Still, I believe that religion has never been as irrational as it has become in our days. I was just watching a documentary on Afghan girls fleeing their own country in order to be able to play soccer in the U.K. Whether you are religious or not, don’t you think there is something wrong with the fact that medieval Afghan women had more rights than Afghan women today? Or that India which has always been a culture in which many, many different faiths have always coexisted together (with each village having its own deity for instance) has become a land of confrontation between Hinduism and other faiths? There are many examples.
What I am trying to do is to direct your attention to the other aspects of spirituality which is, for most of us, much above these superficial subjects. I say that it doesn’t matter what you wear as long you are well established in your own way of believing or not believing. They say that it’s ok to rape and murder, as long as your headscarf is on. So these are two opposite views. And all intelligent scholars say that I am right and they are wrong. So I say it’s time to kick them out. Because the more you let them do whatever they want, the more they will keep using this label called “religion” or “freedom of choice” to serve their own Ego and mind based ways of doing things.
So if people don’t like the idea of faith, that’s fine with me. What I am saying that it is mostly common sense to keep asking question when the guy says “God says no”, I mean how does he know that? If he is speaking the truth, he has to provide evidence. I have come to see that most things that are repulsive and ugly in the realm of spirituality are misinterpretations, lies, distortions, manipulations and / or misunderstandings.
Whether you agree or not to the final result is another issue. But if you are someone who likes these issues I think you should look deeper into religion itself. Usually the meanings are highly spiritual and philosophical. Not superficial and material. One example is that it really doesn’t matter what a man or woman wears in his/her daily life at all. True spirituality focuses on inner work with an emphasis on your understanding of what is spiritual. And people have to know that.
Again, the French saying goes “L’habit ne fait pas le Moine” (Looking like a monk will not make you a monk”. So you have the right to be critical about everything that is superficial and mindless repetition of some outdated rituals and religious practice. As I said, Ottoman women had more rights than Iranian women today. Even medieval societies were not as repressive as today’s religious authoritarianism. SO I adopted the method of being critical. – Did God say that? Good. Show me where. Then I will check it, re-check it, compare it with other sources. One think I can tell you: If it’s ugly, it is man-made. You can even go Freudian on it and decipher the type or brain that first created this nonsense.
Whiter you like this “new approach” is a totally different issue. Some people are pure classical Newtonian physics style materialists. And that’s a matter of choice. I am talking about the irrational type of dogmatism. One of their distinguishing characteristics is that older and truly religious generations hate them. In fact, the more old-school religious a person is, the more he/she is opposed to these seemingly “religious” interpretations. These are clear distortions of the original message. So we have to challenge them. In most cases they will have no answer at all or they will come with an answer that works only on people who have no idea at all on the subject. I think they should not be allowed to dwell so easily in these areas
What I am trying to do is to direct your attention to the other aspects of spirituality which is, for most of us, much above these superficial subjects. I say that it doesn’t matter what you wear as long you are well established in your own way of believing or not believing. They say that it’s ok to rape and murder, as long as your headscarf is on. So these are two opposite views. And all intelligent scholars say that I am right and they are wrong. So I say it’s time to kick them out. Because the more you let them do whatever they want, the more they will keep using this label called “religion” or “freedom of choice” to serve their own Ego and mind based ways of doing things.
So if people don’t like the idea of faith, that’s fine with me. What I am saying that it is mostly common sense to keep asking question when the guy says “God says no”, I mean how does he know that? If he is speaking the truth, he has to provide evidence. I have come to see that most things that are repulsive and ugly in the realm of spirituality are misinterpretations, lies, distortions, manipulations and / or misunderstandings.
Whether you agree or not to the final result is another issue. But if you are someone who likes these issues I think you should look deeper into religion itself. Usually the meanings are highly spiritual and philosophical. Not superficial and material. One example is that it really doesn’t matter what a man or woman wears in his/her daily life at all. True spirituality focuses on inner work with an emphasis on your understanding of what is spiritual. And people have to know that.
Again, the French saying goes “L’habit ne fait pas le Moine” (Looking like a monk will not make you a monk”. So you have the right to be critical about everything that is superficial and mindless repetition of some outdated rituals and religious practice. As I said, Ottoman women had more rights than Iranian women today. Even medieval societies were not as repressive as today’s religious authoritarianism. SO I adopted the method of being critical. – Did God say that? Good. Show me where. Then I will check it, re-check it, compare it with other sources. One think I can tell you: If it’s ugly, it is man-made. You can even go Freudian on it and decipher the type or brain that first created this nonsense.
Whiter you like this “new approach” is a totally different issue. Some people are pure classical Newtonian physics style materialists. And that’s a matter of choice. I am talking about the irrational type of dogmatism. One of their distinguishing characteristics is that older and truly religious generations hate them. In fact, the more old-school religious a person is, the more he/she is opposed to these seemingly “religious” interpretations. These are clear distortions of the original message. So we have to challenge them. In most cases they will have no answer at all or they will come with an answer that works only on people who have no idea at all on the subject. I think they should not be allowed to dwell so easily in these areas
