BELIEFS that are the Root of All Evil

 
Prejudice appears when a person does not know how to find facts and assess what is allegedly fact. Any system that censors is therefore bad.
 
Why do even insincere people make huge effort to evangelise others? Because there is a massive buzz when people accept your testimony to the truth of absurdities and superstitions. People like to feel they have great control over others. They get the best buzz when people believe and follow harmful doctrines just because they influence them to. The worst religious charmers and charlatans do not do it for money at all.
 
A belief is more than an opinion. It is like you intend to make something real. For example, if you believe in hell you are trying to make that belief real for you. You are trying to perceive that it is true even it if it is not. To accept evil doctrines is to try and hate yourself.
 
Happiness is more than a feeling - it is recognising that you are well. You are not well if you make yourself perceive that hell exists. Better a universe without hell than one with hell.
 
Harmful beliefs are the root of all evil or as we prefer to call it not-as-good-as-it-could-be. We must not rid them from our minds and hearts. No we must take them and transform them into good beliefs. The truth shall set us free.
 
Belief is an affirmation in the sense that belief tends to be self-confirming. For example, if you think God is giving you special care, you will take winning the hamper as evidence of that. It is important that we take care in working out what we really believe. Your belief has consequences for you and others.

We must adopt beliefs that make us safe and feel as safe as possible. There is enough danger in the world that we may fear. Do not start fearing demons, God's punishments, Hell, the effects of original sin, negative karma, losing faith in Jesus, letting your religion down or the breaking of religious rules. Discard them all. They are incitements to fear. There is enough to fear and enough to tempt you to fear. All fear is unnecessary. Intelligence is what will help you out of danger - fear does nothing. It is a danger itself. Fear is a form of pain. But what fear can be more unnecessary than the fear caused by religious faith? No God can ask you to adopt beliefs that may cause you pain. Do not dally with such beliefs. It only misleads others. It makes more fear in the world. Stay away from any possible source of fear apart from the possible dangers of living.

If God is so great, then we should wish we were God above all things. The belief inflicts suffering on us. It is wanting suffering and trying to worsen the inevitable suffering of life.

Any faith that teaches that death is a punishment for sin is to be rejected. A faith that teaches that death is just the gateway to a new life experience is troublesome too. Death is so sad that if a cure for it comes we will accept it. Human life is so precious that every death is an injustice no matter how much wrong the person has done. Belief in life after death or that we deserve death seek to make us work less hard for everlasting life through science. It takes the wind out of the sails of motivation.

Any faith that teaches that God comes first is to be avoided. It is people who create faiths. To say God comes first is to say that belief of a certain kind comes first. Belief is not certainty – it is only thinking based on the evidence that you have got that the belief is true. The evidence could be misinterpreted or it could be wrong or there could be other evidence that refutes your evidence that you haven’t seen yet. Belief is human. Religious belief must never come before people. We need to give importance to other kinds of belief so that we can help people.

Any faith that teaches that those who die in sin will go to Hell forever is to be condemned. We refuse to believe that human nature would be bad enough to choose such a fate. Nobody who does what is termed evil does it all the time. We will put our experience of human nature and people before what any faith says.

To those who see the unpleasant more than the pleasant

Some people put their attention on their pain and forget the pleasure and the fun and the good. Others put their attention on the pleasure and the fun and the good to distract themselves from their pain at all costs. The athlete who is near the finishing line just focuses on getting over the line and won't even notice the pain in her muscles. She takes away the power of pain. There would be a lot less suffering in the world if we stopped thinking so much about our aches and pains. We only make pain worse by dwelling on it. We are also telling it to hurt us by doing so. That would be a inferior affirmation. Some say we must accept pain as a part of life. Yes. But we must accept that we can make it powerless. However, avoid the idea that life is an equal measure of pain and pleasure. You can tip the balances so that there is more pleasure. To think pain and pleasure come in equal measure is to expect life to be like that. It is an inferior affirmation.

The belief that when I have nobody at all in the world to turn to, I need to believe that God loves me. I refuse to create the belief that God loves me. I do not need such belief. I can't need to create a belief to help me because that means I can help myself without it. I refuse to tell myself that I can't fulfil myself because I can and I will. The person who isn't religious but who is happy is a stronger person than the person who needs religion to be happy. Throw away the crutch. You are strong! If God is good then nobody needs to insist or require that others believe in him. He will only care about the good we do and not about if we believe in him or not. If he is vengeful and hates unbelievers then only then could it matter. To say God or belief in God matters it to imply that we need to be threatened. It is a negative affirmation. Judging and criticising is useless. See the good in all things and work to turn this good into better good. Wrong doing is merely doing good that falls short of how good it could be. There is no divine judge.

The belief that it is important to die forgiving one's enemies and being right with God. When a person dies and they do not have the chance to repent, they might have repented had they got one more moment. Thus any decent God will treat them as if they have repented and forgive them. It is called giving the benefit of the doubt.

The belief that the Bible or the Koran is written by God. These books have God commanding war and genocide and express disdain for female equality with males. To accept such books is to affirm that people have the right to do these things in the name of faith. It is to sell part of your soul. The true faith has no need for religion. It asks nothing of people - only what all reasonable people would expect it to ask on the earthly and non-religious level.

The belief that the body is bad and keeps distracting you from the duty to love God. We must see that we find inner peace and inner transformation through the body. We don't find them by tormenting the body. The Buddha discovered that asceticism didn't help.

The belief that it is somebody's fault that I am unhappy. Christians blame the Devil and many of them blame their God as well. The Bible God says that if somebody sins and you don't warn them and they are rejected by God, God will blame you. But surely they know they are doing wrong so it's not your fault. The Bible says Satan tempts you to sin. Satan can't do that. If a bad suggestion comes to you, it will not attract you unless you tempt yourself. To blame anybody for what goes wrong is to fail to be proactive. It is denying your power to change things and take control. It is failing to honour yourself as the incredible and special person you are.

The belief that we come into existence with original sin. How much better is it to tell people how good they can be and how they can live excellent lives!

We know that we are not born with any bias towards evil. We all have the power to be the best and kindest people ever.  The doctrine that God gave us the power to live holy and perfectly happy lives as a gift to which we were and are not entitled and this gift was lost when Adam sinned on our behalf in the garden of Eden is false. No matter how “bad” we are, we are entitled to this power. We reject the doctrine of original sin.

The belief that if a dictator murders millions cruelly, the worst thing in what he has done is disobeying God. It is hurting the people that must be considered to be the worst. Jesus' teaching that God must be loved with all our hearts and first of all is to be rejected. We must not afflict ourselves with the sanctimonious attitude "Oh it is God's will!" of some people when they see terrible suffering taking place. To even think like they do is a dangerous affirmation. Belief in an all-powerful God means you believe in a being that is ultimately responsible for all things for he lets all things happen and empowers them to happen. The belief is a bad affirmation in its implications. It suggests, "I want to believe I should condone suffering and pain and death for God lets them happen and lets them happen for a reason." It affirms that suffering and pain and death must happen to suit your belief. That is saying that you don't mind condoning the terrible things God allows to happen so that you may believe. You are saying, "I want the universe to behave as if he exists and sends suffering for his justifiable reasons."

The belief taught in the Bible that a woman should worry about doing good works and not about making herself beautiful. This denies that what you do for yourself is a good work. It deserves a reward as much as doing a good work for another person does.

My belief that there are dangers out there which may make me afraid of the dark and snakes, for example. And of getting cancer.

The proper belief is: I am aware that there are dangers. I am not afraid. Fear gives these things power to hurt me. I am simply aware of these dangers. This awareness gives me the confidence to face the fears and know that I will be okay. Pain often cannot hurt me deeply as long as I find a way to be happy. Lots of happy people endure a lot of pain. I do not fear pain.

The belief that suffering is a punishment for wrong done in the past or even in a past life or a punishment or may be a punishment from God. Don't believe even that it may be punishment. To believe such a thing is to say it is possible that you are being punished. It is to deny that you may be wonderful the way you are. It is a bad affirmation that will draw harm to you. It is to harbour an unhealthy though (at least) slight suspicion towards yourself.

The belief that your good works are not good unless God magically helped you to do them. If God is propping you up when you do good, is it really you that is doing it? Of course not! Take credit for your good deeds.

The belief that death is a punishment for sin. How much better it is to see death as an act of love and to hope that one day there will be no more death? Even the worst murderer does not deserve death. To say he does, diminishes the "badness" of killing him. If he deserves it, it is one reason why it is not wrong to kill him.

The belief that others sin and can go to Hell, to suffer forever, by choice. That means that if you had the power to choose for them you would choose different. It is disrespect for their free will.

The belief that priests, popes, prophets, Jesus and the Bible have authority over me.

Their power and authority are weakness in the guise of strength. They are not strength for instead of adoring truth and drawing people to its beauty they lie and manipulate. To accept their authority is to condone that facade of virtue. Even if we pick and choose what we like out of their teaching we are still declaring their authority up to a point. Or we are fully condoning it but just being disobedient to it. You are insulting yourself by letting that authority have anything to do with you. Do not listen to priestly sermons or let them into your house to draw you back to their faith.

The belief that we can go to Hell for all eternity. How much better it is to believe that rehabilitation and reforming could be a major part of any chastisement we receive and that we are valuable no matter what we do and we could never be bad enough to go to Hell?

The belief that somebody can have infallible revelations from divine beings or God. How much better it is to believe that all people are equal and that there are no special souls chosen to speak God's word?

Tell yourself: I am on a learning curve. I don't need a God to tell me what is what. Day by day I grow in wisdom.
The belief that when we go astray there is a god to bring us back. How much better it is to believe in the transforming power of human love for that exalts myself and proclaims I have to be totally happy with me and invite others into my life to share my happiness.

Take full responsibility . . . do not fear it!

The belief that there is a God to rule over us is far from ideal. It is much better it is to affirm that if God exists, he wants us to be independent of him and take on personal responsibility. God being all-powerful would have to be more responsible for what we do than we are so it is better to drop the idea of God altogether. It would be selfish to dwell or stress on human responsibility if God has ultimate responsibility.

Remember: I only believe in things ultimately because I want to be rational and I honour my rationality and thinking powers in this desire. If I believe in God, I make that belief. When I adore God, I adore me indirectly. I adore myself for I honour the belief I have created. I am God of my life. I adore myself directly and fully.

The belief that goodness is whatever God commands. How much better it is to believe that good would be good whether God commanded it or knew of it or not? How much better it is to believe that I can see what is good without God telling me? That is a self-honouring belief. I must not bring negativity into my mind and life by believing that I need God to be able to believe in morality. That only leads to people perceiving the God they want to perceive and blaming their dodgy moral rules on him and using his alleged weight to enforce them.