There are too many conflicting religions in the world just because of distorted beliefs. Millions of people have believed in the false teachings of religions without ever questioning the validity of their faith. Emotionally inspired people have taught and preached distorted interpretations of the spiritual world without any tangible proof or evidence to substantiate their convictions. No amount of storytelling is going to change anything. The spiritual world is just as unknown and mysterious today as it was in the past.
Throughout the history of humanity, people have tried to connect the spiritual realm to the tangible world of the environment. To make sense of the happenings of fate, many people were inspired to tell stories about good and evil; these stories evolved into religions. The emotionalism and intangibilities of religions often make it impossible for religious people to distinguish between good and evil. While preaching “brotherly love” and amassing all kinds of “righteous” by-laws, many religious people are disregarding the environment and committing crimes against nature.
The teachings of most religions are concerned only with the relationships of people. Usually, there is a highly esteemed central figure who is the “founder” of the religion. Inevitably, people are taking the word of other people about information that has been handed down from one generation to another generation. Religious teachings may seem like a kind of comradery of goodwill and fellowship but in reality, and in view of the bloody history of humanity, religions have caused a lot of bloodshed and wars.
All modern politics, directly or indirectly, have evolved from religions. Even the “atheistic” beliefs have their roots imbedded in religious beliefs. Karl Marx and Frederic Engels, the founders of modern communism, were tutored in religious concepts. Marx and Engels took god out of their ideology but didn’t take out the distorted religious belief that mankind is a privileged entity that has the right to destroy the environment and take away the rights of all other life forms. Even American democracy, with all its laws to protect human rights, is guilty of “legally” allowing heinous crimes to be committed against nature.
The early pioneers of America were extravagantly careless destroyers of wildlife and other natural resources. These barbaric settlers called themselves “Christians”, but their deeds were more satanic than divine. Their religion didn’t teach them anything about how to preserve the environment or protect wildlife. Most of the descendants of those early pioneers still haven’t learned the fundamentals of protecting the land, water and other natural resources.
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The most destructive of the distorted religious beliefs concerning the environment and nature, has been the belief that mankind is godlier than other life forms and has the right to plunder the earth with impunity. People who think the world and universe were created just for mankind, have acquired a false sense of “superiority” and have violated the rights of other life forms. This belief has caused many hunters, fishermen and other people to abuse animals in unnecessary crimes of overkill.
A lot of controversy has been stirred up over “believers” and “non-believers”. People who don’t believe religions are not necessarily “atheists”. There are a lot of people who logically believe there is a spiritual world but don’t believe the distorted beliefs of religions. The purpose of this article is not to deny the existence of the spiritual world but to discredit all the false stories that have grown up around it.
Many religious people are obsessed with the “hereafter” and are completely unmindful of the “here and now” importance of protecting the natural world. The values of too many people have been compromised by phony preachers who have never done anything to protect the environment and have only misled people.
A new beginning with new values is needed for the human race. People are going to have to acknowledge that they have been deceived by their leaders and clergymen. Mankind is headed down a one-way path of destruction, and unless the values and beliefs of people drastically change, they will have to suffer the consequences.
If the ultimate purpose of evolution is the perfection of destruction, then mankind has reached that point, and it could be the point of no return. The solution to mankind’s growing and perplexing crisis is to learn to live in harmony with nature. People have to start from the ground up; the innovations of science can never replace the natural laws of nature.
Unless people can understand that their worst enemy is their own kind, they are doomed to failure. Human overpopulation is a crime against nature and must be controlled through enforced birth control; destroying the environment and carelessly eliminating other life forms is also a crime against nature. Distorted religious beliefs should never be allowed to be a part of the modern world. Being civilized means forsaking the barbaric practices of the past, and it means people have learned to respect nature and the rights of other living things.
--Marlin O. Wallace |
