From the fear of being reincarnated as an inferior form of life, like a rat or a bug, to burning in hell or being punished in the grave, various schools of thought have used these concepts with the same intentions. Acts such as fasting, giving money, or making sacrifices have been seen as ways to secure a spot in heaven. While these practices work well within the framework of the carrot-and-stick philosophy, they are fundamentally based on fear and greed. This type of worship encourages individuals to live with restraint and contribute positively to society, but its foundation in fear makes it unsuitable for genuine spirituality, where there is no room for politics. If you have something to say, say it directly; if you can’t or won’t because of potential consequences, you are engaging in politics.
As individuals evolve, they start to ask questions and may stray from established norms. Legally and ethically, they should not be forced to obey religious rules because religion is based on faith. There was a time when the law of the land was absolute, but today, with the world so interconnected, information is accessible instantly. Many people adhere to national justice systems, which often conflict with religious rules. Human rights have prevailed in supreme courts worldwide, transcending religious laws.
The rise of questioning and challenging individuals angers extremists of all religions, contributing to the turmoil in the world. Believers often condemn such behavior, claiming that everyone is going to hell for their sins, yet they themselves are willing to commit acts of violence against innocents. In my opinion, this is the ultimate spiritual crime because it involves a loss of love. When someone is deprived of love, the pain goes beyond the surface. Since God lives through us, killing someone is also robbing God of cells. This is why I consider it a spiritual crime.
There has never been, and still is not, any evidence of what happens after we die or before we are born. Everything depends on the belief systems of various groups. Since belief begins where human intellect fails, its importance cannot be denied. However, this uncertainty should not be a foundation for killing or punishing someone who challenges or questions these belief systems.
Human intellect and belief systems are powerful forces that often collide. Passionate people sometimes go to great lengths to remove the “com” from “compassion,” which I believe is the foundation of all religious beliefs and a significant part of spirituality. I respect everyone’s belief system until it becomes a reason to kill or die over it. In such cases, I feel compelled to create reasonable doubt to make my case against extremism. I want to emphasize that concepts like God, the grave, reincarnation, hell, or heaven are not physical realities. When you kill another human being over these beliefs, it causes real pain and suffering to someone whose love you have taken away. This reality is within the individual’s control, so robbing someone of love, whether out of revenge or a strong sense of belonging, is an individual action. Therefore, individuals can choose not to commit spiritual crimes in the name of their religions or nations.
The purpose of a belief system should be to benefit both the individual and society simultaneously. When it becomes harmful to anyone, it is the individual’s duty to address the problems within the belief system by becoming the CEO of their mortal life. The knowledge of mortality can and does have the potential to diminish the quality of one’s life, but it should be the opposite. Every moment of mortal life should be lived as a precious experience for oneself and respected by others.
If you let fears control you, you personally rob yourself of happiness and the quality of your temporary experience. Religions try to soothe and comfort individuals’ fears of mortality by offering hopeful scenarios like heaven, but they also control you by instilling fear of hell. This carrot-and-stick philosophy does not seem spiritual to me; it feels like politics. In the spiritual world, there is no politics, only truth. The concept of heaven and hell can cause fear and stress, making individuals subservient during their lifetimes to maintain control. If God wanted to control us, we wouldn’t have free will, and our oxygen supply would be cut off the moment we strayed. Since this is not the case, and we are given free will, individual knowledge dictates how one should live. If you believe in God, does that belief system make you live a better life or make you a better person? How do you measure being a good person? It always comes down to the people around you. If you serve humanity over your belonging group, then and only then are you truly serving God. Otherwise, you are using knowledge tainted by a sense of belonging, which makes your God different from others. Do you really think God is for some and not for others? If you do, you need to become the CEO of your life to see beyond the political boundaries created by your belonging groups.
The whole concept of heaven and hell should be to live this life better. What is better? It may vary among different groups of humanity due to popular politics, but it is highly individual. You can be happy living selfishly or unselfishly, but both extremes can be harmful to the individual and society. There is a deeper satisfaction and happiness, which I call spiritual happiness, that you can only attain by understanding the importance of reciprocation. This reciprocation is not a chore or a fear-based, politically charged religious duty. Each of us is alive, not solely because of personal efforts, but because we are blessed to physically experience God’s bounties. Thus, we are responsible for reciprocating. Since God is living through us, doing something for humanity out of fear of hell or greed for heaven is wrong because God is with us every step of the way. This can help individuals have good self-esteem and self-respect because they are directly connected to God. Understanding your place in the bigger picture helps you understand the importance of reciprocation.
God is not just to be worshipped; God needs to be nurtured and helped so our prayers can be fulfilled. This can only happen when individuals reciprocate as a duty. It’s like paying a tax; it is not an ethical or moral issue but a real business of give and take.
If you are working to pay bills, raise children, or even just bear children, you are reciprocating. Consider a ghost town: if a town has jobs for individuals, they will live there to keep the town alive. Otherwise, regardless of the buildings, roads, and installations, there is no value for the individual to stay, and it becomes a ghost town. Examples of this phenomenon are all over the world. The reasons may vary, but one common factor is the individual. If individuals decide to leave, even God’s presence can collapse. It all comes down to understanding reciprocation and the importance of the individual in the grand scheme. You can worship, bow down, and pray all you want, but without practical reciprocation, you are not pulling your share of the load. It’s like a cart with two wheels: if one wheel rolls while the other is stuck, the cart goes in circles. Unfortunately, this is what I see: despite our progress, emotionally we are still beasts. Just look around, and you will know what I mean.
If you feel you are not getting spiritual fulfillment from your religion or its sects, you don’t have to change your religion or sect. They would all be the same for you unless you choose to change and understand reciprocation as a duty and purpose of your life, without the fear of hell or greed for heaven. As an individual, you are the CEO who calls the shots. However, after taking the breath of oxygen provided by the unknown, which you can call God, you must balance your cell connection to the body and with each other.
This balance requires the individual to be wise enough to manage both sides. You cannot focus solely on physicality or spirituality alone; you must navigate both. Loving another cell to reproduce helps God continue to experience physical life, and God helps you to be spiritual.
There is a powerful physical pull related to emotions and hormones. If we were not drawn to each other, there would be a flaw in our makeup. This powerful nature behind our attraction must be acknowledged. Ignoring nature or spirituality and relying solely on intellect leads to imbalances in physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
I believe this powerful attraction is beyond human intellect and is part of the natural order that all creatures follow. This is why people seek mates, even those who fear relationships due to their intellect, and why they become ill when they do not. The order within us is to love so that cells reproduce, allowing God to exist. We may think we have a choice, but despite our wars and disputes, human populations, including mixed populations, continue to grow. Love is not just a physical emotion; it is an order by nature, and thus it is spiritual. You can choose not to follow it, but your happiness and health are connected to it. We may need to evolve to understand the power of this “medicine.”
Remember, as a CEO, it is your duty to live a balanced mortal life and attend to all its departments. Ignoring this aspect out of fear may lead to significant loss and regret later in life. Not experiencing the love of children and family is a loss, and depriving someone of that love is a crime in all human courts as well as a spiritual crime.
Since love is the powerful emotion behind our attraction to each other, and loving another cell is not just a chemical reaction but a spiritual order, mainstream political religions often reject this idea due to their own politics of control. Since there is no reproduction in homosexual relationships, many religions oppose homosexuality. However, even the Pope has recently begun to acknowledge human rights, which I believe is political.
We need to evolve beyond traditional and conventional wisdom to see the importance and usefulness of every individual in their living years. A functioning individual is needed to carry out God’s work. We should be more concerned about infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika and political wars, which have the potential to kill millions, than about someone who is reciprocating but not in conventional ways. We can either fear and stress about what is wrong or believe with hope and optimism. The true wisdom of God lies in progress and free will. Extreme beliefs, even good ones, are harmful. Don’t take my words as absolute truth; they may change as we evolve. Use them as long as they are useful and beneficial to you.
We must do our best with our evolving knowledge. Going to extremes, killing, and dying over evolving knowledge is like believing we know everything. If we are continually learning, human knowledge is not complete, even religious knowledge. As long as you do not remove compassion from passion, you are doing well. All religions preach compassion as a foundational social theme. Living in an imperfect world drives us to seek solutions and evolve. Fighting over who is right robs loving couples and families of their joy, never mind the devastation caused by religious and political wars.
You can choose to limit yourself and falsely feel secure in a loving relationship with another cell or surrender to the whole body, but both are extremes. For example, choosing one tree in a forest to make life smaller or choosing the entire forest for personal consumption. Security is always the issue. You must believe in the forest, be part of humanity, or see yourself as a cell of God. If you choose another individual, they are just as vulnerable as you are. This accelerates insecurities and control-related problems. From personal relationship issues to wars, our behaviors stem from trying to secure ourselves with insecure individuals or groups.
Imagine a tree fallen by a storm. You walk on its trunk and eventually reach a crossroad. Life is like that. If you are insecure, you will follow the already carved path, but if you are a path carver, you will create new paths for others. Trends, friends, and family may push you to choose what they think is right, but if you want to fit in, impress others, and be admired by your community, you may ignore your personal “dotted picture.” Ignoring your personal life eventually leads to ignoring your happiness and contentment, causing you to live a mortal life as if it were immortal, which is a grave mistake.