Faith

Religious Institutions Pervert Faiths

Negative aspects of religions seems to originate from religious institutions. They have abandoned some dogmas and adopted others to benefit their own goals. In this process the followers have become an asset and strategies as competitive as any other big businesses. The faith itself has become less important in this global battle of world domination. Here are my thesis how religious institutions pervert faith. I will hereby nail them to our blog following the footsteps of Mr. Martin Luther in Wittenberg.

0. All faiths are initially pure and altruistic.

Faiths do not want to convert more followers or gain property. It is the religious institutions that are tainted with selfishness and are hungry for power. They use faith as a vehicle to pursue their own goals and let the end justify the means. They seem to believe that it does not matter what is done as long as souls are saved for the only right religion while all other religions are heretic.

1. Different conceptions of god have the same origin.

Religious institutions compete with each other trying to separate themselves from other institutions. They raise barriers between other religions and practice "divide et impera" politics. The view of god in religions is, on the contrary, a forgiving father seeking to demolish barriers and spread the message of love to everyone. He does not ask for wealthier followers or more money.

2. Money drives religious institutions to seek control over the faithful.

Money is the root of all evil poisoning religious institutions. They collect money during ceremonies, require donations, impose taxes, ask entrance fees to their buildings, and sell memberships. It is absurd to think that god should want to have control over the faithful as he is anyway believed to have almighty power over everything. Temples are often market places and focus on business.

3. God does not lust for domination, influence, and more followers.

Access to heaven can be sold with money or faithful have to convert other people to enjoy full membership in the institution. But does god grow stronger if he has more followers, or require influence, or seek domination? Why would he because according to pure faith he already has everything.

4. Religious institutions claim to possess the judgmental power of their god.

Religious institutions sustain through judgmental power. There are things, for example, you must do to get to heaven, or otherwise you end up in hell. Religious institutions usually extend their judgmental power over national legal systems by hiding evidence and protecting criminals.

5. All faiths comfort the greatest of all fears; fear of death.

In pure faith everyone is welcome to heaven, next life, nirvana, and paradise. Religious institutions take advantage of this fear by issuing additional regulations for conquering the fear of death, or forcing their followers to suicide bombing, celibacy and other mindless weird things for earning salvation.

6. Controlling sexuality exists to control followers.

Sexuality is in the essence of humanity and touches everyone of us. Therefore it is also a powerful tool to control people and express authority. Faith itself disregards sexuality. It is simply misinterpreted to support the institution who wants to have more followers and control both organization and leadership. It can also be used to separate between faiths, and marketing the faith to non-believers by forcing followers to use external and visible signs of their religious institution.

7. Miracles and religious explanations underline false authority.

Everything around us that cannot be explained with the terms of faith is undermining religious organizations as it reveals a contradiction between experience and faith. Declaring an anomaly as a miracle boosts the authority of organization and removes the contradiction. Personal faith has nothing to do with either one, unless one wants to market religion to others. Life itself is the biggest miracle of all if any are needed.

8. Religious organizations are built to avoid the inborn anarchy of faith.

All faiths are anarchist by definition. Holy texts do not define hierarchies and build power structures but concentrate on individuals instead. Faith is a personal thing, and it is practiced for oneself. The problems with anarchism is that it cannot be exploited so therefore religious organizations need to be build to capitalize and turn faith into an asset.

9. Rites, rituals, mantras, and prayers contribute only to the sense of community.

No faith requires doing things in front of other people for the sake of acceptance. That is required solely by religious institutions wanting to build the sense of community to control and keep their followers.

10. God is not necessarily a male.

Just imagine a female Pope or Imam and you get the point. Women are sacred Madonnas as long as they are shut out by the holy glass sealing of religious organizations. The claim that god is a man is invented by religious male leaders to support their personal interests. I have not seen any holy texts claiming that god is a male. Have you?

Post Scriptum

I claim that religious institutions pervert faith and turn it into an evil. Therefore I urge you to consider abandoning your institution and keeping your faith private and personal, only for yourself. Taking away the power of religious institutions would reduce evil in the world.