YouTube are to condescending to admit there a religion. Another similar trait between orthodox religion and the atheist line of thought is that. Atheist I have seen on YouTube video comments, will claim that there open-minded! What a joke, it's a big goof there not open-minded there just as narrow-minded as fundamentalist to orthodox religion. Because, logical and rational thought can only carry you so far until you need to over-rationalize everything around you. Hence, "God is Dead!" and "What is In front of you is all there is!" If you ask me those two statements are very closed minded as they leave no room for any other ideas!

Another thing that you must ask yourself is "What if this form of Christianity never existed?" What if there labeled "heretical" counterparts where in charge of making the orthodoxy? How much of a different world we may have lived in! That means than the Roman Catholic Church would not have been what it formed into and that means the Protestant Reformations would never have been what they were if they were even going to happen in the first place. This means the modern form of atheism possibly would not have sprung up. Atheism is one side of the same coin to matters of Religion. The world religions and atheism say: "We BELIEVE there is (No / A) God!"

Let us be honest people, there is one God and that God is above all these gods vying for dominance. The old ways of thinking "My god can be the crap out of your god" is over. Grow up or get out of the way. The kingdom of heaven is here and we are still fighting over petty gods. I hear all the time separate religions dividing up between the saved and unsaved, what a divisional thing to do, they claim they are right and you are wrong and evil. People wake up there can be only ONE TRUE GOD and that God is above all of these gods laid before us. That is the God I follow "The God above God(s)!"

In case your wondering what I am, after "saying it like it is" to all the religions and ways of thinking in the world, I follow the Gnostic path. I am naturally heretical by world religious thought and crazy by the secularist thought but to me it is the greatest source of The One True God, Wisdom and Enlightenment. I am who I am. Gnosticism is found in all the world religions but it is distorted in them all to. I KNOW there is a God! You are all caught up in one way of thinking and that all stems from the cyclical thinking of: BELIEVING instead of KNOWING.

So how does one know there is a God? Under my definition you can prove it, but even if you are not using my definition you can prove it also. Under Gnostic thought if one has bothered to develop a pure interest in seeking to know things that goes against the status quo line of thought, one would know the real truths that Gnosticism has to offer. Because, I am still learning I will not say much more, but encourage one to listen to what the Gnostics have to say, instead of blowing them off as crazy or heretical. I will be speaking my mind concerning religion but since it is not spawn of secularism it will be covered at a latter time.

Another aspect of our society is Entertainment Industry such as Hollywood! What can I say about entertainment? Just about a whole lot! The action movies, the music and the destruction we see, it all seems to give us the most egoistic high we can ever want. The movies say destruction and killing is the only way to resolve conflict, which stems from the ideology of "Redemptive Violence." The music encourages us to look outside of ourselves for happiness such as (drugs, sex, fashion and money). When will all of this egoism end? It is part of our nature but does not mean it needs to be our main form on behaving. When you want this egoism to end, is up only to each individual to decide, when you do put a stop to it this; this is when the world will start to improve.
They often say that there is truth behind what you see and you just need to think about it. So let me ask you a few questions, to encourage this thinking: Where do our values come from? Do you look to the truths in your own lives or the lives of those who are extravagantly wealthy around you? Where is your say? Where is your individuality? Do you make your values based on what actors, actresses, major media, specialists and politicians show or tell you? Or do you make your values based on your life experience? In this society it seems to me that we allow the lives of those around us, to define our world?
Here is some food for thought for you trying to find truth in this world filled with half-truths and lies: "Truth did not come into society as it is, but it came in types and images. The world will not receive truth in any other way." What does this mean to you? The truth is hidden within the very movies we watch. The truth is everywhere you just need a discerning eye to see how something like the movies we watch as an example connects to truth.

B.
Religion in The Secular World

Fundamentalism is a spawn from the religious world and it is a problem in and of itself. Fundamentalism seems to inspire: Fanaticism, Behavior Control, Thought Control, Submission & Worship, Maintain Status Quo, and Altering the View of The Savior Figure (Christ)

So what is fanaticism? It is basically religion put to the extreme which often leads to violence and abuse whether domestic or foreign. If you read any holy text in a way that inspires fanaticism it has not been found by God but evil. Unfortunately, fanaticism only makes the adherents of the religion look bad.

For God's will is about truth. Our true will is about responding to the truth in knowing of our personal responsibility to truth. It is not responsible to physically or verbally attack people who do not know the truth although you need to give a bit of a "tuff love" to make them aware of the truth. The next thing fundamentalism seems to inspire is this behavior control mechanism. Often from a fundamentalist household parents will control there children and discipline there children with severity, ultimately this is one reason why children go to atheism because, there parents may have over-done there job to let there child understand who really God is or perhaps made there child feel like there is no God!

Behavior control seems to be done in the form as brainwash, such as you would find in the movie "Jesus Camp." Where children seem to "want to find more in there life" as one child states. They also talk with big words and mature sentences; do they even know what there saying? These kids are under 10 years old and there looking for more out of there life? There life is just beginning how can they look for more if they just started there life? These kids are only listening to this BS version of Christian Evangelism.

Evangelism in itself is childish. It says "Your Wrong and I am Right!" How childish is that? Yet Jesus wants us to be mature about what happens in our own life. Evangelism just state its claim and than leave, but it does not truly inspire. Than I hear people say, but look the Holy Spirit is moving within them! Meanwhile the child is having convulsions on the floor, they than say the body is unable to handle it. Meanwhile, the evangelist who is charismatic by they're own nature is using inspirational words to inspire others to have these convulsions.

Behavior control inspires fear not freedom. When you have 10 laws that hover over your head and a judgmental god, so arrogantly created by men, set to judge you the minute you screw up were is the freedom in that? This inspires fear and not freedom yet The Son of this God who has been painted by fundamentalist thought loves you and wants you to be free but in order for this to happen you need to repent and simply believe in order to be saved, this is submission not freedom. It's the first attempt to make you afraid and not free.

Just a question: If you're afraid of punishment how can you repent in a genuine manner, fully knowing you'll go to hell if you sin? What makes you repent? The Genuine Guilt for missing the mark or the fact you will burn in an inescapable prison for all eternity? During the enlightenment era an intellectual by the name of Thomas Paine said two phrases that express my opinion on the matter of fundamentalism, Thomas Paine says:

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." He had also said that, "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

When you free yourself from that fear constricting bondage that is founded in fundamentalism than you will be one step further to finding God, for God is in freedom and not fear! Now I hear people saying that you must FEAR GOD, in order to be saved. Fear God? I believe you have the interpretation wrong yet again, God is in freedom when the book means fear God it means to be Awe struck or profoundly touched by the power and majesty that is God! Once again, the literalist interpretation fails.

Thought control which is very similar to behavior control, by controlling the thoughts you control the mind. When you control ones mind you can consciously decide whether or not people will be open minded or closed minded. Fundamentalism (not religion, necessarily) inspires closed mindedness and very cyclical reasoning. What some atheist and open-minded religious people disapprove of is not religion in and of itself but the way it is presented to them; this is especially true for those who do not know any other way religion could be presented to them and think that the Religious Powers that be are those who only ones that exist!

I am also going to expand now from the atheism video section concerning, submission and worship which makes you feel weak and insignificant, and it makes you feel powerless and makes you THINK you need to put all that you have, outside of you for salvation. What a backward and deceiving thought; it's what we bring from within (internally) that will save us. We need to stop submitting to the powers outside of us in a nonviolent resisting way. We need to stop idolizing and start living because, those who go in the routine of doing things never do it from the heart as it will inevitably becomes a cold and mechanical chore, this is not the way to the kingdom of heaven, and it needs to be done from the heart.

Just a Thought: I often remember back in my born-again Christian days, evangelist saying "God wants to form a relationship with you, he seeks to know you!" So I thought to myself that to have a relationship possible both sides need to know one another and through time understand one another! Ironically, the only way to Know God is to know your being and the only religion I know that has this "Know God" school of thought is Gnosticism which is ironically slated as heretical by fundamentalist and orthodox Christianity. Another contradiction yet again!

Fundamentalism seeks to keep status quo and I find this one the funniest aspect to fundamentalism. The Christian fundamentalist worships and submits to Christ. The irony in this is that Christ was a person about change and challenging the status quo! It's amazing how fundamentalism wants to keep the status quo while worshiping the man who challenges the status quo. Your deception is right there, regardless if this was a historical point in time with his crucifixion or just "once upon a time" in a transformative myth, the lessons are there to be taken from. In this case, it is CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO AKA what is accepted as True.

Making Jesus from a human finding God and becoming God about change into a Human-God about maintaining the status quo is one of the many ways Jesus has been transformed to make sure the powers that be continue to work against you! Everyone needs to know that powerful people always seek to have more power and if it means controlling or manipulating the words of Christ, for there own will to be done, they will do just that. This is why those who think that everything written in the Bible is The FULL Word of God are deceived and do not know that there is more however, the powers that be want you to think that what is in front of you is all there is! Historically speaking, The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas is older than the 4 synoptic gospels in fact that is where the synoptic gospels got most of there parables and sayings. There are even more lost sayings of Christ that are only starting to surface, now that the authoritative power of the Roman Catholic Church is eroding away.