My Sunday Thought for 012118: Religion (pars duorum) - After the Collapse

“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.” 

-- Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), comedian, writer, social critic

What will happen if everything we ever believed about religion is proved to be false?  What happens if the Vatican cannot keep the lid on an ultimate truth they may have been hiding since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?  What if Christ himself was nothing more than an elaborate hoax?  What will happen?  Many believe it will be the collapse of civilization, a reason for death and destruction, suicide on a massive scale.  Chicken Little will have been proved right, and the League of the Perpetually Offended, the atheists, will be dancing in the streets.  Well, maybe this all depends on how you define your personal faith in God.  But, first, maybe it should ultimately boil down to your definition of God.

As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. Within it there were figures resembling four living beings.  And this was their appearance: they had human form.

-- Ezekiel 1:4-5

The year is 2030.  Aliens have landed their trans-dimensional ships in most major capitals of the world.  We are no longer alone in the universe; in fact, we're fairly low on the food chain.  When the alien beings emerge... they aren't short gray beings with large bug eyes.  Actually, they look a lot like... angels, sans the wings, of course.  They are tall, slender, humanoid, and they smile way too much.  Over the next few days they address the world with how they have guided mankind with their "angelic" meddling and, oh yes, even virgin births of prophets and teachers, even Adam and Eve.  Religion isn't in crisis, religion is collapsing.

Oh, there will be apologies all round for the "deity" confusion, "Sorry about that," and "Our bad, but we're here to make it all up to you," the aliens say.  And our slack jawed representatives will look at them with glazed eyes, on the verge of tears, and stutter, "B... bu... but, what of G.. God?"

Okay, this is all out there in my favorite area of the ball field, you know, the left, where nothing that makes sense ever happens.  It is a scenario out of grade B science fiction genre, but it hopefully helps to make my point:  Just because religion is somehow proved to be based on false premises, does our faith have to follow?

We know what is good, it is written in the Commandments. But God is not contained only in the Commandments, you know; they are only an infinitesimal part of Him. A man may abide by the Commandments and be far from God.”

― Hermann Hesse

I, for one, give little credence to the Christian Church.  Scripture can come and go, be rewritten hundreds of times and mistranslated a hundred more.  We can pick and choose those pages we'd like to include and toss the other "Words of God" out with the baby.  Ultimately, there is only one true WORD of God, and it is written in stone.  Right?  The Ten Commandments (it always was ten, right?), those two blocks of stone that Moses brought down from on high.  And, they're stored... where?  And there's the Ark of the Covenant, of course, which is stored... where? These two items which, together, constitute the holiest object in the Hebrew religion are stored where?  How about the Staff of Moses?  The crucifix Christ was nailed to?  The nails?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?  Hell, we can't even ensure the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin.

Abrahamic religions have nothing to prove their faith but a collection of stories, handed down word of mouth until someone put them down in writing.  We find ourselves having to prove the accuracy of scripture through archeological evidence.  The New Testament also has the less than laudable evidence which comes from being written down decades, if not centuries after Christ's death, and almost two-thirds of those "parables" are attributed to one "apostle" who didn't even live during the time of Christ!  Maybe I have this all wrong, but it seems to me that our faith is built on nothing... except faith.

Perhaps God made certain the Commandments would be lost for all time.  God placed everything we need to know into our hearts and minds, because we've proven the written word confuses the simple minded and is open to poor interpretation by the ignorant and those with hidden agendas.  Are people basically too stupid to understand ten rules written for basic people?

I love folks that tell me they don't need the Ten Commandments in order to understand how to be morally righteous.  Well, I don't think anyone ever said they did, and maybe this is what they fail to understand.  Moral laws have been around since mankind began to have cogent thought.  You can live a righteous life and have never heard of the Commandments; the concept of morality and righteousness was gifted into the hearts and minds of all by God.  The moral choices you make, then, are entirely up to you.  The consequences which follow, on the other hand...  

Now, everybody is probably ready to string me up for attacking their faith.  Well, hold on, I'm not attacking your faith; I'm attacking a misguided idea of religion.  I have repeated the following many times, and I'm going to repeat it again:  As I understand it, there are 33,000 sects of Christianity, just Christianity, in the world today, and that number grows each year.  Each of these sects' thinks they're interpretation of scripture is correct and everyone else's is wrong.  So, yes, I have issues with organized religion.

Ministers seem to step around those passages which don't fit their personal interpretation.  Heck, the incident which initially put me on my current path was a minister's wife judging me.  If the minister doesn't judge for God, what made her think she can?  Her own scripture cites, "There is no one righteous, not even one," and also, "Who are you to judge a Servant who is not yours? For if he stands, he stands to his Master, and if he falls, he falls to his Master, for it is appointed to his Master to be able to establish him."  And this last, on its own, would seem to earn me some modicum of tolerance for any unintended slight she might have felt.  I not only forgave her in my heart, I appreciated her for pushing me further down my path.  What would Jesus have done, or do we really know?  

"Now faith is the conviction concerning those things that are in hope, as if it were these things in action, and the revelation of those things that are unseen;"

-- Hebrews 11:1

It would seem a person's faith is built on nothing, except faith alone.  To put it another way, the very foundation of faith is faith itself.  According to the dictionary, "faith" is my belief, trust, and loyalty to God; my firm belief, with an exceptionally strong conviction, in something for which there is no proof.  The atheist would say the burden of this proof for God lies with the faithful.  What the atheist either refuses to understand, or is incapable of understanding, is the basic concept behind faith, that faith, by its very definition, has no need of proof.  The burden of any proof of God, therefore, lies not with the faithful, but with the faithless, because the faithful, in their hearts and minds, already know.

But let's take another look at the condensed dictionary definition of faith: Faith is my belief, trust, and loyalty to God.  My personal belief, trust, and loyalty, are to God and not to a church or some hierarchal clergy.  And it is "my firm belief, with an exceptionally strong conviction, in something for which there is no proof."  Something created everything.  We can call this something God, or we can call it a mysterious energy yet to be discovered, a "God" particle.  This energy was, is now, and forever shall be, world without end.  We were created from this energy, in its own image, and we will return to this energy when we leave this life to begin the next.

Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of god. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.

-- Paul Tillich

The real point is that it doesn't really matter what we call this energy, as long as we have faith that it exists, and that this energy set everything in motion and works with a purpose to accomplish... everything.  Science, by accident or design, keeps proving the existence of something greater at work in the universe, much to the chagrin of the atheist.  God bless the atheists!  Truth be told, atheists are the best proof for people of faith.

The perpetually offended keep referencing the less than laudable past of religion as the reason why religion is an unnecessary evil in the world.  For the most part, I would tend to agree; organized religion has done little to promote world peace, and what little good they do has been, historically, offset by the bad.  People of true faith, however, should not be confused with religion.  More and more, people of faith are coming out against being labeled as "religious."  I, myself, identify as a Christian and, then, qualify the statement so everyone understands I am a follower of Christ, not of the Christian Church.

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”

-- Ephesians 1:11

The truly faithful can be stripped of their icons, their scripture, their saints, even their savior, but faith is the intangible power which no one can take away without permission.  Faith, for the believer, is about trust and loyalty; it is a state of mind.  It is about choosing when and how you leave this world, knowing that you will live forever, regardless, because there is a greater power at work that always has your back.  Do you allow your captors to lead you like sheep into the "showers" or do you charge the guards and choose to die on your own terms?  Faith, like life, is about choices and consequences.

So, after the collapse of religion the faithful will be left with the only two things they've truly ever had - faith and God.  What more can one ask for, when nothing more was actually promised?  

Maybe someone should point this out, maybe on Sunday, and then go take a walk on the beach with God... and talk.

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with an Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, to wage his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as Chaplain Program Liaison, at a regional medical center.