Joe’s backyard burgers are the best! They’re so juicy and yet crusty on the outside, too. The barbecue needs work. It’s rickety and a little on the rusty side, and the grill was only scraped and not cleaned properly. But Joe knows how to flatten those burgers just right, so as the hamburger fat hits the coals, the flames that erupt ensure that the burgers are perfectly charbroiled.
Sounds appetizing? Probably not unless you know and trust Joe. Maybe you would eat those burgers if he is a relative or your next-door neighbor, but not if Joe is selling them to the public in a local eating establishment.
We have inspectors to regulate everything these days. Health inspectors, meat inspectors, regulations for schools and workplaces, flight rules, traffic rules, and so on. You would think there would be regulations for everything.
However, there are no regulations to guarantee public safety regarding religion.
A curious situation, don’t you think? We have heard of cults where people are brainwashed into believing things that most people would never think of, let alone consider. There are strange beliefs, held only by a few, that manage to fly under the radar until something hits the news, and suddenly, people have died or been injured because a cult leader goes over the edge. Jonestown comes to mind. Still, there is no call to regulate religion. Why?
If we leave aside what communists did when they tried to both regulate and eliminate religion, why is religion not regulated when so many other areas of life are? Does it have something to do with how we, as a culture, feel about our beliefs? There is a long-standing tradition of tolerance and free speech in Western civilization. We are willing to tolerate cults so long as people are law-abiding and no one gets hurt.
So, everyone is free to decide what is true for themselves. How we choose what to believe in is often the same as how we might shop for clothes or a new car. If something suits us, we will believe in it. We judge how “true” something is by how it makes us feel. There are probably as many reasons why a person chooses to be an atheist, independently spiritual, or pick a religion as there are people on this planet. But is this the best way to determine what you believe in?
Probably not. Let’s have another look at Joe and his burgers. Joe probably makes delicious hamburgers. However, the health department has not inspected his barbecue, and he has no license to sell food to the public. Imagine, if you will, that Joe’s burgers are like all the belief systems in the world. Atheism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, believing in witchcraft, being spiritual outside of organized religion, none of this is proven to be accurate or correct. Like Joe’s burgers, these belief systems are not inspected by a “health department.” It is buyer beware for everything. The fact you like what you believe in does not guarantee that it is not harmful or that it is any better than what anyone else believes in. If belief systems are like an array, and every individual chooses their beliefs according to their feelings, no belief system can be better. It’s just a matter of personal taste.
If you just want to feel better, to have more meaning in your life, an ethical or moral reference point for decision-making, or a sense of oneness with the universe, it is almost certain there is a belief system for you somewhere. However, if you want to know the absolute truth, what is true for everyone, regardless of whether people believe in it, you must search for it. And this search won’t be easy or painless. I have composed some guidelines that might help. These guidelines are based on how belief systems interact with millions of people, not just one person. They are as follows:
- If very few people believe in what you are interested in, has the truth been hidden for thousands of years, and is it only available to initiates? How can that be possible? (Cults get washed out on this point.)
- If people can very quickly follow or practice the teaching of this belief system, or it teaches something that renders discussion meaningless, what point is there in believing in it? (Belief systems like atheism have difficulty here.)
- If the belief system depends on emotion or individual experience, does the belief system violate our need to share and be social beings by being too subjective or even solipsistic? (Being spiritual outside of organized religion has problems here.)
- Does the belief system enslave others if free speech and respect for individual liberty are not upheld? (Fundamentalist Christianity, Fundamentalist Islam, and Communist atheism have difficulty here.)
- If religion teaches that our world is an illusion, does it make it difficult to take this life seriously? (Hinduism and Buddhism have problems here.)
- To sum up, if you just want to feel better, no problem. Religion or a belief system can be like a drug. But if you are looking for absolute truth that applies to everyone, whether people believe in it or not, you must investigate a belief system not to find out whether it fits you or your lifestyle but, for its own sake, to know the truth regardless of how it makes you feel. Good luck! Feel free to comment.