Foundations of Religion

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A Reasonables' New-Vision Project

The Purposes of Religion

Are religion's original purposes still valid today?

Page Summary

Do you realize that you've been making critical, irreversible, life-altering decisions based on inaccurate, incomplete, and/or obsolete information? We say this because Life is not what we've been led to believe it is by those who claim to know!°

Are you willing to look closely at what the leaders of your religious organization have been telling you? You'd be wise to understand that much of what they are teaching is obsolete. This page explains why.

Religions originally served four main purposes:

1) As providers of answers to questions about how the universe functions, such as: The Earth is flat. Earthquakes, floods and the like are caused by God when He's angry.

2) As places to look for answers about the mysteries of life, such as: "How did I get here?" "Why am I here?" " What happens when I die?" "Who or what is the source of life?"

3) As creators of community

4) As the authority for defining social order and interpersonal behavior.

Religions originally served all four of these purposes simply because life demanded answers, and there were no other places in the physical world to turn to in search of answers.

The main questions today are:

Do religions provide correct answers to the questions about the mysteries of life?

Are the answers provided thousands of years ago still accurate and acceptable answers to how the universe functions?

Are religions still the only places to look in order to find guidelines for social order and everyday behavior?

Most humans have never asked or answered these questions, and so they live their lives as if the answers were an unequivocal "yes." They have been living that way since they were small children because that's the way their parents lived and that's what they were taught before they reached the age of reason. But, the evidence tells us the answers to the above questions are all "no." The presently available evidence gives us some very different and life-altering answers.

In light of the presently available evidence, it's obvious that most religious organizations are desperately in need of some serious re-evaluations of their theology. Unfortunately, such changes are unlikely to come from within these social structures until the evidence overwhelms their belief or until the people wake up and demand changes.

Page Content

Why Re-evaluate Religions Beliefs?`

Purpose One -- How the Universe Functions`

Purpose Two -- The Mysteries of Life`

Purpose Three -- Social Order and Interpersonal Relationships`

Purpose Four -- Creating Mutual Support Communities`

How Does Christian Theology Fit into this Picture?`

Conclusion`

Scan First -- Details Later: For your initial reading of this information, we recommend that you ignore the links to the supporting pages. First, get an overall sense of what the project is about and then later go into the supporting evidence.

How the Universe Functions Re-evaluate Religions Beliefs ...

Why Are Religious Beliefs
in Need of Serious Re-evaluation?

Because ...

Because humans base their secular life on their religious beliefs and those beliefs have spawned some very dysfunctional behaviors -- behaviors that are destroying the Earth's capacity to sustain human life as we know it -- behaviors that are creating a great deal of unnecessary misery, suffering, and death -- behaviors that could even cost you your life and threaten the future well-being of your children and grandchildren.

Because Life is not what we've been led to believe it is by those who claim to know!° (See the sections below on this page.)

Because you have been making critical, irreversible, life-altering decisions based on inaccurate and/or incomplete information.

Before you dismiss this wakeup call as another tree-hugger's fantasy, consider this: If there are no real and pressing, environmental problem and we clean up our act, there's no damage done. On the other hand, if the warnings of those of us who are studying this phenomenon are correct and you ignore the warnings, you, your family, and all the rest of humanity will face serious, irreversible, life-threatening catastrophes.

Have You Ever Been Wrong? If you must make a choice about something, it's wise to choose the option that is correctable if you later find out you were wrong. In this case: 1) what you have to lose by taking no action is enormous; 2) the probability of the projections being accurate is very high; and 3) the consequences of taking no action are both astronomically devastating and irreversible. This leads us to the one and only sane choice -- and that choice is to listen to the wakeup call and immediately begin making and demanding changes.

Two additional factors to consider are 1) when you examines history, you'll notice that humans have an incredibly pain-producing habit of being wrong about just about everything, and 2) denial and resistance to change appear to be ingrained human character traits. Readers are directed to the page titled: Have You Ever Been Wrong?

The Three Main Purposes of Religion

How the Universe Functions ..

1 -- How the Universe Functions

In the absence of evidence, the ancient peoples made up stories to provide the missing answers. Here are a few examples. The Earth is flat like a three-layered cake with Earth in the middle, with God and heaven above, and Satan and hell below. The Earth is the center of the universe. The sun moves around the Earth.

Obviously some of the ancient, answers offered by religion organizations were inaccurate. Science has stepped in and is now providing answers that verify many ancient religious teachings and prove the falsehood of many others. So the question and the conflict is: Regarding how the universe functions, shall I blindly believe the ancient religious teachings or shall I look at the evidence and consider the new theories that the evidence indicates as most likely the truth?

How the Universe Functions ..

2 -- The Mysteries of Life

Religions also offered answers to life's most basic mysteries such as: What is the source of life? How does that source function? Who and what am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What happens after death?

Today we need to ask and answer the following questions: Are the ancient religious teachings still the place to look for reliable answers to life's most mysterious questions? Are they the only source of answers? Do they provide the correct answers? Because the mysteries of life are, by definition, unknown and unknowable, are religious organizations even capable of providing accurate, provable answers?

The evidence indicates that the answers to these questions are all "NO." The evidence indicates that the answers which religious hierarchies have made up to answer these questions are simply beliefs about reality -- beliefs that were made up by men who also believed the Earth was flat -- beliefs that have been handed down to us, unchanged and unchallenged, for generations.

Over the centuries, several different religions came into being, and each religion provided its own set of answers to life's unanswerable questions. Some of the answers were the same or similar between the religions, but many were not. As a result, today, we have several widely held religious beliefs that are in direct conflict with those of a different religion.

Religious beliefs can be divided into three main beliefs/theories -- Christian One-life-ism, Atheism, and Reincarnation.° The fundamental principle in each belief conflicts with the other two. For example one cannot be both "an eternal divine being who always was and always will be" and also have been "created by God as a brand new being at the beginning of one's present lifetime." Each of these three theories offers it's own set of answers to life's basic questions. And because the basic beliefs are mutually exclusive, only one of these three theories can be correct. The followers of the other two major beliefs are missing significant pieces of information about reality, and, as a result, millions (and in some cases billions) of people still base their lives on beliefs that are false and misleading. And as we said earlier, this, all to often, leads to some very dysfunctional behavior.`

So how do we deal with these conflicts, with these missing pieces of information, and with the mutual exclusivity of these three major beliefs? The best answer thus far provided is to examine the evidence and offer one or more theories about the possible answers to questions such as: Who and what am I? What is the what-ever-it-is that we call "God?" How does God function? Then to revise these theories as additional information becomes available. (Ref. 2: The Three Basic Religious Theories)°

How the Universe Functions ..

3 -- Social Order and Interpersonal Behavior

Spiritual, religious, and philosophic beliefs (or the lack of them) have always been the fundamental determining factors in controlling human conduct. They are the basic internal programming that determines human behavior. They provide the underlying guidelines for all human conduct. They are the basic ground rules for interpersonal relationships. Spiritual, religious, and philosophic beliefs are the sources of morals and ethics. They provide the basic guidelines in conduct of daily affairs. They determine who we believe we are and how we relate to the world.

Our religious beliefs cannot simply be translated into an act of worship and then separated from other activities. Whether truth or fantasy, our personal beliefs, both religious and otherwise, are the framework within which we each live our daily lives. Our beliefs create an attitude within us --- an approach to life that is often referred to as a belief box.° Our mental attitudes permeate all of our physical activities and color all or our experiences.

Our beliefs become the context° within which we each live our daily lives. It is, therefore, appropriate for each of us to analyze our conduct and the underlying beliefs which dictate our conduct.

Viewers are invited to read three page which shed further light on this topic:
      (Ref. 1: The Context in which Christianity had its origins°
      (Ref. 2: Religion Versus Spirituality)°
      (Ref. 3: The Three Basic Religious Theories/Assumptions)°

Where is Source? Who Came First?

Religions tell us to be kind, loving, and helpful to our fellow humans. But the underlying question is: Is religion really the source of this behavior or has the natural, human instinct to be kind, loving, and helpful simply been taken over by religions and given a structure and a set of rules? The evidence tell us that religion is a function of natural human behavior and that each religion has simply given a structure to that which already existed.

Most people will respond to this information with, "So what? I simply follow my religion's behavior rules." The problem with this response is that if one examines even just the major religions, one finds numerous, and often conflicting and confusing rules. Which brings up the question: "Whose rules are the correct rules?"

We'd be wise to pay attention to our basic, natural, human instincts. Ask yourself this question: "Do I listen to the voice within? or do I, without question, follow someone else's religious theology? The problem with simply following any theology is that several other theologies hold different beliefs and demand different behaviors. One is left asking: "Which belief is correct and which behavior pattern is the one to follow?" Since we now live in cultures that are multi-religious, saying that all people must follow the dictates of a single religion becomes seriously dysfunctional. The question then is:

How Do We Honor Everyone's Religious and Personal Freedom?

The goal is protect everyone’s religious rights. The goal is not to exclude "God" from government or from any other of our social structures. That is literally impossible because humans cannot separate their divine nature from the social structures they create.

The goal is to make sure everyone has the right to relate to "The Source of All" in any fashion he/she chooses, including the right to deny that such a source even exists. And the best way to do that appeared to be, and still appears to be:

To acknowledge the universal spiritual nature of humankind, and, at the same time, keep the activities of church and state as distinct and separate as possible.

To see how masterfully our Founding Fathers handled this issue, viewers are directed to the page titled: Church and State -- How Do They Relate?°

How the Universe Functions ..

4 -- Creating Mutual Support Communities

By far, the most positive and constructive aspect of organized religions is the mutual support communities each one generates. These communities fill several, basic human needs. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we all seek a pathway to an indefinable something -- to that unknown source of life and love. Although the specific names may differ, most of us call the unknown something, "God." We are all searching for who we are. We all seek companionship. We all seek solace and comfort in times of grief and trial. When facing danger, when facing the unknown, we all stop for a moment to contemplate our destiny, hug those nearest and dearest to us, and then step into the void, not knowing whether or not we'll ever return.

In a world where change is inevitable, where the unknown is a daily experience, where all too often we find ourselves facing risk and challenge, we seek something consistent and dependable. We seek security, fellowship, connection, a sense of belonging, and mutual support. Organized religions are good at filling these needs.

Religion is a shelter in the storm of life. It provides what passes for acceptable answers when facing death. We can also feel that our beliefs about life, about death, about God are right. We must be right because all the people who believe our religion can't be wrong.

The religious communities also provide entertainment and a source finding companionship, sexual partners, love, and a mate/life partner.

Organized religion is a context for group evolution where there's safety in numbers, where there's a sense of security, where there's increased power, where the journey is easier. The individual need not think for him or herself. Being mindless is okay and acceptable. Individual responsibility is replaced by group responsibility.

Symbolically speaking, if one were facing a one-hundred-mile journey across an unknown forest, religion is like riding a train on a pre-determined track as compared to making the same journey by yourself or with one or two friends on horseback.

Like every other aspect of life, there are advantages and disadvantages to organized religion. The less than wholesome aspects of organized religion include: being able to abdicate responsibility -- being able to distract one's self from reality -- being able to live in victim consciousness where creation by accident and default is an acceptable alternative to conscious and intentional creation. As a member of an organized religion one can be mindless and still be safe and okay; one can be the child and let God become the daddy who takes care of him/her.

On the positive side of this negative side, one can participate in organized religion and step beyond these negative aspects. One simply needs to participate consciously. This gives all the advantages of a religious community without the disadvantages. There are, however, two major drawback to this: first, living consciously is harder than just going along; and second, it's relatively easy to fall back onto the unconscious path.

.Christian Theology ...

How Does Christian Theology
Fit into this Picture

Because the Christian belief system dominates life in the United States, it is at the core of three major problems:

The main problem with the Christian religious structures (and with other religions, as well) is that they are extremely inflexible. Regardless of the urgency, in defiance of the evidence, and in opposition to common sense, any attempt to do anything new is almost always met with stiff resistance.

The second most important problem is that the ultra-conservative Christian leaders do not honor the Christian Bible. They do not honor the teachings of Jesus. If they did, they'd be teaching you a very different way to relate to the world. Instead of honoring the people and honoring their own Bible, the ultra-conservative Christian leaders are attempting to take over the government and create a Christian theocracy in America. We have four pages focused to this aspect of the problem.

Creating a Christian Theocracy in America°

What Do You Believe?°

Religion Versus Spirituality°

The Foundations of Religion°

The third most important problem is that the stone-minded, religious fundamentalist leaders presently (2006) dominate collective social behavior and strongly influence political behavior in the United States. Unfortunately, their theology is a thinly disguised invitation to commit mass suicide. They consider that to take actions that would stop the wars and/or halt the environmental destruction to be an interference with God's plan to end the world and lift all good Christians (and only good Christians) off the planet and into heaven to be with Jesus. Their justification for taking no action is based on a religiously inspired story called The Rapture.°

From the non-Christian perspective, "The Rapture" can be seen as a mutual-suicide pact based on an unprovable, religiously inspired fairytale. Do you recall Jim Jones and the religiously inspired mass suicide he led in Jamestown, Guyana in 1987? Well, peddling the rapture is a poison a million times more deadly than the cyanide- laced punch that he and his followers drank.

Those who think that "The Rapture" is the word of God and that it's going to save them from tragedy have been misinformed. "The Rapture" is actually a heavily distorted, pick-and-choose interpretation of several different Christian scriptures. Unfortunately, it's also a huge cash cow. It's a money-making, mind-drug. It's psychological morphine that dulls the brain and inhibits physical action. But please don't believe us. Examine the evidence.

The Rapture°

Three Variations of "The Truth" °

Some Psychological Factors to Consider° -- Including:

Believing false stories -- Mass consciousness -- Mindlessness, -- How liars get caught in their own lies --The natural, human tendency to stretch the truth.

How the Universe Functions ..

Conclusion --The Bottom Line

So where does the above evidence leave us? It leaves those of us who want to survive the presently-in-process, global-level transformations screaming "WAKE UP!" We (that's everybody, including you and your family) are riding a cosmic-level Titanic, and it's about to crash into the iceberg of ignorance and illusion. Serious re-evaluations of our collective religious beliefs are in order.

The Bottom Line: One cannot simply trust the stories we hear from others who claim to know things that we don't. Even though they may truly and sincerely believe that what they are telling you is true, YOU CAN'T SIMPLY CLOSE YOUR MIND AND BELIEVE THEM!. You must think for yourself. Examine the evidence. Let the truth be your guide. "Know the truth and the truth will set you free."

If we don't wake up, most of us will die prematurely. There's no middle ground here. There are no sideline spectators. We are all on the playing field, and what each one of us does really matters. To see how you, personally, can make a difference, see The Redwoods Project.°

The N.V.P Team members
think it's time for moderate and
open-minded Christians to take back Christianity
from the highly vocal, fundamentalist Christian extremists.
We welcome your thoughts and opinions. Please Contact Us°

The Reasonables' New-Vision Project

Continues on

Page 4--- An Alternative Vision of Life°

and on

Page 9a --- The Critical Decision°

Take Me Back to the Project Site Map

A New Vision for Your Life°

Safe, Dependable, Tangible-asset, Retirement Funds°

Save the Redwoods Environmental Preservation Trust°

Supporting Evidence°

The N.V.P. Team's Invitation:

Do you feel that you are one of: The Kicked-out -- The Left-out -- The Walked-out -- The Walked on -- or The Disenfranchised? Are you a person who could be thought of as "one of the less fortunate of our brothers and sisters?"

Have you been successful at your career, but still feel something still missing in your life? Do you have a dream or a vision for yourself that you've never manifested?

If any of the above descriptions fit you, you are invited to join with us in re-building a structure that honors: 1) the latest scientific evidence about the nature of reality and human life, 2) the commonly accepted theories about life offered over the centuries by the world's most renowned philosophers, and 3) the previously ignored teachings of Jesus and the Christian Bible. (i.e. Christianity without the dogma and the fairytales.)

The Reasonables Project will show you how, without asking permission from anybody and from the ground up, the project's participants are re-creating their own lives and filling their lives with joy, abundance, cooperation, love, and freedom. You are invited into the project, and when you accept this invitation, The N.V.P. Team members will show you and assist you in doing the same for yourself. (Please note that the N.V.P. Team does not have any magic bullets or instant cures, and the team won't play the game of life for you.)

You're invited to join the N.V.P. Team
on an adventure into consciousness.

            As part of your adventure
                   you'll see your own life
                        from a perspective we guarantee
                             you've never seen before.

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