There's no spirituality is organised religion

The existence of God has been a bone of contention between creationists, evolutionists, scientists, philosophers and atheists. Is it really the concept of a divine being that's the problem or is it the element of control?

I do believe in God. Mainly because the alternative is so awful, I can't bare thinking about it. Imagine, this beautiful and majestic planet is in the hands of no one but us selfish, greedy and arrogant humans. I mean you wouldn't give the Coliseum to Chairman Mao, would you?

Religion brings people a sense of belonging, comfort and hope that you just can't get anywhere else. What do you expect the mother of sick child to do, lobby GlaxoSmithKline to invent a cure immediately? No, she prays to god to send a miracle or to ease her child's suffering or for salvation. For people living in desperate situations, whether in poverty, battling drug addiction, war torn or anything else that affects them but is out of their control, it's a lifeline. You put your faith in something. And that's exactly was religion is, faith. 

There's no sense is saying 'put your faith in what you can see' as you put your faith in lots of things that you can't see. Like the humanity of strangers, a doctor's diagnosis, a scientist's hypothesis, etc. That said, I don't believe in the Genesis. I believe in evolution. Even though I don't fully understand it, but it makes logical sense that we evolved from monkeys. I don't get why all monkeys didn't evolve and how people from every single country looks different and did every "species" evolve at the same time and why did evolution want us to develop language and writing, etc. I could sit here sounding like a really annoying three year old for hours trying to figure it out. I could research it, but there's too much Made In Chelsea to watch.

I digress. I think religion is important as it's a form of philosophy. It's all about enriching your soul and your mind. It's about giving you a sense of perspective, showing us how small and insignificant we really are. It's about contentment and being at one with nature.

Religious elders, like Archbishops, Popes, Caliphs, Ayatollahs and Rabbis, have used this to control people. Do as I say and your soul will be saved. This isn't what religion is about. It's not about control, it's guidelines. Even Jesus thought Judaism was corrupt. This hasn't changed, despite his warnings. It's still extorting money from its faithful flock, it's still steeped in superstition and ritual that doesn't feature in any religious scripture. This is all the invention of the church, mosque or synagogue. And it's these institutions that incite racial hatred and intolerance, when

Jesus said love thy neighbour and those without sin cast the first stone. 

The New Testament, the Christian church and all its offshoots do not represent the word of Christ. He'd turn in his grave if he was still in it. Don't forget, it was the Rabbi elders who conspired to get Jesus arrested by the Romans in the first place, he'd be really angry to see that their corruption has infected his teachings. Even then, these texts are 3,000 years old - people, life and society has changed. Plato talked about slave/master relationships and yet he's regarded as an intellectual powerhouse. We should view scripture as literature, not something we follow to the letter

Aside from parallels between the 3 main religions and paganism, the dodgy passages that seem to say that rape and incest is ok, certain tyrannical stances that scripture outlines, etc. And why, as Christopher Hitchens puts so eloquently, did all this come out of the same part of the world. We should look to religion to take care of the metaphysical and let the physical look after itself.

First published 02/05/2015