Category: – Organised Religion

Marketing Religion

It’s 1000 BCE and the tribe living across the mountains is considering its future. It was a simple village that lived in harmony with the seasons and each other. Everyone in the village took responsibility for themselves but was also generous in their support of others. They knew that life had meaning when it was lived in connection to the ‘all.’ An onlooker would have called this balance between the practical and energetic elements a ‘religious way of life.’

But change was afoot… Continue reading “Marketing Religion” →

Thank God for Serge Benhayon

I grew up living next to a little village church. I would attend church every few weeks, getting dressed in a pretty dress and even going to the extent of wearing one of my lovely necklaces. It was a big deal going to church, like we were going somewhere very special, and we had to look our best. Continue reading “Thank God for Serge Benhayon” →

Breaking up with Organised Religion 

Weekly church, regular confession, fasting at lent, praying for forgiveness and generally trying to be a good person dominated my religious life from when I was old enough to understand it until organised religion and I broke up when I was 35. The break-up wasn’t long and drawn out; in fact it was short, fast and relatively painless for me.

If you had asked me when I was in the thick of my regular organised religious practices if I would let it go, I wouldn’t have believed you, as I have always known there was God and I was taught throughout my childhood that God equated to religion and church.  Continue reading “Breaking up with Organised Religion “ →

Why do we put God in a Box? 

I recall that as a little girl I used to feel a great sense of wonder, joy and magic in nature – in the sound of dry leaves under foot, the sound of the waves, the perfume of flowers, the beauty of a butterfly, the birds singing in the morning, the feeling of a gentle breeze on my skin and much more. In nature I could feel a connection to a grandness, to something more than just the physical world and more than just me. What I also recall as a little girl was that no one else, or at least the adults around me, seemed to experience the same level of wonder or sense of magic – or this was not expressed. Continue reading “Why do we put God in a Box? “ →

Because Religious People are Stupid, Right? 

Growing up, I was not raised in an overly religious family. I attended the local Catholic primary school and mass each week with my class, but outside of the big celebrations like Christmas and Easter, I was never forced to attend church or participate in mass with my family. As I grew older it became my choice as to what faith or religion I wanted to follow, and as such, I never had one particular doctrine, idea or belief imposed on me – I was allowed to be myself with this… I was allowed to explore.

I explored various and different belief systems and practices, from Buddhism to Christianity and everything outside and in-between, finding elements that touched me and discarding those that caused disharmony. For the first 16 – 17 years of my life my fascination with religion was strong, and of those who I thought were truly religious I was inspired by; they however, were not many and were far and few along.  Continue reading “Because Religious People are Stupid, Right? “ →

From Religious Confusion to Religious Truth 

My confusion about religion and God began at a very early age, probably from day one. My father didn’t believe there was a God but that there was a logical explanation for everything in the Universe.

His own father had been raised in the Catholic faith and from very early on was expected to be the priest in the family, but at 17 this pressure turned him away from the Catholic religion and he ran away to sea. He later discovered Rationalism and when he became a father himself he brought his own children up, including my father, in this belief. Continue reading “From Religious Confusion to Religious Truth “ →