Sunday Sermon

Sunday Sermon.

There is an awesome process going on here. It's cyclical nature seems to be hinted at in all.We thinking beings noticed this by the seasons, the tides, the phases of the moon, the repetitive nature of life itself.

But we came to be thinking beings by being social beings, and societies have leaders, societies have authority.For us, it is only natural to assume that the cyclical process of the universe is run by authority.

If some of us call the process GOD, it is natural for us to anthropomorphize that process and have that process be 'the decider' of our fate.

There is NO appeal to this ultimate authority, which is fate. At the same time there is Earthly authority, natural authority that we can see in leaders of packs, herds and flocks of animals and birds, which I'm sure is an extention of the authority of parents.

BUT with religion, there can be an appeal to an organized 'reflection' of spiritual authority. With religion we can connect parental authority to 'fate' through a hierarchy which becomes it's own purpose.

This is a double edged sword as authority not only grants favors, it demands compliance, submission.

The idea is that, ONLY with submission, can come favors BUT as with all authority comes corruption and the authority becomes self-serving, loses its original purpose of 'peace and love to all mankind' to 'bring us together' and replaces that with "you must obey".

What we 'are obeying' here is someone's interpretation of 'that, that is good' corrupted to be, 'that that is GODLY'. The only trouble with this is that the process, or fate or God, is NOT fair, it is not necessarilly good. Authority is not necessarilly just.

Can't you almost hear the theists whispering, "YES, but OUR religion is the best model, the least corrupt, join us, join us..."