08-05-2009, 06:01 PM
Religion is a very useful belief system when used with a sense of community, with charity and understanding and for the benefit of our fellow man.
When used as something other (no matter which religion one cares to discuss), for example as a crutch, or hook, upon which to hang personal insecurities by projecting superiority or righteousness it becomes very dangerous indeed.
Individuals very easily get swamped by the Collective and loose their sense of Selfness.
The sad fact today is that the world we live in caters far more to the negative aspects of religion than to the positive - of which there are very many tucked away in small nooks and crannies.
Indeed it more often than not suits the purposes of highly unpleasant and often neurotic (if not psychotic) people, to use religion for their own destructive and selfish ends. This is not the fault of religion per se, but rather it is the in-built flaw of the human psyche that contains within it the dark splinter that so easily succumbs to shadow whispers and goading.
It is, therefore, my position that one should not hold religion responsible for our current woes - anymore than you should hold the surgeon's scalpel to account for the surgeon's skill (or lack of it), but rather each of us must hold ourselves responsible for listening to those ghostly whispers we either know or suspect to be untrue and misleading.
Since doing the latter is far from easy and requires the moral step of becoming conscious of the necessary darkness that is inside each one of us, most - instinctively - find satisfying ways and means to avoid this great challenge. At the end of the day is easier and more comfortable to blame someone, or something else, than to willingly load the heavy burden onto our own shoulders.
I have known religious people I admire and some I look up to, as well, plus many more religious people I would not wish to emulate even if this made heaven fall.
So let's place the blame where it truly lies. With us. Not religion.
When used as something other (no matter which religion one cares to discuss), for example as a crutch, or hook, upon which to hang personal insecurities by projecting superiority or righteousness it becomes very dangerous indeed.
Individuals very easily get swamped by the Collective and loose their sense of Selfness.
The sad fact today is that the world we live in caters far more to the negative aspects of religion than to the positive - of which there are very many tucked away in small nooks and crannies.
Indeed it more often than not suits the purposes of highly unpleasant and often neurotic (if not psychotic) people, to use religion for their own destructive and selfish ends. This is not the fault of religion per se, but rather it is the in-built flaw of the human psyche that contains within it the dark splinter that so easily succumbs to shadow whispers and goading.
It is, therefore, my position that one should not hold religion responsible for our current woes - anymore than you should hold the surgeon's scalpel to account for the surgeon's skill (or lack of it), but rather each of us must hold ourselves responsible for listening to those ghostly whispers we either know or suspect to be untrue and misleading.
Since doing the latter is far from easy and requires the moral step of becoming conscious of the necessary darkness that is inside each one of us, most - instinctively - find satisfying ways and means to avoid this great challenge. At the end of the day is easier and more comfortable to blame someone, or something else, than to willingly load the heavy burden onto our own shoulders.
I have known religious people I admire and some I look up to, as well, plus many more religious people I would not wish to emulate even if this made heaven fall.
So let's place the blame where it truly lies. With us. Not religion.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14