RELGIOUS OPINIONS

November 1949, my first week of Primary school in Shepherds Bush, London, it was a great shock due to the fact that I did not speak a word of English and I was dressesed in the clothes that I wore in Hamburg, Lederhosen and Leggings.
The school was a government school therefore it was a Church of England school. I did not understand the curiosity of the pupils about the clothes that I was wearing. I was picked on and bullied because I was a "foreigner" and worse even a Catholic. The two things one could not be only four years after WWW 2 !

In 1951 I made the grade to St Martin-in-the-fields secondary school. Multiculturalism had started in the fifties with all it's attendant problems. By the time I was twelve I had managed to lose my foreign accent and I drew no special attention, partly because all the other pupils of our school had observed in London the ever increasing arrival of people from every corner of the world, on the buses, in shops and some in the school that we attended.

Our school had to make exemptions for some children regarding our morning assembly in the adjoining church. About five to seven students had to start the day in the dining room and play chess or do homework. I was in the choir and my father approved of my public Government Protestant school so I did not ask for exemption.

It became obvious to me that when children are born to parents from a particular country of origin, the parents have expectations that their children should grow up to consider themselves as being loyal to their parents country and culture. To uphold the traditions and religious beliefs of their parents. My mother was no exception, she believed that only the Catholic church was correct and all adherents of other religions were doomed. I was very afraid of God as a result. My father did not agree with my mother because he was a Humanist and disliked religious beliefs.

How could this work for me in a rapidly expanding pluralistic country like Britain? When I turned thirteen I had a big row with my mother and decided not to attend Mass with her on Sundays at our local Polish, Catholic church and I stopped going to Saturday school where I was being taught Polish culture and Polish history. I explained to her that my future would certainly be in England. My father was on my side and approved of my decision.

A child is born "Tabula Rasa", innocent, free of Religion, Nationality or any kind of prejudice. Society has to work hard to instil such concepts. This is something that is imposed by cultural surroundings, parents, piers or community coercion. Due partly to my own experience I realized that a person cannot be born a Catholic, Muslim or Jew."Fidler on the Roof" my favorite show on You Tube!

For the sake of Multicultural harmony Religion should be a private matter and kept well separated from politics, nationality and patriotism. Patriotism should be reserved for the whole human race not just for a chosen nationality.

The fact is that on this planet earth we have more than 4,200 religions which makes it obvious that all religions are constructs of the human mind, influenced by the culture people are born into. Click here for views on "Tribal Religions"

All relgions were constructed during various stages in History when Human beings had no Science and knoledge was passed from person to person Oraly. Now we have Telescopes, Microscopes and Satelites and Scientific evidence as to how the Universe came into being.

During my lifetime I have pondered what to make of Reality and in my judgement understanding Science is the best option to arrive at an understang of the human mind knowing that all of creation is due on this Planet to the environment with all Humans and its creatures and plants. The human body is made of all the elrments that are found on earth and in the universe. When we die all the chenmicals of our bodies are returned to nature and the environment and so the cycle of life continues, all elements are immortal.

Science informs us about propability but religions insist they must be believed and obeyed.

Unfortunately all religions have some thing in common, which is that each believes they are following truth and all the other 4200 are wrong. No matter which brand of religion people believe, it all works totally against life in a Multicultural world. Just look at how adherents of the three main religions have their hands around each others throats whenever they are provoked!

We should all insist as an imperative that all the worlds' clergy are thoroughly educated in a broad range of subjects in secular universities to attain qualifications so as to be permitted to study theology. This would reduce such arguments about the method of construction and time scale taken to construct this Universe that we are just a tiny part of.
This broad education and understanding of science should allow the clergy to concentrate on teaching people what unites us and allow all people to better understand each other.

Religions must embrace contemporary knowledge and incorporate Scientific proof of how the Universe was formed, then continuously modify their positions as Science informs us how it all happened. All religions should be in dialogue with the modern world perhaps then people would flock to churches and temples everywhere in the world. Listen to astronomer Guy Consolmagno SJ of the Vatican Observatory explain how the Bible informs us that God created the Universe and Science tells us how it happened also from Castel Gandolfo the Templeton prize winning Cosmologist Fr. Michal Heller!

Mysteries are temporary, in the past fifty years so many mysteries have been revealed and explained by science and no doubt more will be discovered! It is all very exciting.

We know that every element in the universe that exists has to occupy a space and has to have some form of being sustained in it's own space and time. I am particularly intrigued by the Soul, how does a Soul exist, how are souls punished by heat in Hell if they are immortal?

While human beings continue to proclaim rules written in holy books are the dictates of their deities, and those rules cause human suffering, we must continue to rail against them. Just look back to the past records of European religion.

1 Living according to the Bible.
2 The Witch Mania and Delusions.
3 The most infamous Inquisition.
4 Crusade Mania.
5 Thirty year War.
6 The divine right of Kings to rule.
7 Unification of Italy by Garibaldi caused the Prisoner in the Vatican.
8 Holy Roman Empire Ended by Napoleon in 1806.
9 The hunt for Heretics.
10 Introduction of Celibacy Money Bonanza in 1018-1139-1563.

The damage caused to human beings by organized religion throughout our history and still to this day needs to end. There are better ways to decide what our morals should be and that discussion won't start until religion loosens its grip on the minds of human beings. The reason for this is that religion contains the concept of "Evil" this leads to the concept of "Enemies" that leads to wars that makes devout believers be prepared to die in order to kill the "The enemy" ! Every European war has always enlisted God on the side of the various Countries or Empires.
For Country, King and God was how soldiers were asked to enlist in every war for the last 2000 years.

Getting acquainted with Plato and Aristotle has helped me. These two non-religious philosophers seem to have endeared themselves to Christians and Muslims alike probably due to their theories that something had to create the earth as it was understood during their time! If only they had microscopes and telescopes.

Our species first started believing in the "one true God" only around three thousand years ago, before that humans believed in multiple Gods.

Jews started to worship one preferred God called Yahweh (the God of war and Armies) when the Jews were desperate to get out of Egypt. Prior to the Judeo-Christian God, even the Jews believed in multiple Superstitions and Gods. The "God of Gods" made perfect sense in the days when there was no science and only observable phenomena made sense such as Sunrise in the East and Sunset in the West. No telescopes, no microscopes, no understanding of electricity, magnetism or gravity.
Everything like Lightning, freak storms, earthquakes, all were surely controlled by the Gods from the "Heaven up above"!
Now that we know what is beyond the sky these concepts of Heaven, God, Soul, and Spirit can only exist in the human minds of people who believe such concepts. This means that the location of Heaven and Hell have no physical location either in the Sky or on Planet Earth. So that al things Divine exist only in the Human mind. In this way a non-material existence of God is possible because the Mind is regarded by many in the same way as the Soul and Spirit. Unfortunately people constructed 4200 variants of Religious beliefs on Planet Earth. That is why we have so many conflicts. Everyone is asked to believe their parents and parents feel it to be their duty to instil in their children their family traditions but not those of other Cultures so children do not know how to handle people with other Religions and Cultures so we have parrallel societies in every City.

Priests being Celibate and preaching a Patriarchal system is somthing I think should be changed.

We live in a three dimensional universe plus time. To accept the concept of a non material dimension is very difficult for me and so I seek an explanation that I can understand. Understanding is superior to believing! I find it difficult to accept authority as the truth, I regard truth as the authority!

I do want all religions to survive, including Christianity, Islam and the Jewish religion because it allows life to be romantic. I always admit to my Polish/German/Cathoic cultural heritage and know that my values came from that cultural background. However I need to hear discussions about religious concepts conducted in scientific realities of the Twenty First century.