自由主义者的信仰,欢迎批评指正!

The faith of a free thinker, a religious nonbeliever

“We know there is no God but we must be good.” As said by John Stuart Mill. Our moral sentiment ought to be sprouting from the deep and innate concern of the wellbeing of others, while not ignoring the best interest of the individual. No genuine moral concerns could be derived from the fear of eternal punishment condescending from a higher authority. The simple and often forgotten truth is that, whatever that is true and good has to be natural at same time. A moral doctrine existed outside human nature is not true morality, but an illusion and deception. As a common saying goes, love can not be forced upon, forced love will lead to hate. Our moral conduct is for the sheer interest of ourselves and so I can hardly see any divine origin hidden behind it. That is to say, one ought to be more sensitive to what his conscience tells him that he should do than what religious doctrine oracles him what he could do.

No one with healthy mind of rationality will find it an easy task to believe that there is an anthropomorphic God who possesses human temperament, yet, at the same time, shows no concern of the suffering and tragic fate on his creation. If this God is as mercy as he claimed he is, why there are so many crimes and atrocities left untouched under his supervision? How is that the most callous and wrongful doings, such as slavery and genocides, are committed by people who claimed to be his believers? How could there be an omnipotent God who predestinated a life for his subjects and, at same time, gave him the freedom of choice? If this be the case, then we may logically assume that goodness and evilness are both the gifts from this same God whose basic characteristics are love and kindness. By the same token, is it logically correct that acceptance and denial of his existence are both from the wonderful endowment of his blessing? Is there anything more absurd and irrational than this contradictory nature of the Christian religion? Clearly, in order to be a believer of such faith, one must cease to think because the very notion of this anthropomorphic God runs antagonistically against itself. It seems that converting to a religion, in reality, demands a total surrender of one’s intelligence in the place of ultra stupidity. No need to abolish this artificial concept of God because he has, at very beginning, destroyed himself by his own inconsistency. The omnipotence and infallibility of this Judaism-Christian God prove nothing but his invalidity and therefore its nonexistence.

From a historical perspective, all religions, including Christianity, are products of social and economic development of human society. Just like all other cultural phenomenon of mankind, religion inevitably reflects the very basic characteristics of that social and economic soil upon which it nurtures itself. Contrary to the belief held reverently by the Evangelicals, human history does not constitute itself on the basis of quarreling among different abstract concepts, such as embellished as the holly struggle between Satan and God, but through a never ceasing evolution of the solid material substances. Thus these materialistic factors, namely economic and political factors, have played a determining role in the historical development in which religion is a byproduct, and will remain so in the future. Consequently, there can only be a historical view of religion instead of a religious view of history.

Quite contrary to the conventional thought, rejecting religion does not mean life should be a pure materialistic existence. Ironically, Atheists are in fact more of the result of religious persecution and bias than anything else; for the most severe reproach of the Deity is not to deny his existence but to impose upon him with the human ideas that are very unworthy of him. By imposing their secularist ideas upon a shadowy Deity, the religious people have not only done a great task in consecrating their callous and selfish desire, but also created the very conception of Atheists, the people who disagree with them in spiritual matters. In other words, denying an organized or formal religion does not make one an Atheist, it only allows one to be more cautious on what constitutes the notion of the “real religion”. Happy life demands meaning and value which can only be attained through a process of a spiritual awakening. This requires us to unfetter the materialistic bondage that had so much crippled us. Individual life can reach a meaning only if it is viewed from a greater angle in which we view ourselves as an integral part of a community。If indeed there is such thing as heaven, it ought to be a place where the universal salvation for all is the prerequisite for the salvation for individual. What the religious fanatics believed to be the paradise reserved only for few “chosen ones” could be found nowhere but only in their petty imaginations.

Organized religion or cult controls people's mind by capitalizing on the two weak aspects of mankind, namely fear and ignorance. As pointed out by Karl Marx, “Religion is the opium of the people; it is the hope of the hopeless condition, heart of the heartless world”. Truth will not flow out effortlessly from the doctrine of any religious faith. In case of moral dilemma, one would be better off by consulting himself with the wisdom obtained during life time as well as the power of rationality. In the journey of seeking truth, there is no short cut; you may have to devote yourself to the cause of seeking truth with full measure of efforts. One may quite well end up in vain by subscribing his mind blindly to any available package of faith or religion, hoping to get salvation or enlightenment through this easy way. Studying theology or following strictly on the fancy Pharisaic rituals alone will not make one holly or saved, since the ultimate fulfillment of a faith can only be measured by the fruit of a life that has been spent in a productive and meaningful way, just as Ben Franklin pointed out, at the very end, “We shall not be examined on what we thought, but on what we did that is good to our fellow human beings”.

In short, one must find his true self in order to gain true happiness. No individual can exist without community. A person’s consciousness reminds him of his existence as an individual being. From this perspective, we may say people are selfish by nature. However, to arrive to the meaning on life, one must go beyond that self consciousness and to conceive the truth with the regard of the unconscious part of our existence. The unconscious part constantly reminds us that we are part of a bigger thing, in which all people are related and their happiness and sorrows are inseparable from each other. This collective Un-consciousness we may call it God. Only by adhering one’s consciousness with this ultimate unconsciousness, human beings may be able to exalt themselves from the frailty of human nature, for humanity can reveal itself as a light guiding our minds through out our life journey. Thus to a true believer of this ultimate truth, or a liberal thinker as people may label him as, all religions are virtually preaching the same message, therefore, he finds neither necessity nor resentment in participating in the rituals of any belief systems, be it Christianity or whatever, for what really matters to him here are not the formality or rituals that are appealing to eyes but the substances instead, or the “light of truth” that enlightens one’s soul. Judging from this perspective, we may say that we, as free thinkers, are very religious indeed, and we do believe in one God who is all good and powerful.The faith of a free thinker, a religious nonbeliever

“We know there is no God but we must be good.” As said by John Stuart Mill. Our moral sentiment ought to be sprouting from the deep and innate concern of the wellbeing of others, while not ignoring the best interest of the individual. No genuine moral concerns could be derived from the fear of eternal punishment condescending from a higher authority. The simple and often forgotten truth is that, whatever that is true and good has to be natural at same time. A moral doctrine existed outside human nature is not true morality, but an illusion and deception. As a common saying goes, love can not be forced upon, forced love will lead to hate. Our moral conduct is for the sheer interest of ourselves and so I can hardly see any divine origin hidden behind it. That is to say, one ought to be more sensitive to what his conscience tells him that he should do than what religious doctrine oracles him what he could do.

No one with healthy mind of rationality will find it an easy task to believe that there is an anthropomorphic God who possesses human temperament, yet, at the same time, shows no concern of the suffering and tragic fate on his creation. If this God is as mercy as he claimed he is, why there are so many crimes and atrocities left untouched under his supervision? How is that the most callous and wrongful doings, such as slavery and genocides, are committed by people who claimed to be his believers? How could there be an omnipotent God who predestinated a life for his subjects and, at same time, gave him the freedom of choice? If this be the case, then we may logically assume that goodness and evilness are both the gifts from this same God whose basic characteristics are love and kindness. By the same token, is it logically correct that acceptance and denial of his existence are both from the wonderful endowment of his blessing? Is there anything more absurd and irrational than this contradictory nature of the Christian religion? Clearly, in order to be a believer of such faith, one must cease to think because the very notion of this anthropomorphic God runs antagonistically against itself. It seems that converting to a religion, in reality, demands a total surrender of one’s intelligence in the place of ultra stupidity. No need to abolish this artificial concept of God because he has, at very beginning, destroyed himself by his own inconsistency. The omnipotence and infallibility of this Judaism-Christian God prove nothing but his invalidity and therefore its nonexistence.

From a historical perspective, all religions, including Christianity, are products of social and economic development of human society. Just like all other cultural phenomenon of mankind, religion inevitably reflects the very basic characteristics of that social and economic soil upon which it nurtures itself. Contrary to the belief held reverently by the Evangelicals, human history does not constitute itself on the basis of quarreling among different abstract concepts, such as embellished as the holly struggle between Satan and God, but through a never ceasing evolution of the solid material substances. Thus these materialistic factors, namely economic and political factors, have played a determining role in the historical development in which religion is a byproduct, and will remain so in the future. Consequently, there can only be a historical view of religion instead of a religious view of history.

Quite contrary to the conventional thought, rejecting religion does not mean life should be a pure materialistic existence. Ironically, Atheists are in fact more of the result of religious persecution and bias than anything else; for the most severe reproach of the Deity is not to deny his existence but to impose upon him with the human ideas that are very unworthy of him. By imposing their secularist ideas upon a shadowy Deity, the religious people have not only done a great task in consecrating their callous and selfish desire, but also created the very conception of Atheists, the people who disagree with them in spiritual matters. In other words, denying an organized or formal religion does not make one an Atheist, it only allows one to be more cautious on what constitutes the notion of the “real religion”. Happy life demands meaning and value which can only be attained through a process of a spiritual awakening. This requires us to unfetter the materialistic bondage that had so much crippled us. Individual life can reach a meaning only if it is viewed from a greater angle in which we view ourselves as an integral part of a community。If indeed there is such thing as heaven, it ought to be a place where the universal salvation for all is the prerequisite for the salvation for individual. What the religious fanatics believed to be the paradise reserved only for few “chosen ones” could be found nowhere but only in their petty imaginations.

Organized religion or cult controls people's mind by capitalizing on the two weak aspects of mankind, namely fear and ignorance. As pointed out by Karl Marx, “Religion is the opium of the people; it is the hope of the hopeless condition, heart of the heartless world”. Truth will not flow out effortlessly from the doctrine of any religious faith. In case of moral dilemma, one would be better off by consulting himself with the wisdom obtained during life time as well as the power of rationality. In the journey of seeking truth, there is no short cut; you may have to devote yourself to the cause of seeking truth with full measure of efforts. One may quite well end up in vain by subscribing his mind blindly to any available package of faith or religion, hoping to get salvation or enlightenment through this easy way. Studying theology or following strictly on the fancy Pharisaic rituals alone will not make one holly or saved, since the ultimate fulfillment of a faith can only be measured by the fruit of a life that has been spent in a productive and meaningful way, just as Ben Franklin pointed out, at the very end, “We shall not be examined on what we thought, but on what we did that is good to our fellow human beings”.

In short, one must find his true self in order to gain true happiness. No individual can exist without community. A person’s consciousness reminds him of his existence as an individual being. From this perspective, we may say people are selfish by nature. However, to arrive to the meaning on life, one must go beyond that self consciousness and to conceive the truth with the regard of the unconscious part of our existence. The unconscious part constantly reminds us that we are part of a bigger thing, in which all people are related and their happiness and sorrows are inseparable from each other. This collective Un-consciousness we may call it God. Only by adhering one’s consciousness with this ultimate unconsciousness, human beings may be able to exalt themselves from the frailty of human nature, for humanity can reveal itself as a light guiding our minds through out our life journey. Thus to a true believer of this ultimate truth, or a liberal thinker as people may label him as, all religions are virtually preaching the same message, therefore, he finds neither necessity nor resentment in participating in the rituals of any belief systems, be it Christianity or whatever, for what really matters to him here are not the formality or rituals that are appealing to eyes but the substances instead, or the “light of truth” that enlightens one’s soul. Judging from this perspective, we may say that we, as free thinkers, are very religious indeed, and we do believe in one God who is all good and powerful.