Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!decwrl!sun!altos86!mark From: mark@altos86.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: I Hate Religion Message-ID: <254@altos86.UUCP> Date: Mon, 13-Jun-83 20:58:59 EDT Article-I.D.: altos86.254 Posted: Mon Jun 13 20:58:59 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jun-83 13:23:41 EDT Lines: 54 Religion, by my definition is a practice. It is a form. It is a predefined way of doing or not doing something. I am not criticizing any particular religion, but the part of all of us (me included) that tends to fall back on a habitual way of doing things. This results in systems of religion that cater to peoples tendency for this. The problem with this is that then the people in these systems value the system more than the still small voice within. This causes us to want to "reform" the system, when actually, a reformed system is still a system. So when some finally realize that they can't reform the system, they leave and start their own religion. Still another system. It seems to me from reading the four gospels, that the people that Jesus most condemned were not those people that were sinning and breaking the Law, but the major beef he had was with the Scribes and Pharasees. He called them viper's brood. He intimated that their father was the Devil. He said they pointed out the specks in other's eyes while neglecting the logs in their own. In the end, it was not the sinners and tax-gathers that put Him to death, but the Religious System of that day. Why didn't Jesus try to reform the Jewish religion into a better religion, one that would please God? Because no religion can please God! He came to abolish all the dead practices of religion and give us Himself instead as the way to please God, and the way to reach God. Religion is in our blood. We would much rather have everything spelled out for us; how to act, what to do, what not to do, etc., than listen to that still small voice within. He is perfectly willing to lead us, but we are not always willing to follow. If we create "Laws" and "Rules" about how we should live, we may keep the law at the expense of God's will for us. Religion is not only apart from God, it is against God! (How can I say that, when it has done so many good things? You may say.) The system of religion gathers up almost all of the seeking ones, the ones that are looking for God and substitutes practices and works for the real thing, subverting God's plan to work His Life into man. There is a story about a man named Nicodemius in the New Testament that I can use as an example. Nicodemius was a good man. He followed all the commandments (probably "went to Church every Sunday"), but still he had a sense that something was missing. He asked Jesus "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Because of his religious upbringing, he had the concept that if he could just "DO" something, he would receive the reward of eternal life. What Nicodemius really needed, however, was not another practice. What he needed was another life! This is what he sensed he was missing. Therefore Jesus answered, "You must be born again." Even after most born again Christians receive this Life, they are immediately inDOCTRIN(E)ated with the idea that THEY must be good, that THEY must resist temptations, and that THEY should strive to please God, never realizing that they were given this new Life for this purpose. This Life is already good, It has already resisted all temptations, and It is the ONLY thing that can please God.