PART 4 - FREEDOM TO CRITICIZE

4.1 A religion from the West

Religions including Christianity have come from the East. The West has now the opportunity to give its own religion to the world by disseminating the new image of God based on the concept of VIETE (Vital Energy, Information-Interaction-Interdependence, Eternal, Tout-poussant = All Mighty and Ecoulement = Flow). With a critical spirit but without provoking a revolution, we can put an end to divinization of humans, humanization of the divine, and sovereignty of old Gods with man’s body, fanatic interpretation of sacred texts and antiquated traditions. Such negative elements have increased our belief in human beings and have taken us further away from VIETE. European society has already recognized flaws in Christian practices and traditions and has made significant advance towards spirituality by adopting an open mind towards other thinking, cultures and traditions. We live in a period of spiritual boom. People have been positively influenced by numerous religio-esoteric writings and novels such as by James.Redfield (The prophecy of the Andes), Bernard Werber (Le père de nos père), and Paolo Coelho (The Alchemist) who draw largely from the concept of VIETE. Subtly they have led us towards the Flow, the modern universal God.

Roots of occidental universalism have descended from Greco-Roman culture, through people like Erasmus to the present day scientific knowledge. The glow of this knowledge has helped Europe to install democracy, freedom of thought and reason, often incorrectly accredited to Christianity. Reaction to Christian dogma and acceptance of oriental values, shamanism and African ethics has resulted in the appreciation of rational values, social cohesion and non-material values. People now look for the truth not in religion but as revealed by science, ecology and psychology.

My image of God in the form of Flow and VIETE takes us beyond the hypothesis of God that is used to hide the fiction of humans being the creator and master of the norm. VIETE’s task is not to maintain the human social cohesion but keep in balance the ensemble of living and non-living things. VIETE offers us the possibility of extricating from the vague definition of God and being more scientifically precise and theologically correct. It is needless to prove the existence of God or Allah.

A dogma results in a practice in the name of some fixed archaic God. Whereas God in VIETE is alive and dynamic so is my image of God. All information that exists pertains to Flow. Every bit of new information we acquire improves our image of God. Therefore the level of our faith can be measured and quantified in terms of our interaction with VIETE. It does not mean invalidating existing techniques of spirituality. An individual can train himself and feel being more and more in VIETE by practicing any discipline: science, meditation, prayer, service, preserving the environment, or loving living things. We have the opportunity of placing progress and society into a rational relationship with our milieu. In this way we can obstruct Religos from exaggerated denouncing of disillusionment caused by progress. At the same time we put a stop to the recourse to fanaticism. Progressively we can enlarge our vision and actions in all fields, particularly political and sociological, and focus on all living things and their milieu instead of limiting to humans.

4.2 Environment, religion and collapse of society

For Christmas I got an unexpected gift, a book, Collapse by Jared Diamond (Viking, 2005) that I read just after I had written the first three parts. Happy coincidence! The author exposes interactions and interdependence of environment and human societies ancient and modern. Those societies that were unable to adapt themselves to the elements and resources of their milieu, and remained stuck to maladjusted social and religious traditions have perished. This outcome conforms perfectly to my image of God that is VIETE.

Ancient societies that adapted to VIETE taking into account their environmental resources have survived. Whenever an entire society is at the verge of collapse or in distress because it has “blasphemed” its part of VIETE, invariably religious practices offered little help other than temporary psychotherapeutic and moral relief. A constraining indigenous religion combined with political power was a major cause of societal collapse. Religion was unable to help to take measures for safeguarding the milieu devastated by humans. It only served to save surviving souls if any!

Religion, culture and traditions imported from another milieu often hindered survival. Transplantation of a religion in another milieu, conversion of people and imported life style invariably disturb the arduously acquired equilibrium of a society with respect to VIETE. Christian missionaries overlooked the sin they engendered in the form of conflicts, hatred, wars, and genocides all in the name of God. Religious leaders sitting in comfort thousands of miles away in Rome, Mecca, London and Paris control the spiritual lives of natives of Americas, Africa and Oceania. When religious chiefs distort spiritual laws to acquire power the society inevitably ends in disorder and collapses. Imbibed with absolute and inflexible belief (in this sense communism is a religion) a society is unable to:

Anticipate serious troubles arising from a damaged environment;
Be conscious of existence of the problem;
Find means to resolve the trouble at its inception;
Mobilize effort needed to solve the problem;

In the end the problem overpowers the society and leaves behind witnesses of religious folly; skeletons of churches in Greenland, gigantic carved stone heads in Easter Island, Anasazi ghost towns and caves in New Mexico, Mayan pyramids of Yucatan, Rwandan genocide continuing now in Somalia and Darfur. Ancient God and his guardian angels were incapable of helping them. These societies did not learn that the milieu is the true God, and massacring it is an invitation to a collective suicide. In short, such unwholesome human behaviour with respect to the milieu does not conform to VIETE, the Reality. Prayers and meditation might provide relief to individuals, but they alone cannot save us from decadence. Blind faith engenders a passive society waiting for All Mighty to resolve problems. Dogmatic and archaic religious thinking leads us to disaster unless we reconcile it with VIETE.

Societies of islands of Tikopia and Iceland are successful models because they managed their environment to meet their present and future needs. They have truly understood VIETE. In the absence modern education they learnt from trial and error and adjusted their behaviour with respect to the milieu and they survived even in difficult environmental conditions. The most remarkable fact is that Tikopians took decisions democratically and voluntarily to limit population growth as a function of the availability of resources. In contrast, the Mayas gripped by their religious traditions had let their population grow to supply labour for constructing sacrificial pyramids, scorning the natural resources.

The world still suffers from the legacy of innumerable past nefarious events centred on religious rivalry that renders society senseless and paranoid: the Crusades, witch-hunts, jihads, decades of Religious Wars, Inquisition and forced conversions. These traits still persist among certain obsessed societies. In present times the difference is that the rapid diffusion of information worldwide alerts all people of the falsity and danger of such nefarious humans who are bent upon taking us further away from VIETE.

4.3 New messengers of God

The wellness of the world and all that it implies depends on the influence of those who know VIETE: environmentalists, sociologists, ecologists, naturalists, scientists, humanists, archaeologists, philosophers, botanists, zoologists, physicists and, to a large extent, women. There are a few wise politicians whose love extends beyond humans. Paradoxically the heads of Religos vindicate only the human part of the Flow (VIETE). They are incompetent to lead us towards VIETE because they do not want to lose their hegemony over human souls. Amnesia, anachronism, fairytale erudition and dreaming of the imaginary golden age of the past that has never existed hinder them to recognize that social values have changed and their God is not the same.

A large proportion of Christian society has undergone an enlightened spiritual mutation. Churches might be empty but spirituality is flourishing among all classes. Christian heads now refrain from opposing criticism of religion.

The West has offered a fresh breath to spiritual needs. Scientific and philosophic findings permit us to understand religious writings better. Equipped with the knowledge of Western sages supported by the formidable media motor it is now appropriate to face fundamentalist institutions and individuals who have obstinately claimed that the truth had been taught once for all by God or his prophets and it has been encapsulated in the books that must never be changed. Scriptures must be rewritten and revised.

This is necessary to resolve conflicts arising from faulty interpretation of traditions arising from the practice of religion. Hopefully people will shun dogma, forced conversion and soliciting. In the absence of non-believers we will be able to treat the psychosis of being strangled. It will weaken superstition, demons, angels, gods and goddesses. Immigrant societies will get the courage to resist appeals of extremists who want to implant and protect their culture in the Western milieu against the nature that is VIETE.

Salvation or nirvana exists only under homeostasis: equilibrium between the internal and external milieu, between human species and all other forms of life, all being partners in the same milieu. Union of individual vital energy (soul) and vital energy of VIETE (Divine soul) offers a pragmatic and realistic image of salvation or the joy of ecstasy sought by all religions. Unless heads of religions show genuine courage and cooperate with new messengers of God, humans will destroy our planet and will not be able to save God from hangman’s noose. This time it will be humans who will cry aloud, “God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew: 27).

4.4 Survival

The global society is on an untenable path similar to that was trodden by Sumerians, Mayas, Harapnas and Australians in the past, and now being trodden by Uzbeks, Rwandans and Kenyans. God’s new messengers are of the opinion that we are sitting on a time bomb. In fifty years the global society would have destroyed the nature, forests, marine life that feeds a third of the population, burnt easily available petrol and natural gas, and overstepped the photosynthetic threshold. It is difficult, if not impossible, to say how traditional Religos and their flocks are going to save us. God’s new messengers, our reliable spiritual guides who understand VIETE well and manage it wisely, face formidable enemies: those who are engaged in destroying our milieu and Religos who are armed only to protect their traditions at the price of nature (VIETE). Our survival depends directly on the new messengers of God who are trying hard to educate misguided Religos knowing well that they have the habit of translating their sensibilities into politico-religious confrontation and hatred.

4.5 Spirituality and immigrant communities

Religious institutions set up by immigrant societies in the West are of varied cultural origin. They have mushroomed rapidly. All that glitters is not gold. They serve only to meet internal social and religious needs of their respective communities. Usually their heads are very traditional, and good at only ceremonies and rituals and often furthering dogma. Few among them are well educated. Their unstructured institutions are not competent to impart Eastern spirituality to the West.

An example of a recent development in Switzerland is revealing. Two rival groups organize religious events in an exactly similar manner. One group registered as Sikh Stiftung (Swcheiz) has inaugurated a beautiful temple in the industrial zone of Lotzwil (Lamgenthal) where live only three Sikh families. The main object of the other group is to build another temple nearby. Great Britain has experienced a similar development. Birmingham is said to have 200 Sikh temples. Of these 30 are listed in the website. Sikh communities in all major agglomerations have spent enormous resources on setting up temples and safeguarding traditions and virtually none on spiritual and theological studies and research. Their spirituality is moral; it fails lamentably with regard to application at the level of VIETE. They show little concern for the environment, nature, community, survival of living beings, the world, and the universe. Mosques, temples and gurdwaras have replaced churches and leaders continue pursuing the narrow message based on traditions, symbols, dress, and uniform.

During socially and politically troubled times believers endowed with an open mind accommodate sufferance without distress and aim at re-establishing the situation. In contrast narrow-minded extremists, usually a small minority, react rationally in order to benefit from the situation to acquire power and prestige at the expense of the majority that does not even discern the hidden erosion of their spiritual and moral values. Expecting others to react the majority avoids implicating in such affairs. The majority tends to even tolerate extremists because it is unconcerned or negligent and suffers from “prisoners’ dilemma” (Stockholm syndrome) expecting to profit should the minority succeed.

Often I ask myself if there is any difference between an atheist and a Religos. An unforgettable and painful souvenir remains engraved in my mind. During the first days after the downfall of the communist dictator in Albania I was lodged in a hotel in Tirana filled by mullahs and American Christian missionaries. At dinner time the Christian group suddenly started to sing loudly a prayer for their evening meal. Mullahs and other guests observed with varied expressions: approval, curiosity, surprise, amusement and, above all, uneasiness. Outside in cities and the countryside I saw deplorable conditions of life. My heart missed a beat when I read a banner across the street announcing in English, ”JESUS HAS COME TO SAVE YOU”, that was incomprehensible to a vast majority of deprived Albanians. Religos had come well equipped to trigger the collapse of the poor but spiritually rich society. Under the communist regime places of worship had been demolished or closed and the people of different faiths had intermarried freely.

One wonders if the representatives of religions are not guilty of having contributed to the aggravation of the situation in the Balkans. Why have the civilized religions poured so much oil on the fire? Neither Religos nor their prophets and gurus be it Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Ram, Krishna, Nanak, God, Allah and Waheguru, were able to stop the genocide and devastation in the Balkans. Once again Religos have overlooked human values. Are the biblical and coranic messengers going to continue exterminating human values and spiritual wisdom of VIETE owned by tribes of the Amazonia, Venezuela, Congo, New Guinea and Australia? It depends entirely on us to come out of disillusionment and psychosis of social behaviour. There is no external force that has ever helped us in the past. Don’t wait, such help will not now.

4.6 Spiritual globalization

The primordial defect in religions is that they have totally failed to implement their main objective: set up peace and love between human beings. Religious heads and their flocks think that the nebulous utopian God is supposed to resolve all problems. Then there are those who are obstinately convinced to convert the entire world to their faith using any means. They put up a blind eye to the fact that in their own societies love and peace have lived only for short periods. History records killings, destruction of places of worship, iconoclasm and persecution even within a faith. Often Orientals claim that the West does not understand their religion and culture; but they forget that the inverse is true. It was the Westerns who had translated and analyzed their sacred texts and made them available to the world. There are as many if not more Sanskrit scholars in Europe than in India. The city of Zurich has more centres of meditation and yoga per person than in Indian cities.

When we are confronted with the problem of diminishing natural resources and accelerating degradation of the environment, neither prayers nor religious practices, nor repetitive readings of sacred books (Sikh tradition) nor the practice of ancient traditions will provide solutions to safeguard us. The present generation suffers from indigestion of too much inflexible religion starved of spirituality. Resolution of problems of human societies and other living beings has always resided in education that takes us towards understanding of the Flow (VIETE) and to a just behaviour with regard to the environment. In this way we have learnt which of the traditional values should be preserved eliminating those, which are useless in the present world. It is the prayer of action that will save us and lead to our resurrection and that of God.

4.7 What future for religions?

This is not a thesis against religion but an attempt to show that collectively we have been blind users of religious traditions. All that remains is that religions must not escape the test of criticism.

Do the formally instituted religions behave better than those that are not? The Islamic world? India? China? Ireland? Nigeria? Europe? White and black Australia? New Guinea? Tribal Amazonia? Overall there are no spiritual differences. But differences are appreciable if judged with respect to the level of education and VIETE. Those that adapt themselves to the milieu are happy.

Knowledge of genetics has given a new dimension to the logic of reincarnation and karma that Hindus have perverted in order to justify the caste system. On the other hand Hindu-Sikh thought teach us that every animal is capable, if required, of transforming its genes thus giving it the prospect of improving itself.

In Switzerland, do we need to consult Madam Soleil to get precise long-term weather forecasts or to interpret obscure prophecies of Nostradamus about the future? We have the capacity and it is our duty to interpret ancient and modern data and information to foresee the evolution of human society as an element of terrestrial and cosmic milieu, and take measures to stop its collapse, often triggered by obstinate practices of misinformed Religos.

First the Religos; they have a lot to learn in order to be able to feel the resurrection of God on Earth. They must:

Guide the society so that it ceases to destroy the natural habitat, sources of food, biodiversity (e.g. safeguarding watersheds), soils, forests, plants and animals remembering that our temples, mosques, pagodas, gurdwaras, and synagogues will end up like the pyramids, Mayan temples, Sumerian towers, Harapan ruins and Roman monuments, and that God that we know will not descend to help us because we would have already killed him.
Manage our natural heritage justly and well: this is the true prayer, meditation, charity and service to God.
Stop messianic religion, forced conversions, and cultural annihilation of ethnic societies living in other environments.
Recognize that messianic activity does not manifest as deliverer of Gods message but as domination of omnipresent God and of one culture over another and that the religious policy of extremists is an invitation to auto-destruction and sufferance for others.
Adapt to the existing culture if immigrating from another society because it is impossible to change a habitat without provoking ruin of the indigenous culture and traditions and because such a conduct is against the will of old and new God

Evidently the situation is not totally negative. It must be admitted that there is a strong current especially among a number of exploiters of natural resources who are guiding us towards VIETE. Thanks to the pressure of the voice of educated public that they have understood the role and destiny of humans in VIETE. If Religos could also manage to orientate their institutions in this direction humans can resolve their problem of survival without wars, genocides, famine and epidemics.

4.8 Path to light

It is essential to give people, especially the young, means to comprehend better and objectively different faiths that have incited human conscience for centuries. Modern society is more aware than ever before of the need to help religious communities to take the path of righteous life and eradicate fanaticism. To attain this objective it is necessary to:

Demystify and place the traditional image of God and religious teaching in the context of VIETE, thus giving a dimension and depth to the concept of God;
Reduce giving undue importance to anthropocentricism and be in harmony with the nature, living beings and environment;
Rectify the error that humans are superior to the nature and its master;
Accept that the African savannah is the cradle of human beings and not the Judaic Noah’s Arc of the Middle East;
Disseminate the true theological and scientific spirituality in places of worship, schools and households;
Stop support to commercial institutions, national and international, and to countries that use religion to oppress people (for example, commercial blockade of South Africa had contributed towards the success of struggle against the apartheid regime);
Support environmentalist campaigns that encourage the public to buy that is not harmful to the environment thus obliging producers to adapt to new exigencies;
Oblige obstinate religious authorities to satisfy spiritual requirements of the modern community;
Convince Pope Benedict XVI to change his vision of spirituality from “all human life is sacred and inviolable from its conception to its natural end” to “all life is sacred ……”; be pro-life and not only pro-human life;
Draw up procedures in order to stop violation of real spirituality and perpetuation of hatred by eradicating misuse of power held by religious heads and inter- intra- religious rivalry;
Use the wisdom of educated people informed in VIETE to stifle those who are seeking or hold religious power;
Embarrass religious leaders and their flocks by exalting the logic of VIETE-based righteous values;
Make politicians and managers feel the significance and importance of VIETE in the conduct of institutions;
Revise sacred books in the light of the charters of the UN and knowledge accumulated through science, sociology, ecology, philosophic, and psychology.

4.9 Spirituality Quotient (SQ)

Since long psychologists and educationists have put into use a large range of tests to measure intelligence of humans and animals. The ability to perform certain practical and theoretical functions is measured with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ), one hundred being the statistical average. Recent availability of electronic sensors has permitted us to see cerebral reflexes produced by emotions and measure the Emotional Quotient (EQ). The image of God in the form of the Flow (VIETE) and its direct relationship with humans can enable us to determine parameters needed for setting up tests for measuring Spirituality Quotient (SQ). The test would measure the knowledge and performance of a person with respect to, for example, ecological elements and thus indicate the proximity to the Flow (Reality, God). At the same time one could electronically capture the amplitude of the “blue zone” in the brain and compare it with the “blue zone” already measured in the brain of a Buddhist monk in the state of meditation or the average for men and women or children and adults.

NOTES:

I have just finished reading the recently published Richard Dawkins' book “The God Delusion”(Bantam Press, 2006). It is an awe inspiring work clearly articulating with scientific and socio-historical reasoning why the traditional supernatural God has not been able to perform acceptably to solve world’s problems and to meet human needs, spiritual and others. Every one should read it. My thinking in this expose happily falls in line with that of the author. Obviously evolution has inspired the idea of Flow facilitating my task of giving God an image. My expose forms a logical follow-on outlining what God should have been, what he is at present and what he should be in the future because we know him now better than ever before through new type of sages like Dawkins.
Religos assert that God had died to take away human sins. This is a lie to cover up the truth. Humans had killed him. Guggenheim’s documentary film with Al Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth” shows that God is not fully dead yet; humans are still torturing Him. Hopefully we can still save Him. It is sad that Religos contribute little in this effort.
Does God exist? Read André Comte-Sponville’s “L’esprit de l’athéisme – Introduction à une spiritualité sans Dieu”; (Albin Michel, 2006)

Acknowledgements: My daughter Upi and her husband Marcin (California) have developed this Website and carried out linguistic editing of English and French texts. I am extremely grateful to her for the sheer hard work that she has put in so lovingly. My granddaughter Maneka helped to computerize the illustrations. In Geneva, I thank my daughter Amita and her husband Yaniss who provided invaluable help by correcting the French text and by providing moral support.