Abandon Religion

By Punkerslut

Why Abandon Religion?

It is so commonly believed today that religion is a source of goodness and charity for so many people. It is also believed that to oppose religion is also to oppose the goodness and charity stipulated to be with it. When I ask others to abandon religion, they will reply, “Why would you want to abandon something that has produced so many helpful things?” But I am not asking people to give up the affectionate and tender ways, laced with gentleness and humanity. I am not asking that they give up mercy or justice, things which are just as easily attainable without religion, if not easier. I am asking people to give up their fear of hell and daemons, their belief in a soul and ghosts, their hope of an afterlife and a god, the creeds founded on the credulous superstitions of their ancestors. I am not asking the human species to relinquish the things that are good and accompany every warm heart — I am asking the human species to ameliorate the ideology that a god exists that will punish nonbelievers and reward believers, that will smile at the sufferings of the damned and fortunes of the saved. I am asking others to abandon religion, which has been a never-ending source of intolerance for those who have harnessed any sort of bigotry.

There may be those who persist in the assertion that religion is inseperable from goodness, and goodness from religion. Would any religionist be honest to state that without god, they would allow themselves to be heartless and brutal — to become the epitome of savage behavior, of unspirited meanness and sincere hatred? Would anyone who called themselves close to god, and with good intentions, if this individual were to suddenly discover that there was no god, would they find themselves to be less considerate, less hopeful, less charitable? If any religious person can honestly say yes to this, then it would only be right to be suspicious of the claim that they are hopeful, kind, or charitable now. God, this mythical being who lives apart from the physical world, and his existence are only questions of science: he either exists or he does not. If he did not exist, it would hardly deprive anyone of ethical or moral behavior. If a city, a road, a mountain, a lake, or a natural formation did not exist that we had believed to exist, at discovering this, would we abandon all humaneness and all forms of goodness? Only those who had reveled in hypocrisy and deceit can truly say so. There is nothing innately special of the mythical beings called gods that means their existence gives privilege to moral behavior.

There are, though, the genuine claims that we should not abandon religion on the grounds that religion has portrayed a truthful and honest view of the world. Though this claim made be made on the foundation that we ought to pursue the truth, it often fails short of that, because religion has universally been the opponent to investigation and inquiry. There have been times and eras where the church had disallowed the public from reading or writing, and had made it punishable by death to be found with a Bible written in local languages. In 391, Christians burned down one of the world’s greatest libraries in Alexandra, said to have housed 700,000 scrolls. [The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 61, and Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade.] The tale of Galileo should not need repeating, but perhaps the tale of Giordano Bruno or Francisco Ferrer need repeating. Though Galileo was only threatened with death for his claims, Giordano Bruno was burned to death for his ideas in 1600 and Francisco Ferrer was shot to death for his beliefs in 1909 — both executed by the Roman Catholic Church. Giordano Bruno, the great thinker, and Francisco Ferrer, the great educator; a day does not go by where their grave loss is mourned by Rationalists and Humanitarians world wide. Gregory the Great had the library of Palatine Apollo burned “lest its secular literature distract the faithful men from the contemplation of heaven.” [Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983) 208.] The history of Christianity and organized religion runs parallel to the history of oppression and slavery. Examination and inquiry have been restrained, and this can be found in the evidences that every historian ought to be well aware of. Even today, we find the same radical fanatics, burning Harry Potter books, and on the same exact claim that it will deprive children of the religion of Christianity. We also find Christian fanatics working to ban books in public libraries, including works by Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger., and Maya Angelou, sometimes on the exact claim that these works are “unChristian.”

But asside from the fact that religion tends to disallow Freethought and investigation, inquiry and science, can it at all be permitted to call itself truth? As well as having a long history of suppressing honest and sincere attempts at sciennce and truth, religion is also founded on superstition and myth. When man did not understand the origin of the rainbow, he postulated that it had divine origin. When man did not understand the origin of the human female, he made the same claim. When man did not understand anything that was of natural phenomena, he often times ran to the easy and simple belief that it was created from a god or a spirit or a ghost. Even beyond that, though, the evidences and claims of religion are synonymous with many cultural myths. As I have discussed in other works, Santa Claus and god both have a remarkable amount of similarities: both are mystical beings, both live far away, both have no evidence, both are only believed because they are taught by community and elders, both have not been demonstrated, both have supernatural powers, among an enormous amount of other similarities. But if one is not content to believe that a man exists who delivers billions of presents to children on one night of the year, then why would one be content to believe that a man exists who delivers billions of souls to heaven or hell?

Upon the hundreds and hundreds of fallacies and errors, we find that religion itself is something deprived of both merit and science. It has, for ages, worked against the instruments of truth, often times denying the population the right to think and believe as they wish. We also find that the foundation for the belief in religion is identical to the foundation for the belief in many cultural myths which have also been abandoned. There is little truth to be found in religion, once an open-minded investigation has been allowed to examine its institutes. Instead of finding a realistic and open-minded viewpoint of the world, we find flaws, oppression, ignorance, and a sizable amount of cruelty.

Only a small investigation into the real world would allow us to discover that many individuals put much stock into the institute of religion. If we were a free and intelligent people, without the tyranny of a Capitalist class and government defending them, people would put less concentration into the things unseen and put such focus onto the real, materialistic world. Instead of investing in prayers, people would be offering their kindest and warmest affections to those around them. We would not build churches, but homes — we would not ask the gods for forgiveness for our actions, but those we harmed — we would not pray for things to happen, but make them happen — we would not rely on the superstitious myths that have guided so many to bigotry, or rely on the unseen to do what we must do for ourselves, or praise anything that was nothing more than an idol representing cruelty and misguided violence. If a man reserves his love for a god and for angels, he simultaneously deprives love from those around him. By giving our kindness and affection, our sincerest dreams and hopes, desires and aspirations, to this being without evidence, we are losing focus of the one thing that we do know: our lives. And by losing focus on our lives, and those around us, we are ignoring the one thing that we know for sure: that we, as material beings, do exist, and that we are capable of feeling joy and suffering. To ignore this is the greatest of ignorances, and the most grave of all follies.

Tolerance and Acceptance

If there was a god, I would make only one prayer to him: That his followers would follow truth over scripture, benevolence over cruelty, science over myth; to ask his followers to be more focused and concentrated on the things that exist — their lovers, their family, their children, their friends — to uphold truth as beautiful, and kindness as sincerity. There is no other prayer I could give to such a deity ruling over our Universe. If I were to make such a prayer, though, it may very well be that such a god would ask him followers to turn against him. That would only be so, however, only if the god that exists was the one of a popular Monotheistic religion. Such gods tend to be described by their scripture as vicious and unrelenting in their pursuits to control mankind to devious ends.

Religion and its followers have embraced intolerance and have called it duty and reverence to their lord. Though the disciples of the cross have managed to do everything in their power to destroy liberty and happiness, I would be the last man on this Earth to say that nobody should be allowed to be a disciple of the cross, or a follower of any religion. It has been the custom of religion to oppose freedom of thought, but I certainly cannot oppose this freedom in any form. Whether a man desires to be a Christian or an Atheist, a Buddhist or a Hindu, it is their own decision. It is their actions, and not their beliefs, that ought to be monitored. My belief that everyone should be entitled to their belief (as well as beliefs about beliefs) is not derived from the idea that we should not be like those we oppose. Rather, it is formed from the idea that everyone deserves the right to believe as they wish, to consider and investigate for themselves, that power lies within the individual, and even more deeper, because I believe in humane and fair treatment, I believe in justice and compassion. Those are the reasons that are behind my belief in the right to think and believe as one wishes.

There are some Christians who I have heard say, “I will not speak to that man or deal with that man unless he is a Christian.” There are also many Christians who speak of myself as though I am the first Atheist to walk this planet. But as well as speaking of me with that harsh, grave tone, they have systematically made up lies about myself, claiming that I hate all who claim to be Christians. It seems impossible to some of the followers of the divine for Atheists or Agnostics, or any infidel or heretic, to hold charity and mercy as good values. It may sometimes even be considered unfulfilling to aid an nonbeliever in any way, to offer them any sort of affection or kindness, to give them the fruits of a warm heart. But whether someone believes that a god exists or not, or in any religion, there will be one fact about that person that will not waver my humane treatment of them: that they are a conscious being, that they can feel pain and suffering or joy and happiness, that touching their skin gently will produce feelings and emotions of security and happiness. This is something that will not be erased, no matter what creeds an individual professes to believe, no matter what ideologies an individual follows.

The Purpose of a Rationalist Humanitarian

My purpose is not to turn every man an woman into an Atheist or an Agnostic. Such a proposal would be impractical and difficult to obtain, at best. My purpose is to offer humane and rational solutions in comparison to the brutal and dogmatic solutions offered by others. I would like to convince the clergy and the ministry to teach their youth how to respect each other, and not how to respect god. I would like to convince those who believe in religion that there is no hell. I would like to convince religionists that there is no need to cry in fear of god’s punishment, that if there is a god, he is merciful and just. Offering all of the kindness and affection that can be mustered from a sincere heart, I would like to offer the world all I can to make it a better place for everyone to live. To maximize happiness, to teach people how to treat each other warmly and thoughtfully, to teach them how to think rationally and logically, to teach them tolerance and acceptance, beauty and love, duty and kindness… This is my purpose as a Rationalist and a Humanitarian.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life, Punkerslu

Abandon Religion

By Punkerslut

Why Abandon Religion?

It is so commonly believed today that religion is a source of goodness and charity for so many people. It is also believed that to oppose religion is also to oppose the goodness and charity stipulated to be with it. When I ask others to abandon religion, they will reply, “Why would you want to abandon something that has produced so many helpful things?” But I am not asking people to give up the affectionate and tender ways, laced with gentleness and humanity. I am not asking that they give up mercy or justice, things which are just as easily attainable without religion, if not easier. I am asking people to give up their fear of hell and daemons, their belief in a soul and ghosts, their hope of an afterlife and a god, the creeds founded on the credulous superstitions of their ancestors. I am not asking the human species to relinquish the things that are good and accompany every warm heart — I am asking the human species to ameliorate the ideology that a god exists that will punish nonbelievers and reward believers, that will smile at the sufferings of the damned and fortunes of the saved. I am asking others to abandon religion, which has been a never-ending source of intolerance for those who have harnessed any sort of bigotry.

There may be those who persist in the assertion that religion is inseperable from goodness, and goodness from religion. Would any religionist be honest to state that without god, they would allow themselves to be heartless and brutal — to become the epitome of savage behavior, of unspirited meanness and sincere hatred? Would anyone who called themselves close to god, and with good intentions, if this individual were to suddenly discover that there was no god, would they find themselves to be less considerate, less hopeful, less charitable? If any religious person can honestly say yes to this, then it would only be right to be suspicious of the claim that they are hopeful, kind, or charitable now. God, this mythical being who lives apart from the physical world, and his existence are only questions of science: he either exists or he does not. If he did not exist, it would hardly deprive anyone of ethical or moral behavior. If a city, a road, a mountain, a lake, or a natural formation did not exist that we had believed to exist, at discovering this, would we abandon all humaneness and all forms of goodness? Only those who had reveled in hypocrisy and deceit can truly say so. There is nothing innately special of the mythical beings called gods that means their existence gives privilege to moral behavior.

There are, though, the genuine claims that we should not abandon religion on the grounds that religion has portrayed a truthful and honest view of the world. Though this claim made be made on the foundation that we ought to pursue the truth, it often fails short of that, because religion has universally been the opponent to investigation and inquiry. There have been times and eras where the church had disallowed the public from reading or writing, and had made it punishable by death to be found with a Bible written in local languages. In 391, Christians burned down one of the world’s greatest libraries in Alexandra, said to have housed 700,000 scrolls. [The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 61, and Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade.] The tale of Galileo should not need repeating, but perhaps the tale of Giordano Bruno or Francisco Ferrer need repeating. Though Galileo was only threatened with death for his claims, Giordano Bruno was burned to death for his ideas in 1600 and Francisco Ferrer was shot to death for his beliefs in 1909 — both executed by the Roman Catholic Church. Giordano Bruno, the great thinker, and Francisco Ferrer, the great educator; a day does not go by where their grave loss is mourned by Rationalists and Humanitarians world wide. Gregory the Great had the library of Palatine Apollo burned “lest its secular literature distract the faithful men from the contemplation of heaven.” [Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983) 208.] The history of Christianity and organized religion runs parallel to the history of oppression and slavery. Examination and inquiry have been restrained, and this can be found in the evidences that every historian ought to be well aware of. Even today, we find the same radical fanatics, burning Harry Potter books, and on the same exact claim that it will deprive children of the religion of Christianity. We also find Christian fanatics working to ban books in public libraries, including works by Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger., and Maya Angelou, sometimes on the exact claim that these works are “unChristian.”

But asside from the fact that religion tends to disallow Freethought and investigation, inquiry and science, can it at all be permitted to call itself truth? As well as having a long history of suppressing honest and sincere attempts at sciennce and truth, religion is also founded on superstition and myth. When man did not understand the origin of the rainbow, he postulated that it had divine origin. When man did not understand the origin of the human female, he made the same claim. When man did not understand anything that was of natural phenomena, he often times ran to the easy and simple belief that it was created from a god or a spirit or a ghost. Even beyond that, though, the evidences and claims of religion are synonymous with many cultural myths. As I have discussed in other works, Santa Claus and god both have a remarkable amount of similarities: both are mystical beings, both live far away, both have no evidence, both are only believed because they are taught by community and elders, both have not been demonstrated, both have supernatural powers, among an enormous amount of other similarities. But if one is not content to believe that a man exists who delivers billions of presents to children on one night of the year, then why would one be content to believe that a man exists who delivers billions of souls to heaven or hell?

Upon the hundreds and hundreds of fallacies and errors, we find that religion itself is something deprived of both merit and science. It has, for ages, worked against the instruments of truth, often times denying the population the right to think and believe as they wish. We also find that the foundation for the belief in religion is identical to the foundation for the belief in many cultural myths which have also been abandoned. There is little truth to be found in religion, once an open-minded investigation has been allowed to examine its institutes. Instead of finding a realistic and open-minded viewpoint of the world, we find flaws, oppression, ignorance, and a sizable amount of cruelty.

Only a small investigation into the real world would allow us to discover that many individuals put much stock into the institute of religion. If we were a free and intelligent people, without the tyranny of a Capitalist class and government defending them, people would put less concentration into the things unseen and put such focus onto the real, materialistic world. Instead of investing in prayers, people would be offering their kindest and warmest affections to those around them. We would not build churches, but homes — we would not ask the gods for forgiveness for our actions, but those we harmed — we would not pray for things to happen, but make them happen — we would not rely on the superstitious myths that have guided so many to bigotry, or rely on the unseen to do what we must do for ourselves, or praise anything that was nothing more than an idol representing cruelty and misguided violence. If a man reserves his love for a god and for angels, he simultaneously deprives love from those around him. By giving our kindness and affection, our sincerest dreams and hopes, desires and aspirations, to this being without evidence, we are losing focus of the one thing that we do know: our lives. And by losing focus on our lives, and those around us, we are ignoring the one thing that we know for sure: that we, as material beings, do exist, and that we are capable of feeling joy and suffering. To ignore this is the greatest of ignorances, and the most grave of all follies.

Tolerance and Acceptance

If there was a god, I would make only one prayer to him: That his followers would follow truth over scripture, benevolence over cruelty, science over myth; to ask his followers to be more focused and concentrated on the things that exist — their lovers, their family, their children, their friends — to uphold truth as beautiful, and kindness as sincerity. There is no other prayer I could give to such a deity ruling over our Universe. If I were to make such a prayer, though, it may very well be that such a god would ask him followers to turn against him. That would only be so, however, only if the god that exists was the one of a popular Monotheistic religion. Such gods tend to be described by their scripture as vicious and unrelenting in their pursuits to control mankind to devious ends.

Religion and its followers have embraced intolerance and have called it duty and reverence to their lord. Though the disciples of the cross have managed to do everything in their power to destroy liberty and happiness, I would be the last man on this Earth to say that nobody should be allowed to be a disciple of the cross, or a follower of any religion. It has been the custom of religion to oppose freedom of thought, but I certainly cannot oppose this freedom in any form. Whether a man desires to be a Christian or an Atheist, a Buddhist or a Hindu, it is their own decision. It is their actions, and not their beliefs, that ought to be monitored. My belief that everyone should be entitled to their belief (as well as beliefs about beliefs) is not derived from the idea that we should not be like those we oppose. Rather, it is formed from the idea that everyone deserves the right to believe as they wish, to consider and investigate for themselves, that power lies within the individual, and even more deeper, because I believe in humane and fair treatment, I believe in justice and compassion. Those are the reasons that are behind my belief in the right to think and believe as one wishes.

There are some Christians who I have heard say, “I will not speak to that man or deal with that man unless he is a Christian.” There are also many Christians who speak of myself as though I am the first Atheist to walk this planet. But as well as speaking of me with that harsh, grave tone, they have systematically made up lies about myself, claiming that I hate all who claim to be Christians. It seems impossible to some of the followers of the divine for Atheists or Agnostics, or any infidel or heretic, to hold charity and mercy as good values. It may sometimes even be considered unfulfilling to aid an nonbeliever in any way, to offer them any sort of affection or kindness, to give them the fruits of a warm heart. But whether someone believes that a god exists or not, or in any religion, there will be one fact about that person that will not waver my humane treatment of them: that they are a conscious being, that they can feel pain and suffering or joy and happiness, that touching their skin gently will produce feelings and emotions of security and happiness. This is something that will not be erased, no matter what creeds an individual professes to believe, no matter what ideologies an individual follows.

The Purpose of a Rationalist Humanitarian

My purpose is not to turn every man an woman into an Atheist or an Agnostic. Such a proposal would be impractical and difficult to obtain, at best. My purpose is to offer humane and rational solutions in comparison to the brutal and dogmatic solutions offered by others. I would like to convince the clergy and the ministry to teach their youth how to respect each other, and not how to respect god. I would like to convince those who believe in religion that there is no hell. I would like to convince religionists that there is no need to cry in fear of god’s punishment, that if there is a god, he is merciful and just. Offering all of the kindness and affection that can be mustered from a sincere heart, I would like to offer the world all I can to make it a better place for everyone to live. To maximize happiness, to teach people how to treat each other warmly and thoughtfully, to teach them how to think rationally and logically, to teach them tolerance and acceptance, beauty and love, duty and kindness… This is my purpose as a Rationalist and a Humanitarian.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life, Punkerslu

Darwinism is an ancient shamanistic religion built on superstitions of all kinds. The origins of shamanism go back some 50,000 years.

• Shamanism is a belief system based on the worship of forces such as rain, snow, lightning, storms, wind, and the Sun. Darwinism is also a religion of nature-worship; it describes nature as an entity with “mythical and mysterious powers.” It anticipates the belief that stone, earth, the Sun, lightning and wind combined to give rise to life.

• Shamans claim to be the physicians, sages, leaders and administrators of their tribes and societies. Darwinists describe themselves in the same way. Shamans maintain that they understand the secrets of nature and can foretell the future. Similarly, Darwinists maintain that they know the secrets of matter, the atom and the Earth, and seek to describe imaginary changes that human beings and nature will be subject to in the future.

• Astronomy, biology, paleontology, physics, geology, chemistry, geophysics, embryology are all sciences. Darwinism, however, is not a science, but a primitive shamanistic religion.

Darwinists’ present-day beliefs are just as odd and irrational as those of people who once worshipped crocodiles. Darwinists regard chance and inanimate, unconscious atoms as a creative force, and are as devoted to that belief as if to a religion.

- Since the theory of evolution was first put forward, advances in a great many branches of science, have demolished the theory’s claims, one by one. Nonetheless, Darwinism still has its adherents. Typically, when a scientific theory is disproved, it is shelved, and all debate and discussion comes to an end. But not so with Darwinism. No matter how powerful and indisputable the evidence against their theory may be, evolutionists ignore it and continue to defend their beliefs in a fervent manner.

- Worshipping fire, the stars or the Sun, believing that the Pyramids were built by aliens, or venerating certain animals as sacred is not scientific. In the same way, neither is Darwinism–because just like other superstitious beliefs, Darwinism is also a religion of idols and false deities.

Members of the shamanistic religion of Darwinism spread fictitious reports about the future and try to bring new converts under their spell.

- Darwinism’s foremost idol is the “idol of chance.” Whatever Darwinist text you read, you will see claims about the power and limitless abilities of “natural selection,” the lifeblood and essence of Darwinism.

- Evolutionists claim that everything performed by the “idol of chance” is actually based on pragmatic calculations. In their view, this idol is able to consider everything and calculate in advance every step it will take.

- Evolutionists believe in one very strange force. They ascribe divine status to matter. They have belief that matter once assembled itself into a living cell and that one organism can give rise to another, entirely different one. Science has refuted these ideas. But for Darwinists, they are irrefutable facts that everyone must believe.

- Darwinism is an ancient shamanistic religion, built on insane and irrational superstitions and falsehoods. This idolatrous religion has been invented to confront Islam.

- According to the shamanistic religion of Darwinism, earth, water, rock and stone can feel, smell, hear and perceive colors.

Pagan societies have existed on Earth since the very earliest times. People at all times and all societies have fashioned different idols for themselves. In the same way that Darwinists adopt chance and inanimate matter as creative entities, similar imaginings were once adopted as idols by societies with warped beliefs. Above: Images depicting the Sumerian water idols.

- The essence of the religion of Darwinists is their nonsensical belief in chance that violates both science and reason. In fact, any rational mind is quite able to conceive that no complex entity can come into being spontaneously, by chance, but absolutely must be the product of a conscious plan. However, just like pagans who worship the idols they have crafted with their own hands, Darwinists believe in false deities.

- The nonsensical belief that Darwinists have adopted bears a very close resemblance to the beliefs of ancient pagan cultures. In the much same way that pagans believe that inanimate idols created all things, so evolutionists and materialists believe that inanimate matter created all living things. (God is surely beyond these.) They claim that even their own human bodies are the sum total of various coincidences.

- It is unacceptable for students to be taught Darwinist shamanistic religion under the name of science. What they need are courses in biology that have been purged of this shamanistic religion.

- The Turkish public laughs at the ruses resorted to by local evolutionists, because they cannot prove evolution by way of slander and aggression. Any evidence they have, they should put forward, whereupon everyone can easily distinguish between truth and error. For months now, the exhibitions of fossils taking place all over the country have helped the Turkish public realize that living things never underwent evolution.

- It is expected that evolutionists exhibit fossils if they have any. At the very least, they should display a few of them in the central headquarters or gardens of Turkish daily newspapers such as Cumhuriyet, Vatan and Hurriyet, or in such heavily frequented public spaces such as Istanbul’s Taksim Square or Ulus in Ankara. If they cannot do that, then they should cease their defense of evolution. They have no intermediate-form fossils to show, because such things never existed.

- Each fossil that evolutionists have put forward as a proof of evolution has turned out to be a fake or else misinterpreted. “Piltdown Man,” for example, turned out to be a hoax. The tooth of Nebraska “Man” turned out to be from a fossil boar. The coelacanth has been caught alive—and unchanged—since 1938. All the skull and bone fragments that allegedly show the human evolution tale have been proven to be either those of present-day human beings or else of species of ape that have become extinct.

Evolutionists conjure up creatures that never actually existed and hire skilled artists to produce “reconstructed” models and illustrations—which they use to try and convince people that evolution is a scientific fact. This false evidence is displayed in newspapers, magazines and museums. But these depictions reflect nothing beyond their makers’ imaginations. No such entities exist in the fossil record. Yet evolutionists themselves finally fall under the spell of this false evidence they have created with their own hands and start to believe in the religion of Darwinism.

SCIENTIFIC FACTS REFUTE THE CLAIMS OF THE

“SHAMANISTIC RELIGION OF DARWINISM”

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: the first living organism formed spontaneously.

According to modern science, life cannot come into being by chance. Not one single protein or even a single cell, let alone a whole organism, can emerge by chance. The likelihood of any protein emerging by chance is only 1 in 10950. In practical terms, this equates to zero probability.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: living species descended from earlier, more primitive ones.

According to modern science, species cannot descend from one another. Every life form has its own unique characteristics. It is impossible for them to develop through another species’ gradual changes.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: fossils confirm the theory of evolution.

According to modern science, fossils are evidence of creation, not evolution. Some 100 million fossils have so far been discovered, and all of them represent complete, fully formed organisms. Not a single fossil indicates that it was undergoing any transitional “evolution.”

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: species diversified through mutations.

According to modern science, mutations damage organisms, and do not improve them. They cannot cause a species to diversify: they either kill or cripple the mutated individual.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: humans are descended from ape-like creatures.

According to modern science, apes and humans are totally separate species. There is no family relationship between them. Despite their physical similarities, they have enormous differences that cannot be explained by claims of evolution.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: natural selection present in nature is proof of evolution.

According to modern science, natural selection cannot cause one living thing to evolve or give rise to new life forms.

TWO NEW DECEPTIONS FROM EVOLUTIONISTS:

TIKTAALIK ROSEAE AND GOGONASUS

The fossil discovered in Canada a few months ago and given the name of Tiktaalik roseae was portrayed as major evidence for evolution. In fact, however, this creature is obviously a “mosaic” combining a great many features. Nonetheless, evolutionists depict this creature as an intermediate species and claim, using fictitious illustrations, that it represents proof of a transition from water to land. The platypus found in modern-day Australia is also a mosaic creature that shares mammalian, reptilian and bird characteristics at one and the same time. Yet nothing about it can be depicted as proof of evolution.

In recent days, evolutionists have brought up yet another fossil found in Australia, repeating their tales that have persisted for so many years of a “completed missing link.” This new fossil, known as Gogonasus and evidently an extinct species of fish, has nothing whatsoever to do with evolution. Evolutionists seek to use it as an evidence for their myth of the transition from water to dry land, particularly on account of its fin bones, but the fossil in question is an obvious species of fish totally unconnected with life on land. The coelacanth, still alive today, also has bones in its fins, but these have been established to be perfectly ordinary structures that the fish uses solely for the purpose of swimming.

In order to substantiate their claims, evolutionists must discover “intermediate forms,” with deficient, half-formed organs that are not fully functional. Yet every one of the organs possessed by these fossil creatures is complete, flawless. There are no semi-developed organs, nor any fossil series that can be presented as evidence for an evolutionary transition from other living species.

Evolutionists must finally accept the facts and stop trying to deceive the public with their fabrications.

MATERIALIST SELF-INTEREST CABALS ARE UP TO NEW CONSPIRACIES

In recent months, both the Turkish and the world media have been issuing panicked reports about the global defeat of Darwinism. The routing of Darwinism has had a deep impact on European Freemasonry and certain other secret forces, and these have resorted to a plan produced out of terror of the threat of the elimination of atheism and materialism. British and French lodges have issued directives. Sabbatean families are also becoming involved, out of a thirst for vengeance. In order that the matter should be definitively resolved, various writers are being hired out, and a plot is being prepared against all patriotic individuals. The principal target is the Science Research Foundation.

In the future, however, just as in the past, it will be impossible for these endeavors to bear any fruit. Millions are aware of just what is going on. A new Sun has risen, and its light has illuminated all parts. The next thing for evolutionists to do is submit in the face of the facts.

ISLAM CONFLICTS WITH PAGAN RELIGIONS, NOT WITH SCIENCE

Islam commands people to research and investigate all branches of science and knowledge:

. . . Reflect on the creation of the heavens and the Earth . . . (Surah Al Imran, 191)

Have they not looked at the sky above them: how We structured it . . . (Surah Qaf, 6)

. . . You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again . . . (Surat al-Mulk, 3)

Man has only to look at what he was created from. (Surat at-Tariq, 5)

Have they not looked at the camel—how it was created, and at the sky—how it was raised up, and at the mountains—how they were embedded, and at the Earth—how it was smoothed out? (Surat al-Ghashiyya, 17-20)

In the heavens and Earth there are certainly signs for the believers. And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread about there are signs for people with certainty. (Surat al-Jathiyya, 3-4)

It is therefore impossible to claim any divergence between science and Islam.

However, Islam does oppose all false religions. It is opposed to the worship of fire, of the devil, animals or idols—in short, to all forms of pagan belief. Shamanism is a religion that also worships chance and nature (animals, plants, stones, earth and matter). As a shamanistic creed, Darwinism is therefore in conflict with Islam.

Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com

“Something should remind us once more that the great things in this universe are things that we never see. You walk out at night and look up at the beautiful stars as they bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity and you think you can see all. Oh, no. You can never see the law of gravitation that holds them there.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Discovering the Truth about Your Spirituality

Writing about spirituality can be sensitive.

By not writing about it, I would deny each of you access to questions and thoughts that can help you truly fulfill your purpose in life.

I am not talking about the politically correct, watered-down version of spirituality that typically refers to our core values; I mean the foundational beliefs on which our lives exist and function.

The objective of this article is to expand your thinking about spirituality. All I ask is that you be open to my comments with an investigative and inquisitive mindset. In the end, you will make your own personal choices.

Finding true purpose in your life means going on a personal quest to find answers to the following questions.

Are human beings spiritual? How can I know? If we are spiritual, what does that really mean? What is the truth on this subject? How can I tell spiritual truth from falsehood? What is going on here in this universe? What is true, real, false, unreal, good, and bad? How can I validate what is true? What criteria are reliable? What is the origin, source, and purpose of life? What is at the foundations of life? Why does life exist? My life? How should I conduct my life and how should I love? Should I even concern myself with these types of questions? How do I know my life has meaning? All assumptions currently held by mankind on spirituality cannot all be true. This means that some people in the area of spirituality still believe the world is flat, even though there is evidence to the contrary. Natural laws and truth apply equally to spirituality as they do to the rest of our lives. That means we don’t create spiritual laws; we discover what is already true. The law of duality applies to spirituality as is does to all other conditions for mankind. You cannot have light without darkness, push without pull, high without low, fast without slow, or good without evil. That spiritual truth is different than—and should not be confused with—the way individuals wish to express and live their spirituality. Our lives operate under natural laws and truths; regardless of your opinions about these laws, the laws themselves do not change. One example is gravity. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean gravity doesn’t exist. And when people believed the world was flat, their collective opinion did not make it so.

This principle of natural laws and truth equally applies to spirituality, spiritual truth, or spiritual law. The focus should be on discovering spiritual truth, not creating it.

One rule we need to embrace is that all individuals should be respected as they go through their spiritual search process. Nor should anyone expect his or her journey to occur while reading this article. The journey takes time and personal reflection.

Consider the first question: are human beings spiritual? To answer, we must consider the origins of our existence. We have only two choices: are we all just an accident or are we part of a greater plan created by a spiritual being? So many individuals take our complexity for granted.

Here are two ideas to ponder.

1. If we are an accident, natural laws must apply to the process.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of listening to a brilliant mathematician and scientist who took the time to calculate the implications of the theory of evolution. His presentation documented the fact that it’s mathematically unfeasible for all origins of life to come from a single point, as suggested by some. From his research, he found evolution required genetic mutations and progress of such magnitude, it was simply not possible. In addition, he pointed out that current science revealed that most species that mutate die. (Mutations are required for this theory to be fulfilled.) On the other hand, how can an individual confirm whether he or she is part of a greater plan or spiritual power?

The next thought is profound to this process. I would like you to think about it long after you read this article.

2. We as individuals actually create nothing and discover everything!

Let me explain what I mean by this. All items, inventions, and findings already existed before they were discovered. They were simply found. Advancements of a new cancer treatment, the hydrogen fuel cell, or traveling to Mars are examples of humankind’s realizing its potential—the ability to find it or do it was ALWAYS there. Einstein confirmed this in his equations that show energy is never created or dissipated, but simply shifted into another form.

So where did all this potential come from?

If we are spiritual, truth must also be discovered, not created. After a decade of purpose work, I find that individuals wrestle with their purpose and meaning in life until they can clarify their beliefs about their spirituality. I believe that clarity about your existence is the most important issue you can address and that every other purpose process, personal development system, or learning experience is insignificant by comparison.

I want to leave you with a few final thoughts. Yes, I do personally believe we are not an accident and that we have a specific spiritual heritage, origin, and one God. Those are my beliefs. You must, however, personally discover and confirm your spirituality for yourself. Some of you are clear and confident; others are unsure or indifferent. Regardless, I challenge you to confirm your assumptions and clarify your spiritual beliefs because they affect everything you will do or will become in your life.

Action steps to Discovering the Truth about Your Spirituality

Beliefs Are Your Assumptions about these 9 Points. These are, of course, tough questions. Your beliefs are the foundation cornerstones of everything you think, judge, plan, hope for, and seek to achieve. They form the basis for all moral and ethical decisions. They are the screen through which you filter and interpret your world. Your beliefs also determine your mental attitude to some extent — in terms of your being basically hopeful, neutral, or pessimistic about life.

People say, “attitude shapes belief.” I say the opposite. What you assume to be true causes you to have a certain attitude. Emotions follow from that attitude.

Some people have very clearly defined assumptions about what they believe, but most people are just not clear. Others dismiss the issue as “philosophic fuzzy stuff” that they don’t want to deal with right now. The caution is: be careful how you assume things to be, because for you, that’s how they are right now!

You can continue to clarify your beliefs over time. As you do so, you will discover greater depth of meaning in life and work.

Until next time keep “Living on Purpose,”

Ken Keis

Darwinism is an ancient shamanistic religion built on superstitions of all kinds. The origins of shamanism go back some 50,000 years.

• Shamanism is a belief system based on the worship of forces such as rain, snow, lightning, storms, wind, and the Sun. Darwinism is also a religion of nature-worship; it describes nature as an entity with “mythical and mysterious powers.” It anticipates the belief that stone, earth, the Sun, lightning and wind combined to give rise to life.

• Shamans claim to be the physicians, sages, leaders and administrators of their tribes and societies. Darwinists describe themselves in the same way. Shamans maintain that they understand the secrets of nature and can foretell the future. Similarly, Darwinists maintain that they know the secrets of matter, the atom and the Earth, and seek to describe imaginary changes that human beings and nature will be subject to in the future.

• Astronomy, biology, paleontology, physics, geology, chemistry, geophysics, embryology are all sciences. Darwinism, however, is not a science, but a primitive shamanistic religion.

Darwinists’ present-day beliefs are just as odd and irrational as those of people who once worshipped crocodiles. Darwinists regard chance and inanimate, unconscious atoms as a creative force, and are as devoted to that belief as if to a religion.

- Since the theory of evolution was first put forward, advances in a great many branches of science, have demolished the theory’s claims, one by one. Nonetheless, Darwinism still has its adherents. Typically, when a scientific theory is disproved, it is shelved, and all debate and discussion comes to an end. But not so with Darwinism. No matter how powerful and indisputable the evidence against their theory may be, evolutionists ignore it and continue to defend their beliefs in a fervent manner.

- Worshipping fire, the stars or the Sun, believing that the Pyramids were built by aliens, or venerating certain animals as sacred is not scientific. In the same way, neither is Darwinism–because just like other superstitious beliefs, Darwinism is also a religion of idols and false deities.

Members of the shamanistic religion of Darwinism spread fictitious reports about the future and try to bring new converts under their spell.

- Darwinism’s foremost idol is the “idol of chance.” Whatever Darwinist text you read, you will see claims about the power and limitless abilities of “natural selection,” the lifeblood and essence of Darwinism.

- Evolutionists claim that everything performed by the “idol of chance” is actually based on pragmatic calculations. In their view, this idol is able to consider everything and calculate in advance every step it will take.

- Evolutionists believe in one very strange force. They ascribe divine status to matter. They have belief that matter once assembled itself into a living cell and that one organism can give rise to another, entirely different one. Science has refuted these ideas. But for Darwinists, they are irrefutable facts that everyone must believe.

- Darwinism is an ancient shamanistic religion, built on insane and irrational superstitions and falsehoods. This idolatrous religion has been invented to confront Islam.

- According to the shamanistic religion of Darwinism, earth, water, rock and stone can feel, smell, hear and perceive colors.

Pagan societies have existed on Earth since the very earliest times. People at all times and all societies have fashioned different idols for themselves. In the same way that Darwinists adopt chance and inanimate matter as creative entities, similar imaginings were once adopted as idols by societies with warped beliefs. Above: Images depicting the Sumerian water idols.

- The essence of the religion of Darwinists is their nonsensical belief in chance that violates both science and reason. In fact, any rational mind is quite able to conceive that no complex entity can come into being spontaneously, by chance, but absolutely must be the product of a conscious plan. However, just like pagans who worship the idols they have crafted with their own hands, Darwinists believe in false deities.

- The nonsensical belief that Darwinists have adopted bears a very close resemblance to the beliefs of ancient pagan cultures. In the much same way that pagans believe that inanimate idols created all things, so evolutionists and materialists believe that inanimate matter created all living things. (God is surely beyond these.) They claim that even their own human bodies are the sum total of various coincidences.

- It is unacceptable for students to be taught Darwinist shamanistic religion under the name of science. What they need are courses in biology that have been purged of this shamanistic religion.

- The Turkish public laughs at the ruses resorted to by local evolutionists, because they cannot prove evolution by way of slander and aggression. Any evidence they have, they should put forward, whereupon everyone can easily distinguish between truth and error. For months now, the exhibitions of fossils taking place all over the country have helped the Turkish public realize that living things never underwent evolution.

- It is expected that evolutionists exhibit fossils if they have any. At the very least, they should display a few of them in the central headquarters or gardens of Turkish daily newspapers such as Cumhuriyet, Vatan and Hurriyet, or in such heavily frequented public spaces such as Istanbul’s Taksim Square or Ulus in Ankara. If they cannot do that, then they should cease their defense of evolution. They have no intermediate-form fossils to show, because such things never existed.

- Each fossil that evolutionists have put forward as a proof of evolution has turned out to be a fake or else misinterpreted. “Piltdown Man,” for example, turned out to be a hoax. The tooth of Nebraska “Man” turned out to be from a fossil boar. The coelacanth has been caught alive—and unchanged—since 1938. All the skull and bone fragments that allegedly show the human evolution tale have been proven to be either those of present-day human beings or else of species of ape that have become extinct.

Evolutionists conjure up creatures that never actually existed and hire skilled artists to produce “reconstructed” models and illustrations—which they use to try and convince people that evolution is a scientific fact. This false evidence is displayed in newspapers, magazines and museums. But these depictions reflect nothing beyond their makers’ imaginations. No such entities exist in the fossil record. Yet evolutionists themselves finally fall under the spell of this false evidence they have created with their own hands and start to believe in the religion of Darwinism.

SCIENTIFIC FACTS REFUTE THE CLAIMS OF THE

“SHAMANISTIC RELIGION OF DARWINISM”

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: the first living organism formed spontaneously.

According to modern science, life cannot come into being by chance. Not one single protein or even a single cell, let alone a whole organism, can emerge by chance. The likelihood of any protein emerging by chance is only 1 in 10950. In practical terms, this equates to zero probability.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: living species descended from earlier, more primitive ones.

According to modern science, species cannot descend from one another. Every life form has its own unique characteristics. It is impossible for them to develop through another species’ gradual changes.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: fossils confirm the theory of evolution.

According to modern science, fossils are evidence of creation, not evolution. Some 100 million fossils have so far been discovered, and all of them represent complete, fully formed organisms. Not a single fossil indicates that it was undergoing any transitional “evolution.”

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: species diversified through mutations.

According to modern science, mutations damage organisms, and do not improve them. They cannot cause a species to diversify: they either kill or cripple the mutated individual.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: humans are descended from ape-like creatures.

According to modern science, apes and humans are totally separate species. There is no family relationship between them. Despite their physical similarities, they have enormous differences that cannot be explained by claims of evolution.

According to the Shamanistic Religion of Darwinism: natural selection present in nature is proof of evolution.

According to modern science, natural selection cannot cause one living thing to evolve or give rise to new life forms.

TWO NEW DECEPTIONS FROM EVOLUTIONISTS:

TIKTAALIK ROSEAE AND GOGONASUS

The fossil discovered in Canada a few months ago and given the name of Tiktaalik roseae was portrayed as major evidence for evolution. In fact, however, this creature is obviously a “mosaic” combining a great many features. Nonetheless, evolutionists depict this creature as an intermediate species and claim, using fictitious illustrations, that it represents proof of a transition from water to land. The platypus found in modern-day Australia is also a mosaic creature that shares mammalian, reptilian and bird characteristics at one and the same time. Yet nothing about it can be depicted as proof of evolution.

In recent days, evolutionists have brought up yet another fossil found in Australia, repeating their tales that have persisted for so many years of a “completed missing link.” This new fossil, known as Gogonasus and evidently an extinct species of fish, has nothing whatsoever to do with evolution. Evolutionists seek to use it as an evidence for their myth of the transition from water to dry land, particularly on account of its fin bones, but the fossil in question is an obvious species of fish totally unconnected with life on land. The coelacanth, still alive today, also has bones in its fins, but these have been established to be perfectly ordinary structures that the fish uses solely for the purpose of swimming.

In order to substantiate their claims, evolutionists must discover “intermediate forms,” with deficient, half-formed organs that are not fully functional. Yet every one of the organs possessed by these fossil creatures is complete, flawless. There are no semi-developed organs, nor any fossil series that can be presented as evidence for an evolutionary transition from other living species.

Evolutionists must finally accept the facts and stop trying to deceive the public with their fabrications.

MATERIALIST SELF-INTEREST CABALS ARE UP TO NEW CONSPIRACIES

In recent months, both the Turkish and the world media have been issuing panicked reports about the global defeat of Darwinism. The routing of Darwinism has had a deep impact on European Freemasonry and certain other secret forces, and these have resorted to a plan produced out of terror of the threat of the elimination of atheism and materialism. British and French lodges have issued directives. Sabbatean families are also becoming involved, out of a thirst for vengeance. In order that the matter should be definitively resolved, various writers are being hired out, and a plot is being prepared against all patriotic individuals. The principal target is the Science Research Foundation.

In the future, however, just as in the past, it will be impossible for these endeavors to bear any fruit. Millions are aware of just what is going on. A new Sun has risen, and its light has illuminated all parts. The next thing for evolutionists to do is submit in the face of the facts.

ISLAM CONFLICTS WITH PAGAN RELIGIONS, NOT WITH SCIENCE

Islam commands people to research and investigate all branches of science and knowledge:

. . . Reflect on the creation of the heavens and the Earth . . . (Surah Al Imran, 191)

Have they not looked at the sky above them: how We structured it . . . (Surah Qaf, 6)

. . . You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again . . . (Surat al-Mulk, 3)

Man has only to look at what he was created from. (Surat at-Tariq, 5)

Have they not looked at the camel—how it was created, and at the sky—how it was raised up, and at the mountains—how they were embedded, and at the Earth—how it was smoothed out? (Surat al-Ghashiyya, 17-20)

In the heavens and Earth there are certainly signs for the believers. And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread about there are signs for people with certainty. (Surat al-Jathiyya, 3-4)

It is therefore impossible to claim any divergence between science and Islam.

However, Islam does oppose all false religions. It is opposed to the worship of fire, of the devil, animals or idols—in short, to all forms of pagan belief. Shamanism is a religion that also worships chance and nature (animals, plants, stones, earth and matter). As a shamanistic creed, Darwinism is therefore in conflict with Islam.

Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com

“Something should remind us once more that the great things in this universe are things that we never see. You walk out at night and look up at the beautiful stars as they bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity and you think you can see all. Oh, no. You can never see the law of gravitation that holds them there.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Discovering the Truth about Your Spirituality

Writing about spirituality can be sensitive.

By not writing about it, I would deny each of you access to questions and thoughts that can help you truly fulfill your purpose in life.

I am not talking about the politically correct, watered-down version of spirituality that typically refers to our core values; I mean the foundational beliefs on which our lives exist and function.

The objective of this article is to expand your thinking about spirituality. All I ask is that you be open to my comments with an investigative and inquisitive mindset. In the end, you will make your own personal choices.

Finding true purpose in your life means going on a personal quest to find answers to the following questions.

Are human beings spiritual? How can I know? If we are spiritual, what does that really mean? What is the truth on this subject? How can I tell spiritual truth from falsehood? What is going on here in this universe? What is true, real, false, unreal, good, and bad? How can I validate what is true? What criteria are reliable? What is the origin, source, and purpose of life? What is at the foundations of life? Why does life exist? My life? How should I conduct my life and how should I love? Should I even concern myself with these types of questions? How do I know my life has meaning? All assumptions currently held by mankind on spirituality cannot all be true. This means that some people in the area of spirituality still believe the world is flat, even though there is evidence to the contrary. Natural laws and truth apply equally to spirituality as they do to the rest of our lives. That means we don’t create spiritual laws; we discover what is already true. The law of duality applies to spirituality as is does to all other conditions for mankind. You cannot have light without darkness, push without pull, high without low, fast without slow, or good without evil. That spiritual truth is different than—and should not be confused with—the way individuals wish to express and live their spirituality. Our lives operate under natural laws and truths; regardless of your opinions about these laws, the laws themselves do not change. One example is gravity. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean gravity doesn’t exist. And when people believed the world was flat, their collective opinion did not make it so.

This principle of natural laws and truth equally applies to spirituality, spiritual truth, or spiritual law. The focus should be on discovering spiritual truth, not creating it.

One rule we need to embrace is that all individuals should be respected as they go through their spiritual search process. Nor should anyone expect his or her journey to occur while reading this article. The journey takes time and personal reflection.

Consider the first question: are human beings spiritual? To answer, we must consider the origins of our existence. We have only two choices: are we all just an accident or are we part of a greater plan created by a spiritual being? So many individuals take our complexity for granted.

Here are two ideas to ponder.

1. If we are an accident, natural laws must apply to the process.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of listening to a brilliant mathematician and scientist who took the time to calculate the implications of the theory of evolution. His presentation documented the fact that it’s mathematically unfeasible for all origins of life to come from a single point, as suggested by some. From his research, he found evolution required genetic mutations and progress of such magnitude, it was simply not possible. In addition, he pointed out that current science revealed that most species that mutate die. (Mutations are required for this theory to be fulfilled.) On the other hand, how can an individual confirm whether he or she is part of a greater plan or spiritual power?

The next thought is profound to this process. I would like you to think about it long after you read this article.

2. We as individuals actually create nothing and discover everything!

Let me explain what I mean by this. All items, inventions, and findings already existed before they were discovered. They were simply found. Advancements of a new cancer treatment, the hydrogen fuel cell, or traveling to Mars are examples of humankind’s realizing its potential—the ability to find it or do it was ALWAYS there. Einstein confirmed this in his equations that show energy is never created or dissipated, but simply shifted into another form.

So where did all this potential come from?

If we are spiritual, truth must also be discovered, not created. After a decade of purpose work, I find that individuals wrestle with their purpose and meaning in life until they can clarify their beliefs about their spirituality. I believe that clarity about your existence is the most important issue you can address and that every other purpose process, personal development system, or learning experience is insignificant by comparison.

I want to leave you with a few final thoughts. Yes, I do personally believe we are not an accident and that we have a specific spiritual heritage, origin, and one God. Those are my beliefs. You must, however, personally discover and confirm your spirituality for yourself. Some of you are clear and confident; others are unsure or indifferent. Regardless, I challenge you to confirm your assumptions and clarify your spiritual beliefs because they affect everything you will do or will become in your life.

Action steps to Discovering the Truth about Your Spirituality

Beliefs Are Your Assumptions about these 9 Points. These are, of course, tough questions. Your beliefs are the foundation cornerstones of everything you think, judge, plan, hope for, and seek to achieve. They form the basis for all moral and ethical decisions. They are the screen through which you filter and interpret your world. Your beliefs also determine your mental attitude to some extent — in terms of your being basically hopeful, neutral, or pessimistic about life.

People say, “attitude shapes belief.” I say the opposite. What you assume to be true causes you to have a certain attitude. Emotions follow from that attitude.

Some people have very clearly defined assumptions about what they believe, but most people are just not clear. Others dismiss the issue as “philosophic fuzzy stuff” that they don’t want to deal with right now. The caution is: be careful how you assume things to be, because for you, that’s how they are right now!

You can continue to clarify your beliefs over time. As you do so, you will discover greater depth of meaning in life and work.

Until next time keep “Living on Purpose,”

Ken Keis

What Is Religion?

Religion has existed for thousand years, but still there is no concise and even accurate definition of religion, which would reflect the nature of this phenomenon. Every person has his own understanding of religion interpreting things in a peculiar way. In the world, there are dozens contemporary religions exist, and there were dozens of “dead” religions which disappeared. Nevertheless, it does not diminish their role in general formation process.

Taking into account the nature of religion, it is possible to say that religion is a strict, unwritten code of essential rules (including morals and traditions) established by humans in order to control social life of the society.

Unity of meaning is the main source that allows the construction and experience of religion. As a collective sentiment, religion needs to be upheld and reaffirmed at regular intervals. The concept of religion is not a static one evolving during centuries. Egyptian religion or religion of Ancient Greece do not disappear, they transformed and matured, and became the core for newly developed religions such as Christianity or Catholicism. On the other hand, it is important to underline the fat that understanding of religion is also transformed as a person matured. In childhood, we believe subconsciously in superficial power of some thing beyond our understanding, in adolescence period, we deny everything being unable to join scientific knowledge about the world and unscientific knowledge on which religion is based. When we mature, we understand the limits of our science and, as the most important (if we are not skeptics), develop and coin personal interpretation and understanding of religion. This point of view can be supported by numerous example from every day life. For instance, if you ask truly Christians about the meaning of religion, all of them interpret it differently. It does not mean that they are “poor” believers, but it means that life experience and personal values have a direct impact on our understanding of religion.

I suppose that my definition of religion is a subjective one, because all people are influenced greatly by socialization processes and accident of birth. Also, people who have communicated with their god are not merely people who see new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant; they are individuals who are stronger, feel more powerful in enduring the trials of existence, or in conquering them. I suppose that my interpretation reflects bias, because knowledge of the religion is discovered through an understanding of the whole congeries of social and communal bonds which determine character, and this in turn depends on an appreciation religious life. Nevertheless, I do not bias against any religion seeing it as a part of the process.

Seeing religion as “an identity presupposed by the unity” does not limit religion to what it has in the past allowing to apply this definition to the present. It is possible to say that the essence of religion has not been changed. Pagan religion or Hinduism share the same core structure, but expressed through different rituals. Ritual plays a crucial role here. In essence, there is little difference between different religions in their object, the results which they produce, or the processes employed to attain these results. The power of ritual dominates in religion.

I suppose that my definition of religion has a sufficient precision, because I try to be as much objective as possible. I do not account on any religion, but interpreted religion as a universal process based on “humans beliefs in abnormal phenomenon”.

To answer the question “What is religion?”, I can say that religion is a set of abstract rules for anonymous agents to live by, but consists of distributive practices, sanctioned by a tradition of behaviour, within which identifiable agents can achieve some kind of unity with a social whole that exists apart from their choices. This is a universal approach which helps to understand religion as a process free from prejudices and bias.

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The African Traditional Religion is a religion practiced on the African continent. It is the indigenous religion of Africans with its own distinct features and character of the people who practice it just as Islam has the character of the Arabs, Judaism of the Jews, and Hindus of the Indians. Like other religions, it is difficult to tell when this religion originated but we know it is as old as the Africans.

The African Traditional Religion is not totally different from other religions even though it came under sever the criticisms of the early Europeans who came to Africa to propagate Christianity. This religion was handed down to Africans in oral form exactly the same way other religions emanated and is a way of life of the Africans. This may become reflective in the day to day attitude of the African. Thus the tenets and ideas of this religion exist largely in oral forms and are still very much understood by the Africans themselves who practice the religion.

Another interesting feature of this religion is that it has no sacred book which has caused some critics to readily misleadingly conclude that it is not a revealed religion or religion of the book. Some have also labeled the religion, a religion of backward people. The African traditional religion has no imposing and magnificent buildings such as those of the churches, mosques, temple, pagodas where worshippers could troop in and out to worship. This development has portrayed the religion in bad light in the eyes of the early Europeans that came to the continent.

African Traditional Religion can best be understood through oral and non-oral devices. These oral devices are still living with Africans today and are expressed mostly in proverbs, names, songs and others. The non-oral devices consist of artifacts mostly recovered from archeological excavations and some present day art works. Contrary to the beliefs of the early European visitors to the continent, Africans hold the idea that an Almighty God exists, creator of Heaven and Earth.

“Chukwudi” (There is God) is a popular name in Ibo land, South-East of Nigeria best justifies this idea. It is therefore incontrovertible that even before the coming of the Europeans Africans had clear the knowledge of the existence of God. God therefore did not come to the African continent with the Europeans. The Europeans only came with their own version of God. And the African Traditional Religion supports this fact even indisputably.

In fact what these early visitors to Africa did was to attempt to destroy the continued existence of the religion together with its values by labeling it an evil religion from the dark continent, full of savages, a religion which highly glorifies the Devil implicitly suggesting that nothing good can come out of an evil place such as Africa the land of all sorts evils and vices. Interestingly, some Africans bought this idea hook, line and sinker. Africans had always known that a true Supreme God existed.

The Europeans and other visitors to the continent did this in order to achieve their full aim of propagating religions hitherto strange to the people of the continent.

Incidentally, to a very large extent, they succeeded because of the geographical condition of the continent which rendered the understanding of the continent almost impossible, multiplicity of cultures and ethnic –nationalities in the continent also contributed to this development. It was this diverseness in the cultures of Africans that led to generalization.

However, we know today that all religions are exactly the same in terms of beliefs and ideas. All religions hold the existence of a being(s) supreme to man and the African Traditional Religion cannot be an exception

RATING:  4.5 Hearts – Excellent

Okay, okay.  So I’m a big Ryan Gosling fan.  In fact, my primary reason for viewing The Believer is because I wanted to see all of Gosling’s work.  When I noticed that The Believer won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, that sealed the deal, and I got even more excited about the prosect of seeing it.  Henry Bean co-wrote and directed The Believer in 2001, which is loosely based on the real-life story of Daniel Burros.  Back in the 1960’s Burros became an American Nazi party member and a leader of the Klu Klux Klan, but he shot and killed himself after a NY Times reporter revealed his Jewish heritage.

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The Believer uses anti-semitism to explore love and hate and to show how love and hate get all confused based on fundamental beliefs about God. It also demonstrates how our beliefs about God play a direct role in determining our life and death experience. Director Bean frames The Believer with the recurring theme of the Biblical story of Abraham. Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice and kill Isaac, his son.  But why must he do this?  Does God want us to kill ourselves and others as a sign of faith, devotion, love and obedience?  Does killing self or others make you happy?  Is God just on a power trip?  Do we have the intelligence and free will to override God and guide ourselves if His direction doesn’t make sense?  The Believer reminds us that Jesus was an enlightened Jew who followed God’s will and who allowed himself to be sacrificed and killed to express his love of humanity.  Maybe self-sacrifice is the ultimate path to enlightenment. 

The story is told from the perspective of Daniel Balint, a 20-something neo-Nazi skinhead who denies his Jewish roots and talks incessantly about his desire to kill a Jew.  We see Daniel intimidating and tormenting a meek and bookish Jewish man.  We hear him ranting about how we should hate Jews simply because they’re Jews.  We watch him join an underground anti-semitic fascist group that terrorizes Jews and which ultimately gets Daniel into a lot of trouble.  Daniel has a Jewish female friend who wants to help him out.  She says, “I don’t care about the truth, I care about you.”  She’s telling Daniel that she values him more than she values worldly facts, social morals or Biblical truths.  This is the central message and crux of the movie.  The love we have in our hearts is the one true, irrefutable religion.  It’s the one truth that cannot be argued or denied.   Daniel also feels this love in his heart, and it makes him a very confused and conflicted person. 

When his cohorts defile the Torah (the word of God), Daniel secretly and painstakingly repairs it.  And when Daniel is presented with the two opportunities to actually kill Jews, he can’t do it.  Daniel is supposed to be the sniper who shoots a respected Jewish leader, but he deliberately misses the shot.  The next try comes when Daniel and his group stage a time-bomb that’s set to go off during a service in a synagogue.  But when Daniel realizes his girlfriend and other friends are there, he warns them about the bomb before anyone gets hurt.  Finally, Daniel achieves his goal of killing a Jew when he sacrifices his own life in the bombing. 

Inspiration

Daniel is asked to be a recruiter/spokesperson for the fascist group he joins, but he gets fired when he starts talking about how the best way to get rid of Jews is to love them.  “Without hatred, the so-called chosen people would vanish.  The more they’re hated, the stronger they become.”  He’s saying that Love is the only force strong enough to stop Jews from wanting to stay separate from others. Writer-Director Bean introduces other minor, but important characters who reinforce this point.  Their dialogue includes phrases like “Maybe I was a Jew in a former life,” and “Forget all that Jewish stuff.  It doesn’t play.  The only thing that matters is the market, and it doesn’t care who you are….Maybe we’re all Jews now; what’s the difference?”

Hate is based on the idea that some of our brothers and sisters are different, better or worse than others.  Are Jews really different from anyone else?  All great spiritual truths teach that the hate we feel for others is really a displacement of the hate we feel for self.  Astrologer Stephanie Azaria says “If you check yourself out in the mirror and your shirt is unbuttoned, are you going to reach to the mirror to fix it or are you going to do what needs to be done on your own person? This is no different.” 

Relevance

Daniel is a rebel.  His life is a rebellion against the meekness, passivity and non-action he perceives in Jews, and it’s a rebellion against the power-trip rules imposed on us by God.  When a judge forces him to go to Jewish sensitivity training, Daniel meets several Holocaust survivors and hears their haunting stories.  But Daniel rejects what they have to say because instead of fighting against the Nazis, the survivors accepted a victim role.  One of the survivors tells Daniel he has no right to judge them because he has no way of knowing what he would do in a similar impossible situation.

Of course, at the end of the movie, Daniel is in his own impossible situation. He can save his life and live the rest of it as a criminal in jail or he can sacrifice his life for a higher purpose.   Daniel deliberately and bravely chooses self-sacrifice. Like Jesus, the enlightened Jew, Daniel sacrifices self for the love of others and for the love of God.  After Daniel’s death, we meet him one more time.  He’s back in his Hebrew school, running up one flight of stairs after another, endlessly searching for something:  God, meaning, glory, enlightenment.  But there’s nothing there, nothing except endless searching.  Daniel is learning what we all must learn.  Self-sacrifice is meaningless.  Death is empty. God is not there.  And the example of enlightenment taught by Jesus needs to be reinterpreted without the notion of sacrifice. 

Direction 

The teenaged Daniel does not give a convincing or credible performance.  Luckily, there are only a handful of scenes with him, and what we remember is the disturbing, multi-dimensional performance delivered by Ryan Gosling.  Also, sometimes The Believer plot feels over the top and contrived.  That said, The Believer is extraordinary because it makes you think about whether the ideas we learn about God, the same ones that have been passed down generation after generation for two millenniums, are worth keeping. 

DVD Title:  The Believer

Co-written and Directed By:  Henry Bean

Distributor:  Palm Pictures

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane

Copyright: 2001

Review Score: 4.5

Review Date: 05.18.09

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not Divide and Separate the peoples in the name of Religion because we have many religions but all the religions refer to the only one God.

Example: For the earthly life, the water is the most important one. We cannot live without water.

The water – The water is the English language.

The Paani – The Paani is the Hindi language.

The Pani – The Pani is the Sourashtra language.

The Thanni – The Thanni is the Tamil language.

The Aqua – The Aqua is the Spanish language.

The Wasser – The Wasser is the German language.

FINAL RESULT:

If the languages are different the name also differs but the absolute meaning will be the same as the water. Similarly we have many religions but all the religions refer to the only one God.

What kind of reform or present action we need in the religion?

Due to the misunderstanding in the religion so far we (the earth people) had shed so many bloods as an ocean till date. The beasts don’t have religion but the human being has the religion for his own civilization purpose. Otherwise we will become again as a beast by what? If it is true and we accept the truth of truth is

a. The religion exists only if the human being exists.

b. The religion is not a device but it is a practical procedures.

c. If a person admitted or enrolled in a medical college means at the moment he is a medical college student, after completing the course successfully he will come out with the degree of the doctor. The degree is certified by the university but after doing service to the people he is recognized by the people or by the society as doctor. This formula is same to the engineers also. Similarly if a man enters to a religion first he is the student of the religion. Now a day we are recognizing a religious man by his religious name but not by his religious perfect practice. If he practices the religious practice thoroughly and completely then only he belongs to that particular religion. The religious people must recognize the man as the religious man. This is just like the religious degree. After getting the religious degree he must come out and do service to the people as doctors and engineers. So service to the people is the religion purpose, the real spiritual purpose. We may know many religions or may follow one religion but the aim is service to the people. Here service means service to all the people not the particular religious people because the god, the Almighty is Omni potent and Omni present everywhere, every human beings, every creatures not in particular human beings or in particular creatures or in particular religion. If you realise the above facts you think yourself why still there is religious fight and blood shedding?



FINAL MANTRA:

God, Religion is to up lift all the beings.

God, Religion is to up lift all spiritual beings’ thoughts.

God, Religion is not to up lift any government body.

God, Religion is not to up lift any Political Individual.  

God, Religion is to up lift the universal real peace and freedom only.

MESSAGE:

We have many religions but all the religions refer to only one God, The God for spiritual purpose and not for political purpose. God and Religion loves peace not war, then why you love war In the name of God and religion? WAR means simply against THE GOD and Religion.

You please do not use God and Religion name for money making and political purposes, use only for SPIRITUAL PURPOSE. Then there is no social crisis, no social fight and war. Only Universal real Peace and Freedom exists in ALL HEARTS

You may REALISE THIS AT ONCE, OR YOU MAY TAKE YOUR OWN TIME.

CONVERSION BY COMPULSION IS UNKNOWN TO ME; I AM THE LEAST OF LEASTS OF ALL CREATURES IN THE UNIVERSE.





- By SESHYA URPFR.ORG