What I Don’t Believe
January 20, 2025
Responders to my essays on Medium often challenge my Bible Believing Born Again Christian convictions as somehow shallow, naive, or judgmental, and this is due to my ignorance of other religions and/or belief systems (e.g. — philosophies, atheism, Sciences, ad infinitum).
I’m going to start my elementary review with the religion aspect: Hinduism.
In advance, let me state some of my reasons…
Numero uno: Structural Racism. Numero dos: British Colonialism. Numero tres: Authoritarianism. Numero quatro: Idolatry. Numero cinco: Human Invention.
Generally speaking, all philosophies, religions, and false sciences have never actually done one thing for me. They all seem to lean on , oddly enough, blind faith, and in that manner, they demand of me while giving nothing back!
Hinduism
“…Because the religion has no specific founder, it’s difficult to trace its origins and history. Hinduism is unique in that it’s not a single religion but a compilation of many traditions and philosophies: Hindus worship a number of different gods and minor deities, honor a range of symbols, respect several different holy books and celebrate with a wide variety of traditions, holidays and customs. Though the development of the caste system in India was influenced by Hindu concepts, it has been shaped throughout history by political as well as religious movements, and today is much less rigidly enforced. Today there are four major sects of Hinduism: Shaivism, Vaishnava, Shaktism and Smarta, as well as a number of smaller sects with their own religious practices.”
- https://www.history.com/topics/religion/hinduism
“The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes. It has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, especially in the aftermath of the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the establishment of the British Raj.[1][2][3][4] It is today the basis of affirmative action programmes in India as enforced through its constitution.[5] The caste system consists of two different concepts, varna and jati, which may be regarded as different levels of analysis of this system…”
“…Varna, meaning type, order, colour, or class [18][19] are a framework for grouping people into classes, first used in Vedic Indian society. It is referred to frequently in the ancient Indian texts.[20] There are four classes: the Brahmins (priestly class), the Kshatriyas (rulers, administrators and warriors; also called Rajanyas), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and the Shudras (labouring classes).[21] The varna categorisation implicitly includes a fifth element, those deemed to be entirely outside its scope, such as tribal people and the untouchables (Dalits).”
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India
Buddhism
“Buddhism is one of the world’s largest religions and originated 2,500 years ago in India. Buddhists believe in reincarnation of the soul, and that, by following the teachings of Buddha, or dharma, people can reach an enlightened state called nirvana and stop the cycle of reincarnation…”
“…Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions. It originated in South Asia around the fifth century B.C.E., and over the next millennia, it spread across Asia and to the rest of the world.
“Buddhists believe that human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, but that if one achieves a state of enlightenment (nirvana), it is possible to escape this cycle forever. {Allegedly, *} Siddhartha Gautama was the first person to reach this state of enlightenment and is still known today as the Buddha. Buddhists do not believe in any kind of deity or god, although there are supernatural figures who can help or hinder people on the path toward enlightenment.”
- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/buddhism/
* — My edit here acknowledges the claim, but not its reality.
“Buddhists believe in a wheel of rebirth into different bodies. This is connected to “karma,” which refers to how a person’s good or bad actions in their present or past lives can impact their future. Buddhists strive for serenity amid chaos and place a high value on ethical conduct and compassion, which are reflected in the ideals of service and community.”
- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/buddhism/
First, blind faith (again ironically) is required for people to accept this teaching. I mean to ask, What others have experienced that phenomenon? What possible proof do they offer for this internal experience?
I have done hallucinogenic drugs in my past with, I suppose, similar results…
Please excuse my dripping sarcasm, but “ooooh! look at the kaleidoscoping lights. look! so much twisting and bending! wow, man! I get it now! ooooh!).
It occurs to me that the meditative experience of Buddhism creates an introverted recessiveness, even a withdrawn passivity that prevents a practitioner from confronting the real challenges of life. The result would logically countermand the goal of reincarnating to a higher life form, like a Brahaman bull. (By the by, if one is reincarnated as a snake, how does a snake, for its next incarnation, how does the snake attain the right to move up in the scale to a higher form of life?)
Besides, what exactly is this evasive idea of “enlightenment” (“awakening”)? How has the promise to followers of the proscribed path of Buddhism been revealed? How has the first essential doctrine that life is suffering been overcome? It isn’t.
This is just a fancy form of the carrot and the stick where the mule never gets to eat… or, as some think about Christianity, “blind faith.”
Attaining the so-called awakening seems to me to be a form of a psychotic denial of reality.
I, for one, am not interested in becoming, in any way, psychotic.
According to the resources I’ve already cited, please note that I am asserting that life doesn’t have its troubles to overcome, but I am asserting that life is not completely and utterly, suffering!
The “first principle” is so dark and confining and constraining… Yes. Trouble and sorrow and heartache are pretty much a basic elemental fact of life. No one needs olympic-level feats of mental gymnastics to come to that realization! I mean, even babies cry when they’re hungry… It is actually our first cry for salvation isn’t it.
Yet, life and living are so much more than suffering!
I was suicidal in my teenage years, and looking up from that dark dungeon, yes, life seemed to be defined as sufferring. I get the idea. However, it became apparent to me that life has so much more light than dark…
With A Little Help From My Friends (Remastered 2009)
Just look at the darkness in any recent disaster, and look at the brightness of the responses from neighbors — both near and far away.
Look. I get the attraction of the idea of “karma,” and very often, the adage comes true, “What goes around comes around.”
Still and all, those realities come true in our present lives — sooner or later.
As a Bible Believing Born AGain Christian, the Bible acknowledges the facts of life. It also provides the understanding and the perseverance so we can work our way through them: “…when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” — James 1:2–5, Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
Thus , I concede the similar precept of this religion with Biblical ideas, but I also acknowledge the existence of counterfeit twenty dollar bills! Therefore, my basic objection and rejection of this religion is that, numero uno, it is an invention of man which pretends to be both existentially superior and poignantly edifying and typically transcendent. Whereas, I see it as rather mundane, misleading, and mystically unobtainable.
All in all, philosophies and religions , including denominational Christianity, all do have this one thing in common: a vast myriad of disparate and diverse renditions developed, and searching for attainment involves grabbing ahold of any one of their roots will prove to be a life-long and never -ending exercise in futility.
As for the myriad of divergent Philosophies which I have studied, I’ve kind of settled into a mindset similar to Theistic Existentialism.
“Let Go” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il-c80jxgYk
So, there’s that…
In the end of all my considerations, over all my decades of living in the real world, over all the experiences that I have had — whether good or bad — with all I have studied and learned, and with all that I have successfully applied to my life, I have decided to stick with and to follow Jesus, God. and the Bible.
Now, let me take a second to thank you all very much for your input and responses. I’m always open to what people have to say, at least, in a civil discussion format.
It remains still that I have no use for screamers or rock throwers. They either give me a headache, or they waste what precious time I have left before blindness and/or dementia completely overwhelm my abilities… So, in summation:
“ …everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. — John 3:15–17, NIV.
One final thought: It seems to me that a vast difference in religions is meditation. Whereas in Eastern religions meditation involves an emptying of the mind as opposed to the Biblical form all about focusing and concentrating the ideas in the Bible in its application to real everyday life. The one focuses on getting away from real life and the other focuses on the practical and pragmatic applications into a person’s life and living. One is about developing solitude while the Bible is practicing God’s presence. One is about disaffection ,but the Biblical practice is all about bringing “…people… brought into… a coherent whole after a period of separation” — from MereriamWebster.com {my edit}.
My choice is to become full instead of empty.Sail On Sailor
