Humanism and Belief Systems

You can be your own person, potentially making your life happier, more exhilarating, and giving it real meaning, read and you will be  shown that if you look closely you will find "The Emperor (Organized Traditional and New Age Religions of the world) is wearing no clothes". Whatever good things you see in organized religions, traditional or New Age, if you look closely you will find that they are built on weak foundations of sand. BUT, they can have a hold on you just like all the many other cults that they compete with, and that they despise.

Keep in mind: "Humankind is born with two things", life from which it inevitably dies and hope which hints that death may not be the end. A conviction that life does not end with death is a tentative endorsement of the validity of hope.
The product sold by religious and New Age groups competing in the spiritual marketplace is "life after death". Whatever else they do, their core appeal, which is difficult for people to resist, is their claim that for you to have life in the hereafter you must follow their religious beliefs and practices. You are very vulnerable in this.

If you have a belief in a God; whoever or whatever tells you who God is, or what God is (like), controls you. This can be an evangelist, minister, priest, pope, guru, Bible, Koran, etc. Remember they don't know anymore than you do in spite of what they say. If you believe in a God, your God is your own personal God, no one else's.

It's OK NOT to believe!
It may surprise you but there are good intellectual and ethical reasons not to believe.
Also, you are NOT alone in your doubts or your disbeliefs.
"Good" moral and ethical values do not depend on religious belief, and is often
degraded by religious belief. In addition Truth of reality is not the foundation of religion.

On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an
ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish useful ideas from the
worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me,
no ideas have any validity at all." -- Carl Sagan, "The Burden of Skepticism," Pasadena lecture, 1987

(A) First, a comment on Freedom of Belief Systems:

A greater variety of belief systems in a society tends to guarantee greater freedom of religion, and freedom from religion for everyone. As long as a given belief system is not imposed on others, but freely accepted by them; and people with that belief system are allowed to practice and promote it without harming the freedom of others; and people outside of the belief system are allowed to freely critisize it so that all can judge the merits of the system for themselves; then we have a healthy society.

From the evidence:
(2) I provisionally conclude, but with a high degree of certainty, NO book, such as the Bible, Book of Mormon, Koran, Hitler's 'Mein Kampf', the Communist Manifesto, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedon Creed, the Humanist Manifesto and any other book or document, including this one, is divine. However, you can choose to make no book or to make any book (all or just a part) your guide and source of truth or inspiration.

Further explanations:
If you are in the process of leaving your religion I would strongly encourage you to read your Bible (or relevant "Holy" book) from beginning to end
without any associated commentary (including this one).
Read what it is actually saying.
This is the best way to find that it is really only a completely human work -- interesting book, but not divinely inspired.

By doing a continuous read you will also read verses in context.Context is very important, especially in the OT verses that the NT verses claim to be prophetic.

In the case of the Bible it seems to me that a believer checking the Hebrew, Greek of so called earlier sources (there are essentially no originals) says that you are doubting God of the Bible's guidance of the translators of the many different versions of the Bible. The translators, all had access to the same Hebrew/Greek/earlier sources as you or anyone else has. The existence of
many versions says that the earlier sources are just as controversial as the various present versions. This also applies in a similar way to the other "Holy" books.

From the evidence:
(3) I provisionally, but with a high degree of certainty, conclude that no person (Jesus, Mohammed, Pope, Mary, Moses, priest, minister, guru, saint, or anyone else) is any more divine than
any other person. Some persons have evolved into man-made gods.
However, you can choose if you want to follow a religious person as a God or as a source of knowledge and inspiration. You can also choose to be independent and be your own person; this I recommend.

From the evidence:
(4) I also provisionally conclude, but with a high degree of certainty, no relic or any material object is divine, although you can subordinate yourself to make it divine for you personally.
(e.g. building, book, idol, prayer beads, rosary, statue, cross, rabbit's foot, crystal)

From the evidence:
(5) Also, all rituals, all ceremonies, all procedures and methods of doing things are man-made, not divine. Concepts such as Karma are man-made.
(6) The existence of God and the existence of life in the hereafter cannot be absolutely proved or disproved, however widespread God belief is evident.

which indicates that.. ...

There is no physical evidence of the continuation of existence after death. Also, if there is a hereafter, no one knows anything about it, including religious figures (and their books) -- they are only guessing.

If you study the Universe you find it full of a variety in everything, including belief systems here on earth. This suggests that if there is a God of the Universe, this God must love variety in everything, including variety in belief systems.
There is no evidence to suggest that the God of the Universe would consider a person that believes in God to be any better than an atheist or agnostic -- all would be considered alike to God in the real world -- only people and their God discriminate against other people, If it were possible to absolutely prove that a God of the universe exists, it would still be far from proving that this God is the God of the Bible, of the Koran, etc.
It would still be far from proving the truth of "Holy Books".If there is existence after death, the fact that a person doesn't believe in it or does believe in it makes no difference -- it will still be there. Just because a person does not believe or a person does believe in life after death does not condemn that person.

This is the only life we know we will live. It is up to you to make life pleasant and fulfilling for yourself, your loved ones (e.g. family), neighbors, community, country, and the world now.

(7) There are certain absolutes in the Universe.

"We believe that the world is knowable, that there are simple rules governingthe behavior of matter and the evolution of the universe. We affirm that there are eternal,objective, extrahistorical, social neutral, external and universal truths and that the assemblageof these truths is what we call physical science. Natural laws can be discovered that are universal,
invariable, inviolate, genderless, and verifiable. They may be found by men or by women or bymixed collaborations of any proportions. Any intelligent alien anywhere would have come uponthe same logical system as we have to explain the structure of protons and the nature of supernovae." by Sheldon Glashow in a mini-essay in the New York Times (Oct. 22, 1989)

"It is important to understand that, when a theory becomes strongly confirmed by repeated observations and experiments, it can move across a fuzzy boundary to become recognized by the entire scientific community as a fact. That planets go around the sun was once the Copernican theory. Today it is a fact. That material objects are made of molecules was once a conjecture. Indeed for may decades it was ridiculed by many physicists and chemists. Today it is a fact. In Darwin's day there was a theory of evolution. Today, only ignorant creationists refuse to call it a fact. It is also important to understand that so-called revolutions in science are not revolutions in the sense of overthrowing an earlier theory. They are benign refinements of earlier theories. Einstein didn't discard Newtonian physics. He added qualifications to Newtonian physics."by Martin Gardner in his book "On the Wild Side" ISBN 0-97975-713-2

(8) Science: The talk about the relationship between religion and science is a sham. Science is a non-theistic (atheistic) endeavor. It has been so successful because it is one area of endeavor that assumes there is nothing beyond the natural. Scientists, whatever their private beliefs, assume no supernatural realm as it applies to their profession while they are practicing it. Outside of science
they may believe all kinds of things, for instance the existence of a three-headed-God. They may take all kinds of leaps of faith outside of their profession -- that is their business.

I agree that some famous scientists have and do use religious (supernatural) terms to explain some exciting science. Because of the beauty of scientific investigation and discovery it does evoke intense emotions in many people including myself; and emotional words are used to express these. When expressing these in public it is important not to mislead the public in believing they are referring to anything but the natural. Ask yourself:
How far would science develop if supernatural causes (e.g. God, gods, miracles,holy ghost, evil spirits, heaven, hell, angels, long dead deities) were acceptable in explaining processes? The death of science would follow soon thereafter.

Science also addresses the "should". Science provides values.
Example: Most people will see the value of taking medication for epileptic seizures (offered by science) than to exorcise an evil spirit (used by religious specialists, especially before the advent of modern science). The discoveries of science promote a "should" in the ethical and moral spheres.

(9) Ethics: Since all morality and ethics are based on Good (that which enhances life) and Evil (that which destroys life), it is not the domain of religion, but of common reasonable people.You and I are the ones that have to promote the good and lessen the evil in our world, not religion. Principles that enhance life such as principles of compassion,love, self-giving, respect, honesty, responsibility, kindness, knowledge, enjoyment of life, decreasing suffering, etc. are Good principles, to be promoted, whereasmurder, stealing, hurting are usually evil. Where these principles conflict you mustweigh the possible consequences and decide which ones take priority.Selfishness is not an evil as such. The vast majority of people are innately "GOOD to others" be they religious, freethinkers, agnostics, atheists or whatever. People's basic humanity to others often is evident in spite of cumbersome religious beliefs. About 1% of the population that are psychopaths I would consider "Evil to others" -- extreme examples are Stalin and Clifford Olson, the serial killer. Generally in various degrees, people naturally need to be loving, caring and supportive of others, and to be loved, cared about and supported by others.Religion is not needed, may even be a hindrance to these human qualities.Example: I love my wife of 37 years. She is a wonderful woman in more than a million ways.
Our often life threatened, multiply-physically disabled daughter is wonderful -- she is intelligent, has a very good disposition, good sense of justice and fairness. (I don't wish a disability for anyone, and it would be better if our daughter did not have her's. Thank scientists for pain killers.) We love, belong to and care foreach other (cat included).

An excellent book: "Can we be good without God? Behavviour and the Need to Believe." by Dr. Robert Buckman, 2000, Penguin Books of Canada Ltd., ISBN 0-670-89222-X

(10) A "nothing experience can be very intense". Many intense religious experiences in all the different religions and intense non-religious experiences may only be mind experiences and do not give evidence their religion or belief system is true. However, it is evident that many people, if not most people, have a need to experience intense feelings. Intense concentration and involvement in something other than yourselfis healthy. Finding meaning in life is very important to most people. These experiences or involvements can be private and/or public. This is shown in people's intense participation: in sports, games, hobbies, sex, romance; in reading (novels, poems, scholarly works, etc.); in watching "gripping" movies or TV; in personally helping others, in accomplishing a worthwhile thing, in solving meaningful problems, in relevant learning, in working on a worthwhile project, in scientific discovery; in hiking, gardening and other nature activities; in relating to others. In causes such as radical fundamentalism (Jewish, Islam, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and any other religion); nazism, communism, capitalism, socialism, or any other "ism"; New Age. In personal religious experiences. In Charismatic type of religious service or political event. In drugs. In natural and man-made catastrophes. You can probably think of many other ways. It is important to realize that you , as a person, have some choice and control in what endeavor you will experience these intense feelings --intense involvements -- find meaning and purpose in life.
Many of these activities also raise a person's self-esteem.Indeed, mystical experiences occur in people of all religions, also inpeople of no religion. As Charles Templeton states, "Mystical experience has added no insights to our knowledge of God or Christian doctrine. The experience is not uniquely religious: the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellowcould go into a transport at will merely by repeating his name aloud."

(11) Introspection: Many people, including myself, need time forintrospection. Introspection can be described in many ways -- meditation, time for reflection, private prayer, communing with nature,communing with oneself, time out, thinking time, creative thinking time, a time to consider unusual questions, time to philosophize, time to be alone,or whatever. In refreshing ourselves this way, some people need more introspection then others. Some may not need it at all.

It is important to realize the method you use is your choice. Organizedreligions does not have a monopoly on prayer or any other way of introspection, in spite of what they say. Organized religion is completely unnecessary here.

I am not against private prayer-- it can help people sort things out in their brains. Example: It can help one be more compassionate and loving to the sick person you are praying for, so could help in healing.