In The Shadow of an Evil God?

Seventy-five perscent of the people who live inside the United States profess to being Christian.  Of this seventy-five percent, many do so ignorant of the dark history of the Christian church.  They do so not because they truly feel the presence of God within them, but have been indoctrinated to profess in the teachings of the Christian church, bending to peer pressure to be either among the accepted or those who are viewed as godless.  There is a significant gap between the number of Chrisitans who attend church and who do not.  Within the numbers of people who attend church, there is a significant gap between those who practice Christianity in their everyday lives, and those who merely pay lip service to it on Sundays and religious holidays.

Do not judge, for you will be judged.  Words that have escaped almost every Christian who has decided to wage a holy war against anything that doesn't meet their puritan ideologies.  Before you judge Islam, consider this:  For over a thousand years of Christian history, the church discrimated against women to the point that they were viewed as property and not viable souls worthy of entering the gates of heaven.  They were worth nothing more than the means of serving man, and propigating the species, according to many of the early Church Fathers.  Today, the discrimination continues as in many denominations of the Christian doctrine, women are not allowed to be among the clergy.  The Roman Catholic Church still views women as unworthy in their continuation of the edict prohibiting their clergy to take wives.  What we are seeing in Islam is the early pratices which the Christian church was FORCED to abandon with the awakening of mankind to its desire and needs.

Understand that the torture and murder of "infidels" is nothing new.  We see the acts of radical Islam in the Middle-East and claim it the practice of an Evil God.  Consider that the Natives of North America, the Mayans, the Incans, the Natives of South and Central America all saw the same evil visited upon them.  But it was not at the hands of Islam.  It was at the hands of the Holy Roman Church.  As the Christian movement spread from Rome to the rest of Europe it was spread at the point of a sword.  Lands were conqueared and the people forced to either convert and adhere to the teachings of the church, flee before the Legends of Rome, or be slain or enslaved.  Christianity was not spred in the manner of which Jesus commanded.  It was spread by force, and by installing fear into the people by torturing and murdering those who dared to stand up against the church.

Christian have been indoctrinated to fear that which they do not understand and which is not acceptable to the Christian church.  People sit back and shake their heads as the clerics of Islam hinder the education of its common people.  They do not promote lteracy, for those who read can discover the truth.  They do not promote free thinking, because there is nothing more dangerous than an idea that touches the heart of the people.  The Christian church understood these principals as well.  They destroyed knowledge, they took mankind backward into an era known as the Dark Ages, where knowledge was only held by those favored and subserviant to the Church.

Nothing that radical Islam is doing today around the world is new.  Many of its methods were practiced by the Christian church over a thousand years ago.  The darkness does not lie as much in the written word, but the interpretation of those words by men.  It should also be understood that the Holy Books used by all major religions were written by man, not God, and the inspiration for those writings would be as much based in the political and personal agendas of its authors, as the sharing of enlightenment.

So where are we today?  Are we living in the shadow of an Evil God?  Those who feel that their lives are being oppressed by Christianity will tell you this is so.  Those who do not believe in the existence of God, or Gods and Goddesses, will tell you that we are living in the Shadow of Evil Men and a Lie.  Sadly, the belief that we are living in the Shadow of Evil Men and Lie is probably the correct answer.  The rise of the Christian Holy Roman Church speaks strongly of political agendas, especially when you look at the battle between the Eastern and Roman churches.  A review of history will show that it was the Roman church that destroyed the Eastern church.  That the Eastern church was tolerant of other religions while the Roman church set out on a mission to eliminate any and all challenges to its teachings.  It also should be noted that the Eastern Church is reported to have at its foundation a follower of Jesus, while the Roman church was founded by a man who claimed to be appointed by God, a former Roman Tax Collector named Saul.  The differences between the two churches were as different as the visible differences between the practice of Christians and the teachings of Jesus.  What do I mean by that?

"I give unto you a new commandment.  That you love one another, as I have loved you."

If you follow the average Christian from church through the rest of their week, you will likely see actions on their part of which are clearly ill towards others.  There is racism, sexual and religious discrimination practices on a regular basis.  They cause ill towards others through their cheating to gain at the expense of others.  They lie, and while they pay strong lip service to the sanctity of marriage, there are a lot of people claiming to be christians that cheat on their spouses.

The grace of Christianity is that one can ask forgiveness and receive it.  There is no concern of answering for one's actions provided one professes a belief in Jesus.  The Catholics go as far as to include that one must adhere to the tenants of the church or face the church taking away any hope of salvation, and fear is a common tool in the control of a church's flock.

And what of the lies?  Creating fake photographs of Jesus in the clouds in order to indoctrinate small children into the belief of Jesus?  False stories claimed as truths to encourage children and adults weak in faith that God and Jesus actually intervene in our lives?  Those who believe in Christianity as the church of the Teachings of Jesus Christ need to take a step backward and ask ... is this how Jesus would have designed his church on earth?

And what of the Lie?  What gain is there for the person who claims to be Christian yet they do not adhere to its teachings?  I have often stated that those who have found faith often don't care about the beliefs of others.  They understand that no one can save anyone else.  That we are NOT responsible for the salvation of anyone other than ourselves.  Many even have the sense that dispite the hype, we will be required to justify our actions, to be judged, not given a free pass for that which often comes from our lips, especially as a lie.

I do not believe that we live in the shadow of an Evil God.  I believe we live in the shadow of Evil Men.  I believe that the trials that stand before us today, especially within American Society, are the pentance that we must pay for the evil that has been visited upon our society in the name of God by Evil men, and by those who are driven more by Greed than an understanding tha twe are all in this together, and we cannot take anything here with us beyond the viel of death.

I am not a Christian.  That does not mean that I do not believe in God.  I do not believe in the sanctity of Organized Religion.  I do not believe that because someone has been ordained a minister or into the clergy that they are more entitled to the truth than those who are simply lay people.  The truth is within us all, we must reach within ourselves and find it.  I am a seeker of truth, of enlightenment.  I am not perfect, I do not claim to be.  But I am ready to weigh my good against my ills and answer for my actions before my creator.

My religious association?  If I must put a label to it ... call me a Deist.

Where is this going?  It will explain my position in my future posts.