We see that certain individuals sometimes experience an altered state of consciousness often called cosmic consciousness because it is accompanied by a sense of divine presence, peace, transcendent joy, universal love, the cessation of fear and doubt, etc etc, and the complete transformation of the individuals life. Often such people instantly become religious leaders. The world is littered with the detritus of their philosophies. What is clear is that whatever the nature of the experience, it carries with it the absolute certainty that having it is valuable beyond all else. Clearly too the experience can vary from individual to individual depending on the nature, preparation and capacity of the experiencer.
Every religion is in some sense, then, an attempt to lay down procedures by which others can come to the same understanding. In this sense, then, religion is a procedural science of experience about which no judgement whatsoever can be rendered by anybody who has not experienced the final goal. Religion is a bridge to reality, another state of consciousness that is, if we believe the experiencers, vastly superior, true reality, etc, over ordinary consciousness.
So a real religion in the hands of knowers is a science of experience, a journey of spiritual development under the tutelage of a seer. It is a set of tools with a specific aim. The goal is what is important. The tools are irrelevant in that they vary according to the nature of the particular blindness afflicting the seeker. Upon the death of the teacher the students may continue to play with the tools as if they comprehended them. These are the religions of the world. Because the tools were instruments of power, real insight, they can occasionally produce results for deeply serious seekers.
For the rest it is just an incantation of mumbo jumbo, a sterile repetition of formula, dogma, and ritual. It is these who think they know but are untransformed that give religion its well-earned bad name and drive the rest to atheism, etc.
In order, I think, for humanity to progress, we need deeper understanding. We have to recognize and admit that fundamentalism and the accompanying mental gymnastics it practices to conform real world data into a narrow doctrinal text which MUST BE TRUE is a complete and unnecessary delusional effort to protect a sacred fact, the validity of the God experience, from the fact that the texts that allude to it are not in any way absolute truth and do not have to be for the validity of the central fact. God can't die because the Bible is wrong. What a sad god that would be.
What the scientifically minded need to consider is that the phenomenon that produces religion is a real one. The great teachers have experienced something that we haven't, something that, did we but know it, we would pay for with our lives. Furthermore, we need no evidence of the existence of God to hole this as a tenable postulate and working hypothesis. Whether what these individuals experience is a real God out there of a brain induced phenomena is irrelevant. The experience itself is transformative- potential revealing. The experiencer, without fail goes from being an ordinary human being to something beyond comprehension. Some may say 'God', others, 'so this is what I really am'.
Every religion is in some sense, then, an attempt to lay down procedures by which others can come to the same understanding. In this sense, then, religion is a procedural science of experience about which no judgement whatsoever can be rendered by anybody who has not experienced the final goal. Religion is a bridge to reality, another state of consciousness that is, if we believe the experiencers, vastly superior, true reality, etc, over ordinary consciousness.
So a real religion in the hands of knowers is a science of experience, a journey of spiritual development under the tutelage of a seer. It is a set of tools with a specific aim. The goal is what is important. The tools are irrelevant in that they vary according to the nature of the particular blindness afflicting the seeker. Upon the death of the teacher the students may continue to play with the tools as if they comprehended them. These are the religions of the world. Because the tools were instruments of power, real insight, they can occasionally produce results for deeply serious seekers.
For the rest it is just an incantation of mumbo jumbo, a sterile repetition of formula, dogma, and ritual. It is these who think they know but are untransformed that give religion its well-earned bad name and drive the rest to atheism, etc.
In order, I think, for humanity to progress, we need deeper understanding. We have to recognize and admit that fundamentalism and the accompanying mental gymnastics it practices to conform real world data into a narrow doctrinal text which MUST BE TRUE is a complete and unnecessary delusional effort to protect a sacred fact, the validity of the God experience, from the fact that the texts that allude to it are not in any way absolute truth and do not have to be for the validity of the central fact. God can't die because the Bible is wrong. What a sad god that would be.
What the scientifically minded need to consider is that the phenomenon that produces religion is a real one. The great teachers have experienced something that we haven't, something that, did we but know it, we would pay for with our lives. Furthermore, we need no evidence of the existence of God to hole this as a tenable postulate and working hypothesis. Whether what these individuals experience is a real God out there of a brain induced phenomena is irrelevant. The experience itself is transformative- potential revealing. The experiencer, without fail goes from being an ordinary human being to something beyond comprehension. Some may say 'God', others, 'so this is what I really am'.
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