The fear of death and the question of the thereafter has caused mankind to develop a multitude of mythologies and religions. Faith in a superior level of being is the unavoidable consequence of an individual's realisation to be a corporeal-biological and mental-spiritual unity, in short: mortal.

Religious intolerance is the main cause of an excessive amount of violence and terrorism. Fanatism, hiding behind the taboo that is religion is another side-effect of religion. God conveniently offers Himself as the excuse for the very human endeavour to extend ones reach of power over others. Although there are differences, e.g. Buddism being more tolerant than Catholicism, the human suffering caused by religions far outweighs the peace of mind offerd by their promising eternal life.

Who gave us religion?

Hardly a critical human being today would doubt that all religions have been invented by his own species. The one fact that's outstanding in this situation is that each and every one of these doctrines sees itself as the only true one. (Ref.: Ring Parable in Lessing's "Nathan der Weise")

The nucleus of every religion fits seamlessly into the image of the period in history when it was conceived; very much like e.g. the geocentric weltanschauung fits medieval mentality.
However, to take out one example: our own Christian religion no longer fits the way the broad public sees their place in the world. Moreover, I dare say that the bible has lost its position as a source for teaching the basics in our search for god, having long since been replaced by works offering a much better foundation to approach the truth.

Genesis of yesterdays - Apocalypse of today

It is difficult for a person moderately fluent in scientific matters to understand the principal statements of the bible. In the old testament's Genesis 22 (King James) stating

"Be fruitful and multiply..."

Then in Genesis 26:

"And God said Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Genesis 22 is not only an out-of-focus anachronism. Today it virtually constitutes an instruction for mass suicide, while Genesis 26 justifies destruction of the planet we live on along with our fellow creatures.

Can the novel that we call The Holy Book still claim to be our tool in the search of God today?

Religion and Morality

After the New Testament had dissociated with the wrath and vengeance of the Old, a number of beautiful anecdotes (The Greatest Story Ever Told) show us how we are to live our lives in Christian charity. But humanitarian philosophies have been developed before the birth of Christ and the separation of morality and religion is a reality in many cultures.

Does our Christian religion really get closer to truth than others? Have we become better humans through it? Christ preached tolerance, but it was us who exterminated the "heathens". Not before taking away their gold while waving a cross before them, of course.

The "blessing" of machinery of death by clerical dignitaries might perhaps be pardoned as embarrassing derailments. But the fact that the church has failed to grasp its unique chance by assuming a leading role for the masses of today is deplorable to say the least. Contrary to failing politicians, a church aware of its responsibility could have led mankind off the road of self-inflicted doom just as effectively as when it warned "adulterers" of the punishment in "hell".

Time for Renewal?

A new religion for today's world can no longer exhaust itself in the consumption of traditional concepts by the masses. Mankind has made a small step towards adolescence since the time of Christ. The individual can and may develop his own thoughts about God and the World. This new faith will orient itself on the individual's field of experience.

The deeper we attempt to understand the wonderful interactions in the cosmos or in closeby animated nature, the more certain seems the existence of a superior entity. Its manifestation is apparent every day in countless "wonders" of nature. Wonders that leave the question of the great WHY open despite the explanations of causal research. Darwin's theory of evolution is just not sufficient to explain why an insect prevents its species from being extinct precisely by taking the shape of a withered leaf. A withered leaf not only complete with all its structural details, but even showing "fungus attack" or "insect bites".

Miracles

To us humans of the presence the marvellous findings of cosmology offer a far more credible starting point in search of a God than the bible. If miracles are a manifestation of God, then what is the healing of a sick person compared to the making of superstrings and galaxies? How insignificant the "only true faith", conceived by the dominating lifeform of one single planet, valid only for a part of itself! Of the probable existence of extraterrestrial life this faith has not even taken notice. Darkest Middle Ages, where the world fits between Bosporus and the Strait of Gibraltar, dim the view of the traditional believers.

The Humanification of God

Any religion takes the wrong turn if it positions mankind as the prime measure of all things into the centre of the Universe. As God is "humanised", He attains incredibility, at least so in the eyes of the scientifically trained.

If god has made us in His image, I refuse to accept Him as the Creator of the Universe.

To brand mark a believer as an atheist, only because of his or her refusal to attribute human-like properties to God, reveals the arrogance of a fossil way of thinking.
Deplorably, "human" means a blend of good and evil ( R. L. Stevenson: Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde). Regardless of what name we give Him, God must forcibly stand beyond good and evil ( H. KŸng: Existiert Gott?). In His all-encompassing greatness and timelessness, God is so far from being understood by us, that advocating any humanised form for the Superior Principle, simply appears embarrassing today.

Violence

If God, to be able to forgive our sins, has his son (why not daughter, why not of black race?) tortured and killed by humans, then this is a story with human characteristics and not religion.

By "world history" we have always meant the history of wars, violence and brutality inflicted by part of mankind on its fellows. In no way is it the history of the world. How arrogant we were to take these shameful partial aspects as World History is not revealed to us between the covers the pompous bible, but by the study of natural sciences. The childlike wondering in face of the beauty of creation and the proper positioning of our own humble importance in the cosmos are the basis of true belief in God.

Sin

Our view of God must be de-humanised. Should our mass religions really be irreplaceable as moral guidance, then it would be time to thoroughly revise the concept of sin.

Hell, purgatory and judgement day as threats of punishment exist only as human/legal inventions. If the notion of sin is to be allowed to continue, it should define entirely different human offences today.

Not sexuality, but its uncontrolled application as the source of an enormously accelerated destructive growth of mankind and the ensuing destruction of its God-given planet is  s i n .

We s i n , when we interfere with the evolution of a species or race initiated by God. An example is the extermination of an entire family of animals. Even if it is to make place for our own excessive multiplication, it is still  s i n .

S i n is the destruction of our fellow humans' basis of life by poisoning their water, taking their breathing air by deforestation and overbuilding. (Should we call ourselves "homo petrifax" rather than homo sapiens?)
Trying to convince our fellow humans of our "right" by bringing "Holy War" upon them is s i n .

There is no need for biblical threats to ward off these atrocities. Punishment will come to all, be they involved or not, but particularly for our descendants.

There will be no "Wrath of God", only the horrible consequences of our own behaviour. A more modern look at the catastrophic pay-back which must follow our exploitation of the planet would view it as a kind of Gaian control mechanism (Lovell).

The Christian church missed an excellent chance to work for the good of mankind by stopping this development. Although it was often in a good position to do so during its history, it did nothing. Is that not " s i n " by biblical definition?

Guidelines

We must try to find God elsewhere, not in the bible. Perhaps in the submicroscopic wold of particles as well as in interstellar space, maybe in part of ourselves. Wherever signs of His work are revealed to the searcher, there is part of God. For now, the area of the measurable and explainable ends where God begins.

All attempts to explain mankind's WHITHER, WHENCE and WHY in the form of humanised pictures and stories of God in any name, have thoroughly failed. A new try at mass-religion cannot succeed without the inclusion of some popularised form of science.

I picture God, not as a being in whose image we humans were made, but as an eternally unfathomable, multidimensional principle standing beyond spacetime and having created countless manifestations of life (among them: us) in a closed and looped universe.

A deep humility in face of the greatness and complexity of creation as well as the courage to accept the unexplainable - such as found in some natural scientists - constitute the first steps towards this New Faith.

The contemporary individual religion should acknowledge the insignificance of the human race, and all its accomplishments within a cosmic frame of reference. Once our own diminutive cosmic importance is accepted by the masses, personal death, the primary raison d'être for religion, will no longer terrorise men.
The abolishment of excessive reflective seriousness may also herald the introduction of a form of healthy, self-critical humour.

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