Why should we love God?
Not because of any particular religion, but because accepting that there is a God, one who is worthy of our love, teaches us that we are not the pinnacle of existence, and all the other good things we are and can be stem from that.
Regardless of the 1968 song by Jefferson Airplane, we are not the crown of creation.
I believe it’s not only possible, it’s a positive thing, to separate God from religion. So many of the strictures of the Old Testament are more about keeping people in line and not helping them grow as people.
What possible religious justification could there be for demanding that slaves be obedient to their masters?
Or, for that matter for many of the 76 different laws listed in Leviticus? What possible reason could there be for forbidding people from wearing clothes of two different fabrics, or of planting two different types of seeds in the same field?
My personal favorite of the goofy Leviticus laws is the punishment for a man having sex with an animal. I suppose it’s reasonable to require that the offender be put to death, but blaming the animal and executing it as well seems rather harsh.
Maybe it’s a question of “how you gonna keep ’em down on the farm …”
Many of the Old Testament laws are about what is and isn’t all right to eat, legitimate concerns a world of primitive sanitation and no refrigeration. There’s no valid religious reason people shouldn’t be allowed to eat lobster or crabmeat.
If there is a great irony in all of this, it’s that the modern fundamentalists in this country seem to want to ignore the very best thing all religions except Satanism share.
Call it the Golden Rule or the Law of Reciprocity, the idea of treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves would create such a wonderful world if everyone followed it.
Make the most significant choice of your life — completely outside of politics or organized religion — and determine to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem by saying “I am my brother’s keeper. I choose to put the happiness of others ahead of my own.”
The secret is putting yourself third — behind God and others — will eventually make you happier than you have ever been.
In the process, you can also make your own small contriubtion to healing the world.