12/6/19 Hana (click HERE for video)
Many people begin their response to my question about what they believe happens after this life by stating they simply can't believe in a "man-made religion". But then they go on to describe their own beliefs, often based on wishful thinking, which are exactly that!
For example, Hana, from Bosnia, an artist in her late 20’s and already a world traveler, began her response to my question about her beliefs by saying “I’d like to believe…” but then stated she really didn’t know. She doesn’t like organized religion, saying they are all man-made, but has cobbled together her own unique set of beliefs instead.
Hana explained her belief that she has a spirit or soul separate from her physical body, and that after the body dies it goes on to return to a sort of corporate consciousness which she thinks of as god. She had encountered Buddhism while teaching English in Japan, and this led her to yoga, which she sees as both a physical and spiritual practice. She was attracted to its emphasis on emptying the mind of distracting thoughts and living in the present reality.
While hers is not an organized formal religion followed by millions, it is still at least a set of beliefs organized in the mind of the individual who invents it. Hana’s critique that religion is man-made applies to her own self-created beliefs too, though I don’t think she sees it that way.
Ironically, the Bible also criticizes man-made religion. Whether a corporate religion shared by millions, or a private set of beliefs in the mind of an individual, the Bible repeatedly and consistently stands against man-made religion, except that it usually uses a different term for it. It is known as “idolatry”.
It is idolatry when people use our very limited human reasoning capabilities to worship an image made by man, like a statue formed by human hands or an idea formed by the human mind, or to ascribe to created things the attributes of the Creator. People did this with the moon, the planets, “Mother Nature”, and now, creation and the universe in general as in “universal consciousness”.
Idolatry is actually mocked in the Bible as the ultimate in human arrogance and vanity. "What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. "Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it.” (Habakkuk 2)
But if it so foolish, why would otherwise reasonable people choose to create their own ideas about God? I believe there is something attractive to the human heart about being able to form one’s own image of god. The wood and stone statues of early idolaters conveniently stayed in one place, allowing the worshiper the freedom to only approach them when they needed something. Images formed in one’s imagination allow the worshiper to define their own god and control the terms of the relationship, rather than having to obey God who defines His own terms. Man-made religions followed by millions offer safety in numbers while worshiping a god created on man’s terms.
Many people like Hana like the idea that they don’t have to be subject to any sort of god or organized religion with all its rules, but that they can be a part of that corporate consciousness themselves. In effect, they can be a part of “god” itself, and the attraction of not worshiping a god, but actually being a part of god, means one has no god to be accountable to.
This is nothing new. The first temptation in the garden was the promise to Eve that “You can be like God…” if you eat the forbidden fruit. Every time we defy our God-given moral conscience we, in a sense, eat of that fruit. It may look tasty and sweet, and we rationalize that it must be good to eat. But the sin of idolatry goes beyond living for the stomach. It says “You can be like God” if you defy God, define a man-made god, deify God’s creation, or identify as a god yourself.
For many, eating the “forbidden fruit” has come to mean some or all of these things, and they like the taste. But God has so much more for us. Genesis tells us there were many other fruit trees in the garden to eat from, and Psalms tells us “Taste and see that the Lord is good” and “How sweet are (God’s) words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
In the end, I appreciate that Hana was willing to have a conversation about our respective beliefs. She came across as open-minded and interested in learning more, in particular wondering how Jesus could be so popular so many hundreds of years later in our day. So I was disappointed that she didn’t want to take any further information I offered. This is just my opinion, but it seemed to me she felt that she really did know what she believed; she had tasted the forbidden fruit of self-made religion, and had no desire to taste of anything else.
Thanks, Hana, for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be seen at https://youtu.be/Rh6alTfcnXI on my YouTube channel.
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