I do not believe in religion anymore, it is has far too corrupted by greed and political agendas.
I do however believe in a higher power. I personally think that "God" is far to vast and subtle for the human mind to comprehend. Heck, we're still trying to figure out the Universe she/he/it created (and then scientists are specialists who only study a certain portions of creation. Biologists rarely understand astrophysics and vice versa, for example) and were supposed to fathom the being that created it? Doubtful.
Ghandi once said "All religions are true" in short, whatever path gets you to God, is the right Path. If your path makes you cause harm to other beings, you are not worshiping God, you are worshiping your own self-importance. But I think that all the major religions at their core, in their original scared texts, are looking at a facet, a different side, of the same creator being. Ergo it behooves one to listen to what all religions have to say about God since they can further illuminate one's understanding of the divine.
However, actually following a religious dogma and human teachers, especially blindly, is a mistake.
As for Atheism, most serious atheists I know are secular humanists who are quite moral. They don't believe in God, which is fine, they believe in the goodness and potential of man. As such, there is something religious people can learn from them. Most monotheistic religions focus on the negative aspects of humanity. "Man is inherently sinful..." etc. God obviously created good and evil in mankind, so he must have these aspects within him/her/itself in order to put them there. So why not celebrate, examine, and come to understand the good instead of dwelling on the evil all the time? Why not talk to atheists and see what they have to say about man's nature in order to learn more about divine nature?
My sister is an Atheist and my brother in law made a very interesting observation once: "It is impossible to scientifically prove whether there is or is not a God, so it takes just as big of a leap of faith not to believe in God as it does to believe in God."
Post Edited:2008-02-18 11:01:02
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