Dragon
Senior Member
- Sep 16, 2011
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Pick any atrocity committed by any religion since the dawn of civilization, and there is one common feature that underlies them all. Hindus persecuting Buddhists. Confucians persecuting Taoists. Romans persecuting Christians. Christians persecuting Christians. The Muslim Jihad. The Crusades. The Inquisition. Catholics burning Protestants. Protestants burning Catholics. The witch burnings. The Jonestown massacre. All of them had one factor in common, without which none of them could ever have happened. They were all enacted by an authoritarian religion.
An authoritarian religion is a religion with a fixed teaching in which the followers set aside their own right to decide for themselves and let their beliefs be dictated by what someone else says. The "someone else" may be living or dead, a priesthood or a holy book, a charismatic leader or an office-holder, but the key and common feature is that he, she, or it is always something outside one's own heart.
God is always found within, not without. Authoritarian religion, which places the power of God outside somewhere, is always wrong for that reason. Each person must find God anew, for himself or herself, and the truth so found cannot be told. For that reason, a religion that says, "Follow me," or "obey me," is always wrong.
Jesus is reported to have said, "I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father but by me."
Anyone who understands this will repeat it, word for word, and not lie.
An authoritarian religion is a religion with a fixed teaching in which the followers set aside their own right to decide for themselves and let their beliefs be dictated by what someone else says. The "someone else" may be living or dead, a priesthood or a holy book, a charismatic leader or an office-holder, but the key and common feature is that he, she, or it is always something outside one's own heart.
God is always found within, not without. Authoritarian religion, which places the power of God outside somewhere, is always wrong for that reason. Each person must find God anew, for himself or herself, and the truth so found cannot be told. For that reason, a religion that says, "Follow me," or "obey me," is always wrong.
Jesus is reported to have said, "I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father but by me."
Anyone who understands this will repeat it, word for word, and not lie.
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