Let’s think about how difficult it would be for a religion to remain pure. How can it? It’s born from a human touching understanding and expressing boundless luminosity as they perceive it and as they are able to form ideas which represent portions of experience. Every human being has a belief system that they utilize. Traditionally, the original teacher would have an explanation of reality in keeping with the local traditions.

I’m speaking of the Buddha, Mohammed, Socrates, and Christ. Each passed on a tradition of thought and morality, and each was speaking to the times and in the language of the times in a way. Each was explaining or interpreting an ultimate perception of reality. Also each had issues current to their time. And each gave teachings specific to those times. But how come the teachings about an eye for an eye are followed today when circumstances are much less dire?

What is at the core of each teacher and what is taught by their followers and the followers of the followers? It’s like a pattern that changes a little as it’s passed down and the teachings warped to fit the more current times. Those who seek power distort it for their own purposes.

It’s not that the blood of Jesus is not valuable. It’s just that he did his best to explain to his followers what state of mind he was presenting. He was teaching and not self-aggrandizing when he was saying whosoever believeth in me.

Unfortunately, many followers today aren’t trying to be Christ-like. They are modernistic moralists, sufficiently detached from reality to disavow science. Many are caught up in another fantasy. They believe in an interpretation of an early romantic writing from well before we knew that the earth orbited the sun. The only way to take seriously the story of the earth being six thousand years old is to disavow what is obvious about the earth.

What does this gain you if you subscribe to this belief system? In an exclusive belief system, you have a sense of superiority, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the beliefs. Strong tribal identity and groupthink have influence in this situation.

It also shields believers from the truth around them, protecting them in a blanket of distortions and generalities.  In the most literal interpretations of this writing, it, of course, has many ambiguities and presents a view of the world that contradicts science. They want to reject science and specifically evolution.  Look at all we see around us.  Constant change is what we find, cycles within cycles and time that spans far beyond the immature minds of early man. Many of whom believed the earth to be the center of the universe and gods were accessed through the lunar and solar cycles. In many cultures, these were the times of and animal sacrifice.

What exactly do they think they are trying to do? Why would we look to ancient writings for an understanding of time? Scientists think they have quite a lot to learn about time just like they had a lot to learn about the rotation of the planets once the sun was put at the center of the system. It took religion a long time to come to terms with that. In fact Copernicus was put to death for his discovery.

While they are voting for their “conscience,” their values have been warped into all kinds of exclusive and very pigeonholed topics of abortion, marriage, and (how crazy is this) guns.  There is a political party that caters to them. When they elect those representatives, they elect government giveaways to big corporations, climate change deniers, weapons producers, and energy companies. It’s a disaster.

That way, the only possible path is war over control of the oil production sites as we blindly drill and pump our way into a man-made heat wave, unless we outnumber the oil-dependent shareholders in these corporations and elect some regulation through new laws.