Science vs

I am quite sorry if I use any bad or offensive language I get serious once I get in a debate again sorry . While consciously pursuing your spiritual development is commendable, joining an established religion such as Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism is one of the worst ways to go about it. In this article I"ll share 10 reasons why you must eventually abandon the baggage of organized religion if you wish to pursue conscious living in earnest. Since Christianity is currently the world"s most popular religion, I"ll slant this article towards Christianity"s ubiquitous failings. However, you"ll find that most of these points apply equally well to other major religions (yes, even Buddhism). 1. Spirituality for dummies. If you have the awareness level of a snail, and your thinking is mired in shame and guilt (with perhaps a twist of drug abuse or suicidal thinking), then subscribing to a religion can help you climb to a higher level of awareness. Your mindset, however, still remains incredibly dysfunctional; you"ve merely swapped one form of erroneous thinking for another. For reasonably intelligent people who aren"t suffering from major issues with low self-esteem, religion is ridiculously consciousness-lowering. While some religious beliefs can be empowering, on the whole the decision to formally participate in a religion will merely burden your mind with a hefty load of false notions. When you subscribe to a religion, you substitute nebulous group-think for focused, independent thought. Instead of learning to discern truth on your own, you"re told what to believe. This doesn"t accelerate your spiritual growth; on the contrary it puts the brakes on your continued conscious development. Religion is the off-switch of the human mind. Leave the mythology behind, and learn to think for yourself. Your intellect is a better instrument of spiritual growth than any religious teachings. 2. Loss of spiritual depth perception. One of the worst mistakes you can make in life is to attach your identity to any particular religion or philosophy, such as by saying "I am a Christian" or "I am a Buddhist." This forces your mind into a fixed perspective, robbing you of spiritual depth perception and savagely curtailing your ability to perceive reality accurately. If that sounds like a good idea to you, you"ll probably want to gouge out one of your eyeballs too. Surely you"ll be better off with a single, fixed perspective instead of having to consider two separate image streams" unless of course you"ve become attached to stereo vision. Religious "truths" are inherently rooted in a fixed perspective, but real truth is perspective-independent. When you substitute religious teachings for truth, you mistake shadows for light sources. Consequently, you doom yourself to stumble around in the dark, utterly confused. Clarity remains forever elusive, and the best answer you get is that life is one giant mystery. Religious mysteries, however, arise not from what is truly unknowable; they arise from the limitations of trying to understand reality from a fixed frame of reference. A more intelligent approach is to consider reality through a variety of different perspectives without trying to force your perceptions into an artificial religious framework. If you wish to learn more about this approach, read Spiritual Depth Perception. 3. Engineered obedience training. Religions are authoritarian hierarchies designed to dominate your free will. They"re power structures that aim to convince you to give away your power for the benefit of those who enjoy dominating people. When you subscribe to a religion, you enroll in a mindless minion training program. Religions don"t market themselves as such, but this is essentially how they operate. Religions are very effective at turning human beings into sheep. They"re among the most powerful instruments of social conditioning. They operate by eroding your trust in your own intellect, gradually convincing you to put your trust into some external entity, such as a deity, prominent figure, or great book. Of course these instruments are usually controlled by those who administrate the minion training program, but they don"t have to be. Simply by convincing you to give your power away to something outside yourself, religion will condition you to be weaker, more docile, and easier to control. Religions actively promote this weakening process as if it were beneficial, commonly branding it with the word faith. What they"re actually promoting is submission. Religions strive to fill your head with so much nonsense that your only recourse is to bow your head in submission, often quite literally. Get used to spending a lot of time on your knees because acts of submission such as bowing and kneeling are frequently incorporated into religious practice. Canine obedience training uses similar tactics. Now say, "Yes, Master." Have you ever wondered why religious teachings are invariably mysterious, confusing, and internally incongruent? This is no accident by the way " it"s quite intentional. By putting forth confusing and internally conflicting information, your logical mind (i.e. your neocortex) is overwhelmed. You try in vain to integrate such contradictory beliefs, but it can"t be done. The net effect is that your logical mind disengages because it can"t find a pattern of core truth beneath all the nonsense, so without the help of your neocortex, you devolve to a more primitive (i.e. limbic) mode of thinking. You"re taught that this faith-based approach is a more spiritual and conscious way to live, but in reality it"s precisely the opposite. Getting you to distrust your own cerebral cortex actually makes you dumber and easier to manipulate and control. Karl Marx was right when he said, "Religion is the opiate of the people." For example, the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible frequently contradict each other with various rules of conduct, yet both are quoted during mass. Church leaders also behave in direct violation of the Church"s teachings, such as by covering up criminal and immoral activities by their own priests. Those who try to mentally process such glaring contradictions as coherent truth invariably suffer for it. A highly conscious person would reject membership in such an organization as patently ridiculous. So-called divine mysteries are engineered to be incomprehensible. You aren"t meant to ever make sense of them since that would defeat the whole purpose. When you finally wake up and realize it"s all B.S., you"ve taken the first step towards freedom from this oppressive system. The truth is that so-called religious authorities don"t know any more about spirituality than you do. However, they know how to manipulate your fear and uncertainty for their own benefit. How nice of you to let them. Although the most popular religions are very old, L. Ron Hubbard proved the process can be replicated from scratch in modern times. As long as there are large numbers of people who fear the responsibility of their own power, religions will continue to dominate the landscape of human development. If you want to talk to God, then communicate directly instead of using third-party intermediaries. Surely God has no need of an interpreter. Don"t fall into the trap of becoming a mindless minion. It"s a mistake to think that turning off your neocortex and practicing mindless "faith" will bring you closer to God. In truth it will only bring you closer .