Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are the same thing and God's presence is in everything. Paganism is the belief that nature is sacred and humans are part of nature and we are connected to nature in a spiritual manner. Pagans and pantheists believe that God comes in many forms and all of life and the universe is sacred. Most of the world were pantheist and pagan and they based their beliefs on their experiences. Along comes monotheism and they believe that there is one and only one God. The major religions that are monotheistic are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
These major three religions have viewed the entire ancient world as heretics who believed in foolish magic and voodoo and they have literally been trying to exterminate anyone who believes in such nonsense. Just think about this for a minute. Think of all the examples throughout history in which major monotheistic religious leaders have used violence, torture, slavery, and murder on pagans who were considered godless.
The problem is that the modern world religions did not even consider the possibility that any of the beliefs by pagans could be of value. But there is a connection between pantheism and monotheism and when you consider their pros and cons, you can see how they compliment each other. One is not a complete answer, but combining the concepts in world religious beliefs gives us a new religion based on a merging of the old and the new.
Pantheists are correct. The universe is the manifestation of God and everything in the universe contains God. God is found in the clouds and the sun. We are all connected and we are all one with the universe and God. Monotheists are also correct. There is one and only one God. That statement does not contradict pantheism, but enhances it. There is only one consciousness and we can call that one consciousness God. The one consciousness has created the entire physical universe in his image. Everything is God and God is everything.
So, the world's religious leaders need to stop and think about what they believe and try to formulate new ideology based on new discoveries and technology. They need to reconsider that we all want pretty much the same thing and that is to find the truth. The truth can be found somewhere in the middle path as Buddha proposed.
I propose a new religion that recognizes pantheism and monotheism as beliefs that can be merged. The new religion has the belief that the one God manifests as the universe and all elements of the universe are connected because they are actually one. There is only one consciousness and that is God. Every person and everything has God within. God is everything and there is only one God.
Please take a minute and think about what I am saying. Our old religions make things very complicated but things are actually much simpler than most people think. God is consciousness that can manifest in infinite ways that appear to be separate but they are all connected as one. Each one of us is a part of the God consciousness and our consciousnesses are connected. Each life has the same God consciousness within and each life has certain basic rights. The three basics of life are freedom, love, and joy.
I have written quite a bit about the concepts of freedom, love, and joy as being the basics of life and therefore they should be the basic goals of education. I will not elaborate much now about the importance of freedom, love, and joy because I have discussed these in much more depth in other writings. But I wanted to introduce these concepts in terms of a new world religion that can take us into the next century and beyond.
God, the father, gave us freedom. Jesus, the son, gave us love. The Holy Spirit gave us joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment