Ideas Up for Grabs

Mother Universe

To relate in a religious way may be a deep instinct for humans. In our age, however, religious belief has less and less a basis. Not that fewer people would be believers, but their belief is less founded, they take it less seriously. Scientific explanations are stronger now than any time before, and on the everyday level divine intervention has less and less room. Whatever remains in the realm of religion is shifting toward the paranormal and the less obvious. At the same time we can observe a strong need for religion, this is one of the reasons new religious sects keep popping up.

So the contradiction is this: we need to relate to the world in a religious way but we cannot believe in gods anymore.

My response to this is a new religion which does not need belief. It does not speak about a living divine being, it does not say that our sermons are listened to, and it does not indicate that we would be able to have any effect on this imaginary godhead. We must be aware of the fact that this religion is our own product, and we have created it to serve our needs.

If we have any kind of Divine being in mind, it somehow should have feminine features: She, Mother Universe (or Universe-Mother), nortures us, gives us all the means to develop ourselves but does not educate and does not control us. She gives us food to eat, methods to make food, skills to cook, and a body to eat with and for. But She does not care whether or not we do the right thing: our failure is our punishment. No paternal attitude to punish those who violate the laws. And no laws, other than the laws of nature which we can figure out, which we then are able to use to our benefit.

There is no moral teaching -- other that use your mind, use your capacities. And if you do harm to others, you risk your own safety, your own well-being. If you steal, others might steal from you. If you kill people, others might kill you. If you do not live in peace with other nations, others nations might attack you. The necessary morality is as simple as this -- no commandments and no eternal suffering in hell. Whatever you do might come back to you -- that's more than enough.

What should be clearly missing from a new, enlightened religion is the myth. This is obvious, since we are unable to believe anything which does not have a scientific explanation. We cannot believe in a God who impregnates a woman in her dreams, in a mother who is still a virgin, in a man who at the same time is the Son of God, able to resurrect from the dead.

In the same way, we will not need holy scripts, which are allegedly the writings or teachings of a god.

If not this and not that, what would we have? We would have our own need to have this religious attitude. We need a way to acknowledge that we are just tiny specks of dust in this huge universe. This is everyone's personal experience: just look up at the night sky full of remote stars. This common experience needs to be ackowledged, and this is where we need a new religion.

This religion must be ceremonial, since ceremonies are what we can do to express our feelings. We need to bow -- not to a god, not because He or She may see us, but because the need of humbleness is inside us. We need ceremonies to remind us to this inequal relationship of the world and us. We need ceremonies to do things which help us in our everyday actions, which thus can have a spiritual aspect. And that enriches us mentally.

What exactly these ceremonies should be, and whether or not these ceremonies should be uniform, these questions are of the future. Every religion develops its own system of ceremonies and rites, this must be so in the case of a ceremonial religion as well.

As for me, I think every day of such a Mother Universe. I am happy to have body and my supportive environment, and whatever good affects me a day, I always think of Her. I look for harmony in my life and in the world around me, and I intensely enjoy whatever harmonious things I get. I play music and I am happy to have musical instruments and my brain which is able to enjoy music. I write poems and am happy that I can write and read, I even have tools (such as paper and pencil or a computer keyboard). I make food and am happy to have a creative mind, some kind of taste, and I have food and money to buy it. Since I have this religious attitude I feel better, I enjoy my life more.

Certainly, I would feel even better if I had a group of people to share this good feeling with. If there were such a group, it could function like the first cell of Christianity or any other, now established religion.

The basic principles of a religion like this should be incorporated in a book -- which, of course, would not be sacred, but rather practical, containing a set of ideas and of suggestions.

Someone should write this book.

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