The information above of the writings in the Bible and their originations is really quite fascinating.

I don’t believe God created the world to see any part of it be abused, or mistreated. This includes women, children and the earth itself. All creation stories lead to the concept that humans were to be the keepers of the garden, so to speak. If one ‘keeps’ the garden, one does not destroy or damage it. Woman, or man, was to be a helpmate or partner. Not one above the other, but equals with a vital part in keeping the garden whole.
Greed, lust for power, and an acquired unnatural intelligence allowed for the belief that the earth must conquered, including all life forms and controlled by only one life form, humans. We are all reaping the consequences of the discord that has been sown for centuries.

While I am not sure about the interpretations of Moses, Abraham or Noah (notice that this continent is not included in any of those teachings, as if it never existed), I do believe that there is a force around this planet greater than me. My faith gives me a reason to keep moving forward, looking for a better way to live and hope for my children.

Every where around me is falling apart. The nation that was supposed to be the safest on earth is now divided against itself and will inevitably collapse like all other empires that also became too powerful. I believe that when the US economy falls, so will all other world economies. So much of it is tied together. Global warming warnings have not made any impact on the rate of consumption or destruction of the planet. An inevitable global catastrophe comprised of multiple ‘natural disasters’ is in the future, maybe my future. Mass extinctions are already taking place. It is hard to know which path to take that will make the greatest positive impact on the whole.

Now we must bind together as a community that tolerates all differences in order to survive. When it happens, and it will happen, all the differing opinions, interpretations and beliefs will be of little value. Maybe then we will find each other as equals, struggling to find survival in the most holistic manner possible. Maybe then we will see that all of life has the right to exist in its own way.

Where does ‘religion’ as we know it, fit into all of this? All it has done is divide the people into groups that despise and spar with each other.

It is time to find a more sustainable way to live, including our interaction with the natural world/human species.

People will have their faiths – it is integrated into cultures and into many people’s lives. Even the non-religious in any society are going to have some basis in the dominant faith of their society. One does not have to be a believer to be shaped in some way by religion.

What is maddening to me is the ongoing use of religion to advance power. Consistently the world has seem conflict and conquest cloaked in the robes of religion. Then the conflict and conquest is framed as a “religious” conflict. Examples include The Crusades, the Protestant-Catholic divide in Ireland, Bosnia, and the current “turmoil” in the Middle East framed as a conflict of civilizations. The issues are struggles for power and resources which some choose to frame, legitimate, and recruit using religion as bait.

While I agree that finding commonality is a path to peace, I have problems with the premise that these conflicts are religiously based. I do believe that it is critical that people be aware when their faith is being bent to another’s cause. Hopefully this then allows people to organize against the manipulation and build together a better way.

One can argue for validation of any religion but I have come to adopt the motto: God Save Us From Religion!!! I wonder when the people of Earth will be brave enough to begin to question the origins of the great major faiths of our planet? Does not anyone here ever wonder why and how the worship of the Divine Mother was eliminated from the original beliefs of the indigenous people of the Earth? And I do mean original Earth inhabitants….humans. Please note that I am not downplaying or denying the existence of the male counterpart of the Creator Force. If one believes we were created in the image of God, then surely, women weren’t an after thought! Does not anyone here entertain the thoughts that religions were developed to corrupt the spirituality of the indigenous people of the Earth; that religions are employed as a powerful means of controlling people; that perhaps different religions were set up with doctrines in direct opposition to one another in order to breed disharmony, distrust, confusion, war and arrogance?

I don’t care how you sugarcoat any faith, if you look close enough you will find that, through religion, the “sons of God” abused and horribly mistreated the indigenous women of the Earth to set the example of a misogynistic model for the indigenous men of the Earth to follow. In the early days of our beginning here on Earth, women were revered by the males because earthlings’ spirituality still retained closeness to the Divine Mother. So just when and why was it twisted to make it appear that women were a gender that could not be trusted and that they must be oppressed by the males? Male chauvinism has caused women to be subjugated to men and treated as their “footstools” in many cultures including the Arab, Asian, Jewish and Western societies.

How, when, and why was it implanted into our culture for a fraction of men [AS SEEN IN OUR LEADERS] to be biological beings with abounding pride, arrogance, uncontrollable urges for adult and child sex partners [whether they be willing or forced participants], with a great appetite for conquest and control. This warlike RACE [skin color or country of birth is insignificant] has an insatiable thirst for control of other beings and dominion over other races, and the less privileged classes. They have developed and imposed complex, oppressive cast and gender systems. Who was it that promoted very expensive tastes that would force people into economic slavery? Who was it that introduced polygamy, incest and paedophilia? Such traits are noted in various cultures, including the ancient Egyptian royalty and the patriarchs of the Old Testament.

In many senses, we in this technologically advanced age, are slaves to the modern commodities, governments, economic systems, cultures, religions, customs, and etc. But most importantly we are slaves to this Virtual Reality, blinded by its subtleties and falsehoods and its simulation of the Divine Realms laid out so thoroughly, map on how to get there included, within confusing doctrines. So, who created these methods of control….and please don’t answer me with the childish response, “Satan.”

If you cannot entertain the notion that religions were created, I offer the following on Christianity; those of other faiths can begin connecting the dots from there:

Just what is Christianity?
The important question then to ask is this: if the New Testament is not historical, what is it?
Dr Tischendorf provided part of the answer when he said in his 15,000 pages of critical notes on the Sinai Bible that “it seems that the personage of Jesus Christ was made narrator for many religions”. This explains how narratives from the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, appear verbatim in the Gospels today (e.g., Matt. 1:25, 2:11, 8:1-4, 9:1-8, 9:18-26), and why passages from the Phenomena of the Greek statesman Aratus of Sicyon (271-213 BC) are in the New Testament.
Extracts from the Hymn to Zeus, written by Greek philosopher Cleanthes (c. 331-232 BC), are also found in the Gospels, as are 207 words from the Thais of Menander (c. 343-291), one of the “seven wise men” of Greece. Quotes from the semi-legendary Greek poet Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) are applied to the lips of Jesus Christ, and seven passages from the curious Ode of Jupiter (c. 150 BC; author unknown) are reprinted in the New Testament.
Tischendorf’s conclusion also supports Professor Bordeaux’s Vatican findings that reveal the allegory of Jesus Christ derived from the fable of Mithra, the divine son of God (Ahura Mazda) and messiah of the first kings of the Persian Empire around 400 BC. His birth in a grotto was attended by magi who followed a star from the East. They brought “gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (as in Matt. 2:11) and the newborn baby was adored by shepherds. He came into the world wearing the Mithraic cap, which popes imitated in various designs until well into the 15th century.
Mithra, one of a trinity, stood on a rock, the emblem of the foundation of his religion, and was anointed with honey. After a last supper with Helios and 11 other companions, Mithra was crucified on a cross, bound in linen, placed in a rock tomb and rose on the third day or around 25 March (the full moon at the spring equinox, a time now called Easter after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar). The fiery destruction of the universe was a major doctrine of Mithraism-a time in which Mithra promised to return in person to Earth and save deserving souls. Devotees of Mithra partook in a sacred communion banquet of bread and wine, a ceremony that paralleled the Christian Eucharist and preceded it by more than four centuries.
Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian Book of Revelation was originally called The Mysteries of Osiris and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.
Source: http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/NewTestament.html

On more thing: There are some scary happenings within the United States’ military….again, religion used to direct and control the masses…in a very lethal sense:
The Evangelical Christian Takeover of the Military
By David Antoon
Posted on November 16, 2007
CLIPS:
Never, during my four years at the academy and subsequent pilot and combat training, was the word warrior used; nor, whether as a cadet or officer, did I ever encounter “Christian supremacist” rhetoric.

I no longer recognize the Air Force Academy as the institution I attended almost four decades earlier. At that point, I had no idea how invasive this extreme evangelical “cancer” had become throughout the entire military, that what I had witnessed was far from an isolated case of a few religious zealots.

In the following weeks, a uniformed Army Maj. Gen. William Boykin began sharing his Christian supremacist views from church pulpits around the country, declaring that he was “God’s Warrior” and that “America is a Christian nation.” He demeaned the entire Muslim world by stating that his God was bigger than a Muslim warlord’s god and that the Muslim’s god “was an idol.” He received little more than a token slap on the wrist. At the time, Joseph Schmitz, then the Department of Defense inspector general (Schmitz is currently the chief operating officer of Blackwater International), found that Boykin had committed no ethics violations.
GO TO: http://tinyurl.com/2dkavd

Thank you for reproducing Ali Baghdadi’s speech.

Ali Baghdadi has definitely made his point. He developed a chain of logical argument highlighting why is he not prepared to deny the divinity of any religion specially his own, Islam. He says about Islam,”It remains a source of my personal behavior and conduct. I will not abandon my heritage, my culture, my roots, or my people”. Reading through his speech one has to acknowledge his vast knowledge on the subject. He quoted Mohammad (PBUH) several occasions, cited Bible and mentioned Old Testament to make his argument credible. He clearly seems to believe in God.

I, however, was at a loss to understand why did he have to mention that he did not practice any of the rituals (ibadaat) common Muslims do. Secondly, the mention of the archeological find proving Moses to be be a myth also escaped my limited comprehension.

Interfaith dialogue with a view to create interfaith harmony would be best served if the proponent disregards personal practices, whether his own or others’. He amply highlighted the main reason for the so called ‘clash of civilizations (read Religions)’ by citing Mr. Bush, Pope Benedictine and new born concept of Islamofascism.

His entire speech focused on the basic and easily understandable logic. But, in my opinion, he should have also touched on the philosophical aspect. Philosophically speaking, how would it matter whether Moses existed or Mr. Baghdadi had no intentions of making a Pilgrimage to Makkah? The fact that over 80% of homo sapiens, considering entire Chinese population is atheist, support certain faith (read religion) only points to the inevitability of holding dear a certain faith for reasons of best know to beholder.

True faith breeds peace within which then radiates outside moulding the behaviour of beholder. Peace within means peace without. Basic concepts of Islam and for that matter any religion are undisputed. A believer of any religion, therefore, will promote peace not aggression unless absolutely required only to ward off evil.

Like yoga needs meditation and certain organised physical activity, all faiths also require some rituals, called ‘ibaadaat’ in Arabic to be practiced. As long as these rituals do not infringe upon the feelings and practices of others, they promise to strengthen interfaith harmony.

I shall ask Dr. Baghdadi to try those rituals which come natural with his ‘heritage, culture, roots, and people’. I assure him more of peace within.

Best Regards,
Masroor

It still doesn’t solve the problem of the exremists from Islam or Judaism, Hinduism, and Christianity. All use their Religion to justify
doing to others what they themselves would abjure.

Don’t ask me for the answer. I would say get rid of the Religions but that wouldn’t get rid of the exremists, only remove their justification.

Tom Edgar Australia.
tomedgar@halenet.com.au