Theist/atheist - a mere game of ego

**Nick89** · 03-13-2010 02:36 PM

Some four years ago, so I was 16 by then, I slowly began to realise that whether I say I believe in God or I don't, it will evoke a false image of myself in other people. I also realised being a theist or an atheist, generally speaking - religious beliefs (sic!) don't have much to do with spirituality. Look at the society. In Poland, my homeland, for example, 90 percent of citizens are catholics. And yet the society is soooooo spiritual and sublime, no crime, no hatred, no materialism, etc.

I don't believe in God as such, as Holy Trinity, I don't pray, don't go to Church. But I'm pretty sure, Jesus was one of the greatest sages in human history, I do believe that miracles he made were real. I do believe in soul, spirit and I believe in the power of 'the good', the power of love. This is what allowed Jesus to make miracles, to my mind; it has nothing to do with the specific name JHWH, or whatever.
I believe in the words of Jesus, he was a wise man, in Bible being a source of great wisdom, however, I also believe in chakras, for that matter.
I do put my faith in 'God', however, who that God is, I don't know, not a person, not a thing. When something bad happens to me, I don't say 'world is bad, God doesn't exist' but I try to accept that what happened simply had to happen in order to teach me something.
I could say both 'I believe in God' - I believe in love, and 'I don't believe in God - the concept of a God that has a specific name and of a specific religion being more right then the other is absurd to me.

All religions are equally true and equally false, it is only how you treat them and what you learn from them that is important!

Life is not 1 or 0, not theist or atheist, etc., these are only mental constructs which serve for the ego to inhance it's sense of identity.

Here's an excellent text about the topic. An excerpt from the book 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle.

Read it carefully and I hope some of you become aware of what they are really doing when they argue wheter God exist or not, etc. I just feel like vomiting

when I look at a spiritual forum and all I notice is endless dispute between two parties: theists and atheists.

Truth: Relative or Absolute

Beyond the realm of simple and verifiable facts, the certainty that “I
am right and you are wrong” is a dangerous thing in personal relationships as
well as in interactions between nations, tribes, religions, and so on.
But if the belief “I am right; you are wrong” is one of the ways in
which the ego strengthens itself, if making yourself right and others wrong is
a mental dysfunction that perpetuates separation and conflict between
human beings, does that mean there is no such thing as right or wrong
behavior, action, or belief? And wouldn't that be the moral relativism that
some contemporary Christian teachings see as the great evil of our times?
The history of Christianity is, of course, a prime example of how the
belief that you are in sole possession of the truth, that is to say, right , can
corrupt your actions and behavior to the point of insanity. For centuries,
torturing and burning people alive if their opinion diverged even in the
slightest from Church doctrine or narrow interpretations of scripture (the
“Truth”) was considered right because the victims were “wrong.” They were
so wrong that they needed to be killed. The Truth was considered more
important than human life. And what was the Truth? A story you had to
believe in; which means, a bundle of thoughts.
The one million people that mad dictator Pol Pot of Cambodia ordered
killed included everybody who wore glasses. Why? To him, the Marxist
interpretation of history was the absolute truth, and according to his version
of it, those who wore glasses belonged to the educated glass, the bourgeoisie,
the exploiters of the peasants. They needed to be eliminated to make room
for a new social order. His truth also was a bundle of thoughts.
The Catholic and other churches are actually correct when they
identify relativism, the belief that there is no absolute truth to guide human
behavior, as one of the evils of our times; but you won't find absolute truth if
you look for it where it cannot be found: in doctrines, ideologies, sets of
rules, or stories. What do all of these have in common? They are made up of
thought. Thought can at best point to the truth, but it never is the truth. That's
why Buddhists say “The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.” All
religions are equally false and equally true, depending on how you use them.
You can use them in the service of the ego, or you can use them in the
service of the Truth. If you believe only your religion is the Truth, you are
using it in the service of the ego. used in such a way, religion becomes
ideology and creates an illusory sense of superiority as well as division and
conflict between people. In the service of the Truth, religious teachings
represent signposts or maps left behind by awakened humans to assist you in
spiritual awakening, that is to say, in becoming free of identification with
form.
There is only one absolute Truth, and all other truths emanate from it.
When you find that Truth, your actions will be in alignment with it. Human
action can reflect the Truth, or it can reflect illusion. Can the Truth be put
into words? Yes, but the words are, of course, not it. They only point to it.
The Truth is inseparable from who you are. Yes, you are the truth. If
you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The very Being
that you are is Truth. Jesus tried to convey that when he said, “I am the way
and the truth and the life.”2 These words uttered by Jesus are one of the most
powerful and direct pointers to the Truth, if understood correctly. If
misinterpreted, however, they become a great obstacle. Jesus speaks of the
innermost I Am, the essence identity of every man and woman, every lifeform,
in fact. He speaks of the life that you are. Some Christian mystics have
called it the Christ within; Buddhists call it your Buddha nature; for Hindus,
it is Atman, the indwelling God. When you are in touch with that dimension
within yourself – and being in touch with it is your natural state, not some
miraculous achievement – all your actions and relationships will reflect the
oneness with all life that you sense deep within. This is love. Laws,
commandments, rules, and regulations are necessary for those who are cut
off from who they are, the Truth within. They prevent the worst excesses of
the ego, and often they don't even do that. “Love and do what you will,” said
St. Augustine. Words cannot get much closer to the Truth than that.

**Scatterbrain** · 03-13-2010 02:52 PM

I don't understand how love has anything to do with the veracity of a religious system.

Some religion may have some truth in them, but that doesn't mean all beliefs are "equally true". As far as objective facts go they're for the most part all myth. (Jesus didn't exist, no miracles, etc)

**Photolysis** · 03-13-2010 03:21 PM

This thread's title is a perfect example of people trying to use words and phrases to sound smart, but failing utterly by misusing them.

Atheism/Theism is nothing related to the ego, it is a stance on whether you believe in the existence of god(s).

All religions are equally true and equally false, it is only how you treat them and what you learn from them that is important!

Complete BS. This is like saying a flat earth and spherical earth are equally true and false. This is incorrect; one is more accurate than the other.

Religions make factual claims. These claims MUST have an actual answer, regardless of whether anyone can know that answer. Therefore some religions will be closer to this answer than others, and some will be even further.

They are not equally right and equally wrong.

Life is not 1 or 0, not theist or atheist, etc., these are only mental constructs which serve for the ego to inhance it's sense of identity.

No, some things in life are not black or white. Some things are.

Atheism is not an ego-enhancing mental construct, it is a lack of a belief in deities. This lack of belief is regretfully important even in this era hence why it even has a name in the first place.

**Nick89** · 03-13-2010 04:39 PM