Dear Glowie,
You proved by your well reasoned article that the subject is not over the heads of all of us here. There are people of many ages, levels of education and varying interests. For forum members to remain interested and active we need something for all of us. Thanks for your interesting post.
That's a marvellous statement by Karl Marx! That's exactly what I observe and believe. Like you, I see that he is right about everything being in constant motion, with constant movement in everything, through birth, development, decline, death, decay, and rebirth into new forms that will go through the same process. Forever. It's true of everything there is, even universes. The incredible beauty of it is that there are always new forms arising from the smallest to the greatest things. A marvellous, fascinating kaleidescopic tumbling and reforming perfection, based on universal laws that never repeat the patterns they produce. Like you, I'm fascinated. Its one of the reasons I love the ancient saying "All things are in all things." Even suns and planets recycle over eons of time. We ourselves, and our world and system are composed of everything that ever was. One day our galaxy will collapse, and eventually it and other stuffs will reform again into previously unseen creations.
I would like to make a few points.
There is only one God, even if this One has been called by different names such as God or Allah, and so on.
There is only one over-arching religion of God. Jesus, Budddha, Muhammed, Krishna, Zoroaster, Baha'u'llah are all like teachers in that one great Religion.It is like going from pre-school, through lower and middle school, finally to college and university. Each level prepares for the next higher one. The basic teachings you learned in kindergarten are not garbage that is to be thrown away in later grades. What you learn agrees all the way through, and is unveiled and discovered at wider and higher degrees of refinement.
These Teachers like Jesus or Buddha or Moses or Zoroaster, etc., are not the Great Creator of all that is, walking on this earth with us. That is impossible. The Great Creator is greater than His creation, and even the creation itself is infinite. The one who made a table is not less than the table he made. So the One Great Creator, that some call God, some Allah, and other names, are all the same Being. One of the names this great Being is called today is "The Unknowable Essence."
The various great Teachers who come to humankind from age to age are like the teachers in a school which begins at the small and simple level of knowledge that infants can comprehend. Then grade by grade the level of knowledge shared raises that understanding higher and higher, as the pupils develop.
All the world religions follow the same pattern. (Sects and cults are not religions.) The Religons are born when a great World Teacher comes. They cause a golden civilization and excellent behaviour, they begin to decay as humans add to them and exploit. They begin to do damage, instead of good. They Another World Teacher comes. The old religions may pick up some of the new truths, which keeps them going, but they are still in decline.
Each of the world Teachers restates the same bedrock truths. That is that there is one Creator who loves us and is to be loved by us. That this Creator sends Messengers to teach us how to live for the next thousand years or so in order that civilization will continue to advance. That another Messenger will always come, and some information about how to recognize Him. A warning not to miss the next Messenger. That humans should not do what has always happened through kings and clergy with vested interests they are afraid of losing. The new Messenger should not be killed, persecuted, tortured, his followers murdered, and Teachings changed. As the time when a new Messenger comes is at the end of an age, when religions are in decay, it happens again to the new Messenger. Even though the people have been warned. But some have kept awake and recognize Him. They too are persecuted. People begin to realize that the new Teachings are excellent are really work and a civilization begins to arise. It reaches its golden age, and begins the long decline into autumn, then winter of the Faith. Until the whole process begins again.
Today in the world there are nine world Religions that are all part of the same One religion of the one God. Among these are Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, etc. Each of these religions arose from the roots of an earlier one. Each Founder was a "Gardener of the garden of humanity". You could call such a person a "Christ". Others may say "a Teacher from God or some other name. No matter what they are called they each were Messengers of God to humanity. They each taught humans to get along together and to love each other. They taught there is Something much greater than them that is so great that It is unknowable. It is behind everything. Some call it God. Some call it Allah. Others have other names for It. It wants humans to develop and mature so it sends these Revealers of religion. This Great Unknowable Being set the scientifidc laws that operate this constantly moving and changing perfect creation. It sets social laws for the time that last about 500 to 1,000 years after Messenger comes. That is the explanation about what a "religion" is when the term isn't being used loosely.
"Sects" of religions: Sects are like sub-groups of a religion. The original Messenger did not want any sects. People made sects by picking parts of what He taught and focussing on that part as most important. For instance, in Christianity, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Protestants are three sects which were split off by people who thought they knew best.
There are more sub-groups under each sect. None of this is what the Founder or God wanted to have happen. It was always the beginning of breakdown and decay that people caused after the death of their Messenger.
There are also things that people have made all by themselves from their imaginations and from various sources. They are "cults." Falun Gong is a cult. Raelians are a cult. There are many cults today in many parts of the world. Sometimes they are partly based on some religion. Sometimes they aren't.
I think Taoism is like a sect of one of the great Eastern religions. It isn't a cult.
So we need to define our terms in order to understand each other.
Marx is right again. Everything is born, lives, decays, dies, and is reborn. This is true of religion, too. Just as it happens through the cycle of winter/spring/summer/autumn and winter again from which comes the new spring it is the same with the great world Religions which are all parts of the great Religion of the One Creator. We don't make the seasons happen, and we don't make the religions unfold, one after the other, over the thousands of years, either.
You are right that the human race has evolved. It has evolved physically and mentally and spiritually, too. Just as a baby evolves and grows from a little bit of cells in a sea of liquid until it is born and progresses from there, so did the human race. As children we didn't understand as we do now, as adults. It was the same with the human race as a whole. Children have teachers. So does the human race. Children eventually die. So will the human race. But at this time we have a long way to go because we have just begun to enter the age of maturity as one human race on this planet. We are just beginning to understand that we are all one human race on this planet, our home. That's part of our present and ongoing evolution from now on.
Marx is right that these religions decay and become bad for us. In their golden ages when the civilizations they inspire are at their best they are wonderful! Shakespeare wrote: "Lilies that fester stink worse than weeds." Fester means decay. Lillies are beautiful, fragrant and refined, like a great world religion, but when it decays it stinks worse than if it were just a common weed.
However, you need to remember that a newer Teacher can reinvigorate an older religion. An example of this is what happened when the Christians, from a badly decayed Christianity went off to rescue Jerusalem from the Muslims. The Muslim civilization inspired by the teachings of Muhammad were at their golden peak. The Christians who went there to fight from a civilization that had sunk to a terrible condition, learned a lot about civilization from the Muslims. In fact, the whole Rennaisance arose as a result of the learning that came back from contact with Islam. This is common historical truth. There are other such examples.
You and Marx are completely right about the terrible things done in the name of religion. They are done in the name of decaying religion. Today things that are unspeakable are being done in the name of decaying religion aligned with powerful political interests.
You mention those who said they were the incarnation of some god. There have been those who said that and were simply lying.
There have been those like Jesus, or some others, whose followers interpreted their words to mean that. In fact, it is impossible for the Infinite to incarnate itself into the finite. Think about it. How is it possible for the great Unknowable Creator of this beautiful and perfect creation of all that is or ever will bel into infinity, incarnate Itself into a little human being? The only stupid answer to this is "God can do anything." And that is the reply of somebody who believes in magic. The infinite cannot incarnate itself into the finite. It is completely against science and reason. Science is also the creation of the Infinite Creator. Science and religion must illuminate each other. They are two sides of the same coin. Religion that is in disagreement with proven science is nothing but vain imaginings. It is wrong and not part of the original teachings of a great Teacher.
You are right about all those who use religion to gain power, or position or wealth. The Founders of those Religions didn't do that. None of them became wealthy. Most of them suffered greatly, were tortured, or killed for their Teachings which were not palatable to the ones who would lose their power if people turned to the new Teacher's ways. The early followers are also usually killed or tortured. Finally the new Teachings are accepted. Civilization grows up and glows. The decay sets in. And you know the rest.
You are right that many things such as feudalism, and much worse have been perpetrated by decayed religions, or by those who stole those religions. Islam was a religion that was stolen and more than once. That happened very early because when Muhammad was dying he wanted to be sure to appoint his successor in writing, but they wouldn't bring him a pen. He had said who it should be in words, earlier, but that was conveniently forgotten as those who believed they knew best changed what Muhammad had advised into an election. So from the very beginning that religion was taken off the track. That is really a terrible story when you read it. The one who finally seized power about three leaders later had been a complete enemy of Muhammad and set in to use it for political ends, greed and power.
I would say that what Marx says and this explanation have much in common. When things decay to a certain point there will inevitably be a shift. You describe this in economic language and I describe it in more symbolic terms with illustrations from nature and simple life. -- a "teacher". Grades in a school, which is all one educational school. In other words the school of God. Marx takes a great Unknowable, All-Powerful, All-Loving, Infinite, Creator out of the equation. I can understand why, too, when he looked at the decay and greed for power and wealth that was before him when he studied this.
Sorry that this became so long. Some will find it interesting. Some won't be able to read it yet. Some won't be interested, and some will. That's just the way it is, isn't it?
Warmly, Mary
