My Journey away from Dogma

Not Quite Finished but wanted to share anyways
 
Viable and Reasonable conclusions, why all human beings should live in societies where ethics and the rule of law based on equality and justice abides..
 
When I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I told my mother that I did not believe in God; her response was if you do not believe in God then get out of my house. Looking back this seem very cruel and vicious but at that time it was a scary moment because I came to realize that when it comes to love for christians it is attached to their God. Meaning that if God is not in their lives, they cannot love unconditionally.  For this simple reason I began to understand that religious people do not love simply to love because it is who we are and what we should do as human beings but their love comes with a price and that price is for you to accept their God and only their God in order for you to obtain their love. This is why so many parents are abandoning their children who have come out of the closet to announce their homosexuality or bi-sexuality for that matter, or if they date or marry a member of the opposite sex that is not of the same race or ethnicity. As a heterosexual male born in the caribbean where the majority of people are Christians, homophobia is prevalent with many gay men and women being physically assaulted and even killed simply for being themselves. But more than that it is the bigotry, sexism and hypocritical actions of religion and religious people that has sped my journey to educate myself about the different religions, evolution, sociology, anatomy and physiology, world history, psychology and science, which has led me to a more rational and inclusive view about who we are as human beings, how our world came into existence and how we should treat each other to form a more civil society. A society that is base on the mutual respect for the sovereignty of human life, where one is free to choose his/her own destiny in life.  
 
I have found that in societies where dogma is the deciding factor in which laws are created and morality is based on the teachings of bronze age literature written by men who knew nothing about the natural world makes the people living in these societies very arrogant, ignorant and barbaric. Countries such as North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Vatican have constitutions and governments that are of a theocratic nature. God himself is officially recognized as the Head of State and its rulers are the voice of God. They claim to be guided by God through direct revelation. They believe by divine right they are God’s representative on Earth and through them God reveals, his laws, decides what is morally right and wrong, what is to be taught, what is the proper way to pray etc.
 
Countries such as Jordan, India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia have governments that are of a ecclesiocracy nature in which its leaders are members of the clergy, its constitution and legal system are based on religious law and its official governing policies are said to be divinely guided through its interpretations of divine inspired doctrines which benefits a particular religious or majority religious group.
 
The problem with living in societies such as these is that there are many people with different religious beliefs, all claiming to the be the one true religion. If you are not of their religion and they cannot convert you to theirs then you are the enemy. Well why does a person have to be the enemy just because their religious belief or any other belief is different from another. Why is it such a horrible thing to think differently, to be yourself without infringing on someone else right to be who they choose to be. Who are you to tell me how to live my life, what to wear, what to learn, who to love, who are you to take away my choice to live my life on my own accord without hindering on another. These forms of governments are tyrannical monstrosities that oppress women, people of different faiths and beliefs systems, suppress free though, education, individuality, free expression, free speech, sexual freedom, equality, and equal justice to it’s citizens, and at some point in our earthly history these governmental systems must be abolished if human kind is to survive.
 
The form of government in which societies thrive are Democratic ones, such as The United States of America, Great Britain, France, Spain, Australia and many modern nations across the globe. Democratic governments are based on an distribution of political power which is yielded by its citizens through an electorate process, in which all eligible citizens participates equally to elect representatives to political seats in government. Democratic societies encompasses social, ethnic and racial equality, liberty, justice, cultural, religious and non religious by acknowledging that its citizen and legal residents are born with certain rights that are protected by a Constitutions and that those rights are not to be infringe upon for no other reason unless in the case of an individual which seeks to do, or have done grievous harm to another through due process of law in which a warrant is obtain exhibiting that probable cause has been established. Democratic constitutions are written to protects the sovereignty and natural rights of its citizens, such as freedom of speech, the right to protect oneself from harm, the right to practice ones own religious belief or not, freedom of the press, free for unwarranted search and seizure, the right to privacy and the right to govern one own body without breaking to rule of law (bodily harm) in which set rule of law must recognize the sovereignty of an individual.
 
I have learn through many years of study and observation that people who allow their lives to be governed by dogma are people that also let fear and ignorance hinder their personal growth as human beings. Throughout human history people have feared the unknown, the different, the things which they did not understand. Superstition was one of the earliest form of explanation for the lack of understanding about ourselves, our world and our universe. Evolution and science has bought understand where there was none. For me it started with with the question “if God made man from dirt and woman from a mans rib, then why are males not birth from dirt and women not birth from the rib cage of men. It may seem silly to say but if one thing evolution has taught me is that it is consistent in it explanations of how the different species procreate and the different birthing methods of each species. Also if we are made of dirt then why is it that it is water that we humans spend our entire developmental stages in until we are born, why are our bodies consist mostly of water and not dirt. It makes no sense that one man is born of dirt and one woman is born of a mans rib yet the rest of humanity is developed and nurtured till our birth in a woman’s womb filled with water. Regardless of a myth that because a man and a woman sinned against their creator that he condemned the woman to give birth through a vagina and has a period one a month to remind her of Eve's transgression towards God Almighty. Seems a little pretty and childish don't you think. If that was the case then what did the Mackerel (has a period) fish or the whale ( also a cycle and has very painful and lengthy delivery) do to disobey God that he would condemn them too to such misery.  
 
I am really appalled at the lack of religious studies with most religious adults, if they educate themselves they will learn that The God myth, the Jesus myth are exactly that “myths” recycled stories passed down from generation with each society curtailing those mythical stories to fit their cultural and geographical state at the time. This is logical in the sense that we see from records, stone carvings, tablets and other written manuscripts that parallels those stories each edited to suit different societies according to their time, regions and their governments. Horus, Buddha, Krishna, Odysseus, romulus, Glycon, Zoroaster/Zarathustra, Attis of Phrygia, and Dionysus where all mythical figures with almost identical story line as Jesus the Christ meaning they were all born to a virgin, performed miracles, died and rose from the dead, attempts were made on their lives as infant, they turned water into wine, walked on water, all claim to be of a trinity or tri-godly union etc. All dating back hundreds or thousands of years before the Jesus christ myth was written into fruition.
 
Then there is the matter of when and how our planet was created, again we see different creation stories from the different religious belief. Listed below are a few creation stories from around the globe by different civilizations.. The list was taken from a few websites as cited at the end of the creation stories listed.
 
[b]Aboriginal 'Dreamtime'
[/b]The aborigines of Australia belong to one of the oldest surviving cultures of the world. They propose the 'Dreamtime' concept of creation. According to the 'Dreamtime' creation story, the Earth was once flat and barren. There were no animals, birds, trees, water or man. Baiame, the 'maker of things', is believed to have brought the 'dreamtime' ancestors from beneath the Earth and sea, where they lied in eternal slumber. The ancestors wandered over the land and, soon became parts of interesting adventures. They met each other as they wandered, argued, encountered strange creatures, and fought battles. Each event gave Earth a new shape; hills and mountains rose and plants grew. When something wrong was done, the Rainbow Snake would punish the ancestors. But the Rainbow Snake is also referred to as the 'Old Woman', who taught humans how to talk and search for food. When the Emu ancestor, and the Eagle ancestor fought, the latter took one of former's egg, and threw it in the air. The egg burst into flames, forming the sun. The 'dreamtime' ancestors also decided how different creatures should look and behave, and how sacred ceremonies were to be performed. The aborigines believe that the 'dreamtime' is not over, nor are the ancestors, dead.  
 
Taoist Creation Myth
The Chinese Taoist creation myth is particularly interesting. It speaks of the 'yin' and the 'yang', two opposite forces, working in conjunction with each other. Both these forces are, together, supposed to be the creative power that sustains life and being. Yin and yang are natural forces behind, even the gods. According to the theory, there was a time of utter chaos, mist, and emptiness. Suddenly, there was a colorful light from which all things sprang up. The mist shook, and everything that was light, rose up, while everything that was heavy, sank and became solid. The Heaven and the Earth yielded two strong forces - yin and yang. While yang is supposed to be hot, fiery, and masculine, yin is moist, cool, and feminine. Left alone, they are capable of destroying the world, and together they can generate balance and harmony. The belief is that yang created the sun, and the moon came from yin. Together they created the four seasons and the five elements, and all kinds of living creatures. In the beginning, the Earth was just a sphere without any features. Yin and yang created P'an Ku, the Ancient One, who was given the task of bringing order to the Earth. He created the mountains and the hills, and dug river valleys. One day P'an Ku collapsed and died. When he fell to the ground, his body transformed into the five sacred mountains. Taoism believes that his hair became the plants, and his blood formed the rivers. Thus, the world, as we see it today, was created.
 
Jewish Creation Story
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Some say that God also created the Torah at this time, and a mighty voice crying, "Return, you children of men". God said, "Let there be light". And there was light. And God saw that it was good, God divided the light from the darkness, naming them ' day' and 'night'. Evening and morning came - the first day. God said, "Let the waters be divided". And God made the arch of the sky to hold back the waters from the earth. He placed some above the arch and some below. Some tell of the waters arguing about this division, and thus disagreement entered the universe. Of this day God did not say, "It is good". Evening and morning came- the second day. God said, "Let the waters under heaven come together, and dry land appear". Thus the earth arose, and [plants and trees grew, and God saw that is was good. Evening came and morning came - the third day. God said, "Let the great light and the small light appear in heaven to govern day and night. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came - the fourth day. God said. "Let the waters fill with creatures and the sky with birds". God saw that it was good, and blessed them. Evening came and morning came - the fifth day.
God said "Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature". God saw that it was good. Then, last of all when the earth was ready God said. "Let us take dust and create man, Adam, to be master over all creatures". So Adam was created in God's own image.  
God saw that Adam needed a friend - woman. Some say that the earth was worried and asked. "How shall I feed all her children?" God replied, "Fear not, together we shall find food". So Lilith was made from the dust, also in God's image. But Lilith would not obey Adam commands so Adam ask God to murder Lilith and make him a new woman friend, which God did by putting Lilith into a coma induced sleep and took the breath of life out of her lungs (basically God Suffocated Lilith). So God made a woman before Adam's eyes, but Adam turned from her. Finally, putting Adam in a deep sleep, God took one of Adam's ribs and made Eve, and placed the couple in Paradise.
On the seventh day, God finished his work and rested. And Paradise was blissful, until Adam and Eve ate fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden them to do. God punished them, and cast our parents out of Paradise to struggle in this earthly life.
 
Christian Creation Story
Christianity believes that God has three aspects: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Genesis 1 and 2 in the Old Testament of the Bible, tells the Christian story of creation of the world. According to it, in the beginning, God roamed the universe and the waters and created light and darkness. On the second day, God created Heaven and separated water from the Earth. On the third day, he raised the dry land and created plants. On the fourth day, God made the light, 'day' and lesser light, 'night'. On the fifth day, he created the creatures of the sea and air. On the sixth day, God created all kinds of living creatures on the Earth. On the seventh day or sabbath, God rested. The first humans that He created were Adam and Eve, who lived in Heaven, in the Garden of Eden. They were forbidden from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge - of good and evil. But a serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, which she did and also successfully persuaded Adam to do so. When God came to know of their sin, he drove them to Earth, to toil. Christians believe that man is the most important of God's creations. They refer to the 'fall' to find answers to suffering and death.
 
Islamic Creation Story
Islam or Muslim religion states that when God wants to create something, he says, "Be", and it becomes. This was how God created the Earth and the Heavens. He created creatures that walk, swim, crawl, and fly. He also created the angels, the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Holy Qur'an says that God caused it to rain in torrents, and generated corn, grapes, olives, palms, fruit trees, and the grass. Then, He ordered the angels to bring seven handfuls of soil of different colors and modeled man. He breathed life and power into Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman. God gave Adam, control over the Earth. When God forbade the couple to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, the Evil One tempted them to disobey God. They did so, and God cast them out of Paradise, down to the Earth. However, merciful God provided them with means of food, drink, and shelter.
 
[b]Hindu 'Yugas' Creation Story
[/b]Hinduism believes that this is not the first world or universe. There have been and are many more worlds. They are created by Lord Brahma the Creator. Lord Vishnu is the Sustainer, while Lord Shiva plays the Destroyer. These three gods are forms of the Supreme entity. The universe is a vast ocean on which Lord Vishnu resides. The lotus flower that springs from his navel is the abode of Lord Brahma. The story of creation in Hinduism mentions that when Brahma gets lonely, he splits himself into male and female, the same for man and beast. Everything comes from different parts of his body. One day of Lord Brahma is supposed to be longer than four thousand million Earth years. Every 'night' that Lord Brahma sleeps, the world is destroyed, and recreated every 'morning' that he wakes up. This cycle of the 'yugas' is ongoing and continues forever.
 
[b]Yanomamo Sanema Creation Story
[/b]The Amazonian tribes of Central and South America creation story goes as followed. Once there live Curare-woman and Original Jaguar. Jaguar was very fond of meat and one day he caught Waipili the frog. Jaguar mad Curare-woman cut up Waipili and Jaguar ate the frog up. But Curare-woman saved two tadpoles called Omao and Soawe and hid them in a pot.
Curare-woman kept Omao and Soawe safe from Jaguar. Omao and Soawe grew fast, but Original Jaguar was still a danger. Then one day, by some clever tricks, Omao was able to fool Jaguar into climbing a tree, which when released from the hold of a vine threw Jaguar into the air. He fell to the ground and was killed.
 
Omao was very hungry because he did not know how to grow yuca. Only Lalagi-gi, the cosmic anaconda, knew how to grow plants. Although Omao was very frightened of giant anaconda snake Lalagi-gi, he wanted to learn how to grow yuca. So he gave some meat to the snake and in return Lalagi-gi brought yuca cuttings, yams, maize and other thing. If it had not been for Lalagi-gi people would not have learnt how to grow crops.
 
It was long, long ago that Omao created the Sanema ancestors. He decided to use hardwood trees. But Omao had great difficulty finding them, so he asked his brother Soawe to help. Soawe was lazy. Instead of hardwood trees, he cut down softwood trees. When Omao returned, he was very angry. "I was going to make humans from the hardwood trees, " he said. "Then they could live for ever, just casting off their old skins. I was going to make the anacondas from the softwood trees, so they would be weak and die young. "Omao was so angry that he made the people, the Sanema, from the softwood trees, which is why people are weak and do not live for ever. Then he mad the anacondas from the tough bark of the hardwood trees, which is why anacondas shed their skins and live for a very long time. Omao was still angry, so left the world. Way, way down the river he went to the bottom of the sky.
 
It was night when the animal and Sanema ancestors appeared. Sunrise did not come. The great curassow bird cried out all night - and still dawn did not come. The ancestors realized that it was the curassow bird that stopped the dawn, so they shot the bird with arrows. The feathers of the dying bird fell off, and changed into all the birds that now live in the forest. And the dawn came.
 
The story shows the threat and promise of the forest for the Sanema people. Wild animals, floods and landslides are a constant threat to safety. The Sanema also fear the vengeful ghosts of animals they have killed for food.. But they also believe that the spirits of the original ancestors are a powerful force within nature, which can be called upon to help them. The forest and its life may be threatening, but also supplies the Sanema with everything they need for daily life. At the heart of Sanema belief, lies a dependence on and respect for the forest, by this balance is now being threatened by outsiders who are destroying the trees and animal, and ultimately the Sanema way of life.
 
Creation Stories work cited
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/creation-stories-for-different-religions.html
http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/re/information/creation/creation_home.htm
 
The three dominant religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are known as the Abrahamic faiths. Keep in mind that Christianity, and Islam derive from and took the creation story from Judaism and edited it to suit their religion in terms of how the world was created, and also note that in the Christian version and the Islamic version there is no mention of God having created two females to be Adam’s companion before Eve was created from his rib. I won’t go on about this topic because many people before me have written other literaturery works which is most definitely worthy of reading for further discussions. The many contradictions, violence, hypocrisy, immoral attitudes, behavior and teachings is enough to make any rational critical thinking person with the least bit of knowledge in religious studies to solidify these stories for what they are “stories” myths handed down from generations to generations.
 
The only reason why these religions have grown to the shear sizes as far as the number of people who believes in such tales was by the hand of the sword, musket or gun as written in the book “The Sword of the Lord” by Andrew Himes. They are by far the most violent of any of the other known religion. They would rather see the earth and billions of people destroys before they yield to one another in proclaiming and accepting that one of their beliefs is correct while the other two are copy cats of the first (Judaism)(or that there is no God in the sense in which they believe there is), which is also a copy cat version of the Egyptian Religious sect The Cult of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who was the first man to believe in monotheism or believing in one God, prior to Akhenaten the Egyptians had a polytheistic belief, believing in many Gods. Akhenaten is believe to be the Abraham of the Jewish old testament bible. Christianity is also derived from Egyptian mythology from the religious sect of the cult of Horus, the holy trinity is that of Osiris, Isis and Horus the tri-god. Isis is represented as Mary and Horus is represented as the Christ. The Egyptians left many writings such as the Scrolls of Ani which is the completed version of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of going forth by Day, and many carvings and monuments such as the the statue of Isis holding Horus which is represented as the Madonna and child in the Christian religion.
 
Just on my experience on a personal level dealing with Christians and Muslims has taught me that they simply cannot love unconditionally it is not ingrained in them to do so, because above all they must love God first before they love themselves, their children or any other living being. They say that people turned they backs on God and that is why he stopped talking to men, God abandoned his children, so much for a loving and forgiving God/father maybe that’s why men and women find it so easily to abandon their own children after all God is the perfect example on how to abandon your children and never look back leaving them to fend for themselves in a cruel and wicked world he created for his perfect yet imperfect creations. After all they say we are made in his image and he resides in all of us, well those that believe such tales anyway. Even my own father who is now a retired preacher when he left my mother and married another woman when I was still very young never really paid any attention to my 2 brothers and I, we hardly saw him and my mother had to work 2 jobs to support our family. The only time I remember him being around was when he had to dispense punishment to my older brother who was about 14 years old and joined the militia during the 1979 Revolution on the Island of Grenada. I remember my mom when to see my dad about this issue and my dad who at the time was also a championship body builder and probably the most muscular man on the entire island with his imposing stature went down to the military barack and made who ever was in charge release my brother from any military service. I remember he whopped my brother in front of my family as my twin brother and I wept loudly as we clunged together, and we were not the ones being punished lol, much less to say we never saw our father again after that day until a few days before we left Grenada to come to the United States in October 1982.  
 
My education into African American studies started when I was in Junior High school, my English teach Ms. Fisher was a wonderful woman who tok an interest in me and had me look at the PBS series "Eyes on the Prize" the Civil rights Years. Seeing footage of brutal beatings, lynchings, murders of black men, women, and children by Anglo Saxon Protestant and Catholic Christians all in the name of God. “God hate niggers, coons, monkeys and spewing so much racial epithets that it made me want to learn about Black history, european history, world history to try to understand why these things happened and could they possibly happen again.The conclusion to my search was a being called GOD and a book called the BIBLE, in truth this was the only book I needed to find my answers as to why there was so much hate in the world but like many christian children I did not fully comprehend the magnitude of bigotry, racial hatred, oppression and subjugation of minorities and women and the use of the scriptures to justified using irrational arguments to condone and vilify such actions towards other human beings.
 
As I grew much older and started to educate myself about the science of our natural world, the universe, philosophy, urban sociology it was clear to me that there is No God, at least not in the sense of the one that is written about and worshipped with blind obedience as the one described by the three most widely known religions. Simply put God is not demonstrable in any way shape or form using the scientific method or any other tangible method to prove that he exist.. God is subjective..Existing only within the experiencer's mind, rather than objective...Something that actually exists. God exist only in the mind of his believers and in the minds of those different religion God is different but they will tell you that he is the same God, yet we have 3 different books with three different creation stories, three different set of teachings and three different accounts of how man and woman were made. well if he is the same God then he is a liar, and they dare not say that God is not the author of confusion for I say to you that he was confusing the heck out of my childhood because I was taught that God is the author and finisher of my faith that is until I broke away form such dogmatic primitive beliefs. In turn I learned that every human being is sovereign. were are the author and finisher of our adult lives, we are the masters of our own destiny. we were not born with all the worlds knowledge within us as some would have you believe that everything we have learned or will learn we already knew because God place all the knowledge within us before we were born and as we grew and learn knowledge and gain understanding we are just confirming what we already knew. Well if that’s the case why have teachers, why go to school, why should we have to put ourselves in debt, many defaulting on student loans to learn what we already know, what a load of croc. When my first child is born at the age of six, I expect to put him/her in the cockpit of an F22 raptor and say son/daughter let me see you do a Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver which is a maneuver allows an airplane flying at normal speed to suddenly raises the nose briefly to the vertical position or slightly beyond, before resuming normal flight. When that happens I will believe there is a God…