While
religions are many and their common teachings and ethics are in accordance with
the ten commandments, what should be the roles of religion and the
churches in today's world?
"Ignorance of God is pronounced to be the greatest evil, but God is not to
be discerned in phenomena, or with the outer eye. The quest must be made
within oneself. In order to know, man must first be." Hermes
We know the churches have grown due to human ingenuity whereby business
men and women have been able to capitalize on the concept of God and
convince followers that by supporting the church, they are supporting the
work or will of God and helping to achieve their personal salvation.
It is well known that Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha did not authorise the
creation of any religion in their names, this was done after they had
died.
It is also abundantly clear in the teachings of Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha
that those who believe in the value of their teachings should try as best
they can to adopt the principals of the teachings into their lives and do
their best to emulate / become or manifest as Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha.
In other words, as a believer, one must become as; and learn to manifest
the qualities of the teacher.
Of course after the death of the prophets, the followers wanted to keep
the teachings alive and the coming together and sharing the teachings is
noble and worthy of creating the institution of a 'church' as a building
or place to come together and celebrate divinity.
The church was intended merely as a place of celebration, but in today's
world it has become a powerful institution and a multi trillion dollar
industry in which the Catholic Church claims to represent over a billion
people and hold responsibility for their souls and similar claims are made by
most churches and religious leaders.
Unfortunately all the churches and religious organisations operate to
there own social and political agendas as the values of life only apply to
those within the same sect as Jews, Muslims and Christians are happy to
sin against each other as as those who belong to sects within the faith.
We have conflict between Islam and Christianity, between Christianity and
Judaism, Judaism and Islam, and internally between Protestants and
Catholic Christians,
Zionist and Mizrahi Jews, Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
The churches have become rich, powerful and self serving, so what
should they be doing?
Churches should:
- remind members of the real truth and purpose of life
- facilitate the individual communion with God
- be centres of valid investigative learning and celebration
- work toward creating social harmony
- be an active conscience for governments
- free the people from suffering
While churches and religions do this to some degree, it seems the
primary aim of religions is in the acquisition of power and control,
economic wealth and the peace is established when every last individual
conforms to the group belief and acceptance of the power structure.
