TYPE 1 RELIGION
There are two types of religion. Type 1 religion says that man is eternal and divine. Although it may not be easy, man inherently has the ability to gradually improve himself spiritually and to advance toward a high state of mystical union with God. The spiritual essence of man, the “soul”, not only lives forever in time, but actually exists somehow outside of time, and, like God Himself, is the creator of the time and space inside of which he now apparently lives.
Hinduism and Buddhism are the primary examples of Type 1 religion. Hinduism says “Atman is Brahman.”. This means “The soul is God.”. Creation is said to be a delusion – the veil of “maya”, which hides the ultimate real Truth. The ultimate reality is God Alone, an Absolute Oneness, which has no time and no space, and which neither exists nor does not exist.
The best way to get an idea of how this might be possible is to observe how in a dream, a person “creates” a world of time and space, and has various experiences in that dream world. Then when he wakes up, the whole dream world, the time, the space, and everything in it, vanishes without a trace into complete nothingness. How did you create the time and the space of your dream world? The Hindus say that the world, in fact the whole of creation, is nothing more than God’s dream!
The ideal for man in Type 1 religion, the moral imperative, the highest good, is to increase his spiritual awareness and ultimately to achieve or to realize his already existing oneness with God.
TYPE 2 RELIGION
Type 2 religion says that man was created by God. God creates the universe, and then man is created within the universe, at some particular point in time and space. The Bible in Genesis Chapter 1 says “God created man”. This occurs after God has already created the universe and various things contained the universe.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are the primary examples of Type 2 religion. Judaism is the precursor and forerunner of Christianity. Both consider the Old Testament to be “God’s Word”. But Christians consider Jesus Christ to be the long-awaited Messiah, whereas Jews do not. In many ways Islam is a copy of Christianity, but it is perverted into a militant campaign of world conquest.
In Type 2 religion, God “reveals Himself” to man. God delivers various doctrines and commandments to man. Notably, the Bible gives “Ten Commandments”. They apply both in Judaism and in Christianity. They are given in Exodus Chapter 20, and then again in Deuteronomy Chapter 5. (“Deuteronomy” means the second giving of the law. “Deuter” means two. “Nomy” means law.) They are so important that God repeats Himself!
The ideal for man in Type 2 religion, the moral imperative, the highest good, is to believe the revealed doctrines and to obey the revealed commandments. Those who believe the doctrines and obey the commandments are promised the rewards of Heaven after death. Those who do not are promised the punishments of Hell after death.
However, in Christianity, Jesus Christ is said to be “the Son of God”. “God the Father” sacrifices His Son on the Cross. Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John Chapter 1, in the Bible). Jesus Christ “atones” for the sins of those who believe. Thus believers are forgiven for their violations of God’s commandments.
MIXING TYPE 1 AND TYPE 2
Mysticism – the search for mystical union with God – is Type 1, even though it occurs within Christianity. Accordingly, mystics have often had trouble with accusations of heresy.
The history of the Church Councils in the early centuries of Christianity is very largely a history of conflict between Type 1 and Type 2. The Church Fathers consistently and emphatically endorsed the Type 2 doctrines, and declared Type 1 ideas to be “anathema”. That is, the Church Fathers in the early centuries of Christianity consistently denounced and condemned Type 1 ideas in the strongest possibly manner.
The Protestant Reformation was in large part a protest against the infiltration of Type 1 ideas into the Roman Catholic Church, and a reaffirmation of the basic Type 2 doctrines of Christianity as taught by Saint Paul in the Bible.
Those who love Jesus Christ and who feel the great appeal of Christianity – and there are many – very often try to combine Type 1 ideas and Type 2 ideas. However, this is not possible. If Type 1 is true, then Type 2 is false. If Type 2 is true, then Type 1 is false.
MATERIALISM – TYPE 3 RELIGION
“Materialism” is the idea that only matter is real, and that all talk about “God” or “gods” or “souls” or “spiritual beings” is superstitious nonsense, with no foundation whatsoever. When a person dies, that’s it. He may leave children. People may remember him. But his own personal existence as a conscious entity is over, done, finished, and terminated.
In the last four centuries, since the work of Newton and his “laws of motion” and the “law of gravity”, the power and prestige of science has increased very greatly. At the same time, the power and prestige of Christianity has steadily decreased. It has largely been replaced by materialism.
Thoughtful men have found it more and more difficult to believe that the angry God of the Old Testament is going to condemn unbelievers to eternal torture, or that the crucifixion of a man some 2,000 years ago is going to get them into Heaven after death despite their alleged violation of rules published by somebody about 3,000 years ago. God is allegedly loving and good, and yet it seems that He is going to condemn a very large number of men to eternal torture. That does not seem either loving or good.
Many men have discarded the Christian God as illogical. Where is the sound rational basis for believing these harsh unfriendly doctrines? In the modern world, they seem primitive, superstitious, and without foundation.
Many men have turned to the consistent reliability of science. Matter is safe, secure, and dependable. What we are taught by science can be relied on. Matter exists. This talk about God and spiritual things is unnecessary and useless. Therefore there is no truth in it. All is matter.
Materialists, who often call themselves “atheists”, are often just as passionate and dedicated in their beliefs as the most fervent Christians. An old joke says, “I believe in no God – and I worship him with all my heart!”. Thus it makes sense to call materialism “Type 3 religion”, even though it is not a religion in the usual sense.
There is no moral imperative inherent in materialism. Materialists sometimes adopt it as a great crusade to stamp out all the superstitious nonsense masquerading as religion. But basically all is matter moving through space and time in accordance with the laws of physics. Ideas, emotions, desires, and decisions – all these “mental” and “spiritual” phenomena are nothing more than atoms, electrons, and protons buzzing around in the neural pathways of the brain. So materialists are left free to do whatever they please, without any moral or ethical guidelines. When death comes, it’s all over, so they don’t have to worry about any long term consequences of their actions. They have been taught that good and evil are what God says they are. But they have tossed God out of their philosophy. Along with God, the ideas of good and evil get tossed out.
HOW MANY SPIRITUAL BEINGS ARE THERE?
In Type 1 religion, God is a spiritual being. And every man – his spiritual essence, his “soul” – is a spiritual being. Every man, being in his innermost essence the same as God, has the creativity and freedom of God. In Type 1 religion there are many spiritual beings.
In Type 2 religion, God is a spiritual being. But men are created by God. They are “creatures”, not “creators”. It is often said that man has free will, that he was given free will by God, but at the same time, it is said that God is “sovereign”, which is to say that God is the cause of everything. In essence, there is only one spiritual being, namely God. Accordingly, Christianity and Judaism heavily emphasize that they are “monotheistic”. They condemn Hinduism and similar ideas for being “polytheistic”. In Type 2 religion there is only one spiritual being.
In materialism, in Type 3 religion, the alleged God of Christianity is rejected with scorn and ridicule. The Christians had only one spiritual being to start with. When that one is rejected, all that is left is matter. In Type 3 religion, materialism, there are no spiritual beings at all.
TWO TYPES OF RELIGION, THREE TYPES OF PHILOSOPHY
These are the three main philosophies in the world. People often try to mix them together, to keep what they see as the advantages of various contradictory ideas. The result is a lot of fuzzy thinking. These three philosophies do not mix well.
Materialism is like a religion because materialists are often zealous like religious people of both Type 1 and Type 2. But materialists might protest against materialism being called a religion, since they are so energetically denying all religion. But each system of belief can be called a philosophy. So we have two types of religion and three types of philosophy.
It is important to focus on the two types of religion. Materialism is obviously a different type of philosophy. But the two types of religion commonly get mixed very thoroughly together. Almost no one is aware of the distinction between Type 1 and Type 2. But in order to think clearly about religion, or ethics, or right and wrong, or good and evil, it is necessary, in fact, it is vital, to distinguish between Type 1 religion and Type 2 religion. It is also necessary to recognize that the two are not compatible and cannot be mixed.
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