Are Ancient Religious Texts still pertinent in a Modern World?

Do we Follow The God of Violence & Wrath, or Peace and Love?

Living in the past is not living at all.

Modern times call for modern views and concepts.

God is ever evolving, and man is not.

We must stop living in the past and progress with dignity into the future.

We must ask ourselves: Do we belong to the past, the present, or to the future?

There is no controversy and no negating the fact that there is much wisdom in ancient texts. But as rational, reasonable, logical, enlightened, modern day minds, we know that much of it is, at the very least, superfluous and meant to frighten people into submission, humility, compliance and ultimately controllable.

So, what motivates people to still cling to antiquated and outdated beliefs and ideas?

A few examples of antiquated ideas:

• the world is flat - if you go too far you will fall over the edge.

• the earth is the center of the universe.

• the stars and the sun rotate around the earth.

• if man were meant to fly - he would have wings.

Since religion came before science, these ideas were created by men of their times, based on their limited knowledge, superstition, and fear of the unknown. Simply made up in some body's imagination.

We now know that all these things are not true. They have all been empirically proven by scientific methods that now replace those antiquated beliefs.

Now, let's look a little deeper into those antiquated religious beliefs. (a few examples):

• man was created in one day.

• woman was created from a rib of man.

• Adam and Eve sinned by eating an apple - later revised to say: partook from the tree of life, or the tree of knowledge, or led astray by Satan appearing as a snake. Pick one that you like

• it was against god's laws for a man to shave his beard.

• It was a sin to eat meat on Friday.

• it was a sin to eat the meat of animals with cloven hooves

• it was a sin to eat shell fish
• It was a sin to wear clothing made of more than one material.

• it was a sin for man to sleep with another man.

All of these were discarded except the last one. Why?

For those of you who still believe that Moses actually parted the oceans; and received 10 commandments written on stone slabs; and conveniently destroyed them out of anger:

Take note that none of the above were included in the writings on those stone slabs, of which not even a few remnants were ever found.

So, what does all this mean?

Basically, the premise for teaching illogical concepts to children, is that ancient beliefs should remain right where they belong - in the past. They are of some historic value, but only in the context of demonstrating the misguided beliefs of past civilizations.

Why then, are all those old beliefs discarded except the one regarding physical intimacy between consenting adults?.

Lets look at some "deductive reasoning".

Along with that [pertaining to any particular sexual premise], came the broader preaching that sex was evil in itself, and only to be done for procreation purposes.

How many times is the word "fornication" used in the holy texts as a sin against God? This term is only used for sexual activities between 'opposite sex' partners.

All well and good for the times, but we now know that, that too, is not true.

Sex is a pleasurable life experience. A true gift from the Creators to be enjoyed by all (consenting partners of course). It has many positive effects that are beneficial to the physical and mental well being of man (and woman). { sexual activity has been proven to lower blood pressure, eliminate stress, lower anxiety levels, stabilize mood disorders - just to name a few of those benefits that are medically sound}

And yet, we maintain that same sex intimacy is wrong.. This too is a falsehood strictly based on residual guilt for enjoying sexual activity of any type, deeply instilled by ancient misinformed religious leaders for political reasons.

Let us take a closer look again at the realities of those olden time beliefs about sex being bad.

Same sex intimacy was commonplace and an accepted practice in the society of the times. This was not addressed until after the life and death of Jesus Christ, who himself, never commented one way or the other.

The Popes who ruled during those times were waging a war against all of their enemies, and needed to build their armies. So, they pronounced a public edict that, same sex sexual activity be stopped in order to procreate and build its armies.

When the public disregarded this edict, it was then made into religious law. When this law was also disregarded, it was then declared a "sin" against God, by the prevailing religious rulers.

"God" had nothing to say about the enjoyment of intimacy and mutual pleasures. This travesty was the direct result of mankind (specifically those in charge) - again - to control the behavior or others for ulterior motives.

This was the only way that the Papal rulers could affect the behaviors of their flock - to make everything "sinful against God". After generations of repeating this 'man made edict', it was effectively instilled into the minds of the followers. Just as all those other 'sins' i listed above were instilled into people's minds. (the modern term for this phenomenon is simply called 'brainwashing').

All the other 'sins' were deemed superfluous and discarded by religion. So, why do we, as educated people, cling to this one antiquated belief? The old saying: ''when a liar tells the same lies over and over he begins to believe them as truth'', has never been more apt.

Another factor in deciding the mores, or morals, of mankind was definitely the lack of understanding of its role (that of same sex intimacy) in the evolution of mankind.

It took billions of years for man to (evolve) from a one celled living organism to the complex bodies we now have today.. As time and conditions change, so did the body, (including all species on this earth) to adapt to the environment in which they had to survive. Those adaptive changes in humans included such things, over time, as the loss of body hair when no longer needed for warmth, walking upright for more stability, developing 5 digits on hands and feet for maximum dexterity and balance, etc..., etc...

Now, with population growth a major threat to the continuance of mankind itself, it was only natural and logical for nature to genetically alter itself, once again, to insure against total annihilation of our species by over-population, which is currently out of control.

Proof of this can be seen by looking at the drastic spurt in the census totals of humans (including homosexuality) around the globe for the last 100 years or so.

In Spite of religious protest, it will continue until we are an androgynous society, or balance is restored.

Mother Nature (God's will) can not be stopped by any protesting of the backward, uneducated religious society that still would cling to old ancient ideas.

This concept is no more heretic than all those other ideas and beliefs of the past.

Crying (or shouting) that Satan is behind this, is at best ludicrous and just plain ignorant.

Every scientific break through has been fraught with criticism by skeptics who think they know the "will of God".

The gene for homosexuality has already been isolated, but religious, governmental, and societal implications are way beyond what the limited mentality of today's society can accept and emotionally handle. So those findings are withheld from public view to protect the right to use same sex attractions as a tool for political and religious pandering.

Finding any truth that might contradict religious, or societal, embedded beliefs could be devastating to maintaining ''control'' over the masses.

Or is it just that need that humans possess, within themselves, to feel superior to something, or toward certain other people, to assuage their own feelings of inadequacy for allowing religion and government the power to make us feel helplessly submissive to authority, both by other humans and the supernatural as well?

We need to grow up, catch up with the times, and move on with a little dignity, instead of wallowing in our past mistakes and ignorance.

It really is all about control after all, is it not?

by: d.william