God is an instrument created to further bond mankind as a species, in an attempt to create fertile grounds for us to coexist peacefully. Religion’s sole purpose is to create the preconditions that allow us to grow personally, as a community and as a species. Therefore the existence of God and religion is both logical and useful. However as soon as it starts serving as a vessel for limitations, oppression, negativity and/or hate, it loses its purpose and therefore its necessity.
God is not a necessity. The existence of religion is not a necessity. We ourselves hold the key to coexist peacefully, to grow personally, as a community and as a species. We should bond with each other, but we should not bind each other. We can free ourselves from the chains created by fear, judgement, and hate. We can truly grow, but only in the absence of negativity. And as we start to embody love, we will realize how we are all on our unique paths of personal growth. Paths that cannot be confined in one all-encompassing theology.
Now don’t get me wrong, if the existence of God or religion helps you sleep at night, if it helps you be the best person you can be, then by all means believe. If religion shows you your path and guides you well, I absolutely think you should follow it.
However if it causes:
your potential to be limited,
you limiting someone else’s potential,
you finding it your right as a man to oppress women,
you to feel negative about two men loving each other and consuming that love,
you to judge someone practising casual sex simply because they like it,
you to begrudge happiness to anyone who does not share your beliefs,
you to think that all of the people above deserve to eternally suffer in a so-called afterlife,
then you really should start wondering if it serves any purpose to feel so much hate for a fellow soul.
At least know that hate never serves any purpose. It only leads to destruction, of ourselves and of others equally. Hate is an utterly useless and contra-productive emotion that should always be avoided. Besides, do you really need this false sense of superiority, this false sense of security, to live a rich and fulfilling life?
It’s not hard to be a decent human being in the absence of God or religion. Share your love, share your wisdom, help people grow in doing so. Realize that the only immorality lies in detracting personal growth, be it from yourself or from others. Live with each other and learn from each other. We are social beings and therefore we are fully adapted to connect with each other without prejudice. We are wired to be kind, empathic and compassionate, yet we’ve alowed ourselves to be conditioned into intolerant, judgemental and selfish beings, even though the latter offers us no natural benefits. Let’s start being our natural selves again.
God and religion can be (and have been) useful instruments, like the training wheels on a bike, but as soon as you learn to ride they have served their purpose and become redundant. It’s time to grow collectively without concepts that limit our freedom to grow.