Sunday, 4 December 2016

SO, IF GOD WAS TO WALK AMONGST HUMANS, WHICH RELIGION WOULD GOD CHOOSE?





Quite simply, I suspect that God would not choose to follow any of the religions which us humans have created. Which is not to say God would not believe in his/her own existence, because, when I speak of religions, I do not consider any of them to have arisen or to be predicated upon the existence of a sentient God, as it were.

But, just say God were to walk amongst us humans, and to observe our competing and conflicting religions, and be minded to give one of them a try; which might God have choosen?

Would God have chosen the Jewish religion, with all of its rituals and its exclusivity to people of Jewish heritage, many of whom might see themselves as the chosen people of God, their God?



Or would he/she have chosen to follow the Sikh religion, again, as with Judaism, with its own rituals and its exclusivity to people of their culture and ethnic group?

And what of Hinduism; might God not have chosen to ally him/herself with this very populous ethnic and religious group?

Or would God have choosen to become a Muslim and follow that religion, the way of life of Islam? A religion which, probably more than many others, continue to prove extremely resistant to adopt an organic and enlightened approach towards meeting the challenges to embrace changes, which contemporary living demands of us, if we are to have a happier future?



Or, what about Christianity, might God not have chosen to follow this religion, with its wide variants of different versions of Christianity? Might God not have chosen to follow the highly ritualistic and misogynistic faith of Catholicism, which, like other religious orthodoxy, such as orthodox Islam, tends to be oppressive towards the faithful, and of those of other religious persuasions?

Or might God feel more at home practising the Anglican or Pentecostal faiths, with their greater emphasis on personal freedom and liberalism and tolerance amongst humans of all faiths and non-faiths?

And so it is, that, perceiving God through the eyes of human, whom I am, it seems to me that, God, being the God of Love, of whom we tend to speak, would not want to follow an austere and oppressive religion. God would not want to maintain any religious institution which oppresses people, and definitely not the women and the poor, whom religions then to oppress more. 



It seems to me, and this is what I have chosen to believe, that God would be an enlightened God; a God who would delight and derive pleasure from seeing humans enjoying their living and getting as much pleasure from it as possible. He would have wanted to promote the happiness of humans, including through enabling them to have personal freedom to think their own thoughts and give effect to them, where they do not cause harm to others, who might or might not share them.

And, of all the religions, the more popular and organic religions, it does seem to me that, God would probably have chosen to either not following any religion, or to follow one which does not compel people to believe in or follow it, and does not have a priesthood which sets itself up as a second or third tier hierarchy, through which human 'speaks' to God, and God presumably 'speaks' to humans.

God would, I believe, debunk religion, and, if he/she could, outlaw - not a good move, admittedly- or make it disappear; thus ridding the world of the divisiveness which it has caused and continue to afflicts humans with.





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