Enlightenment and Religion

Most people just don't have the time, motivation, energy to devote to becoming enlightened around the world. That's why those of us that actually do take the time to become both educated and further than that enlightened have the moral obligation to share what we have learned along the way.

Most people are just struggling to survive day to day on earth. They are lucky to get a 6th grade education or at best graduate from High School. So, the people that are motivated to question everything both in religion and in institutional learning and individual paths to enlightenment are few and far between.

In my own case though I was raised as a Christian mystic in an organized religion and even though my parents were in charge of a church between my ages 6 and 12 years old in Los Angeles, California, most everything I believed on every level as a child collapsed in one way or another over the years to the point where I think I could say that I am left with about 25% of what I believed as a child intact.

Many if not most people might not be able to survive such a loss in their personal belief systems. So becoming a truth seeker is full of danger in this sense.

However, if Gandhi hadn't pursued his principles and beliefs India might not be a free nation today, the United States might not be a free nation today without such people as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.

The people who don't give up in their quest for truth lead mankind out of the dark ages of myths and superstition and into the light of day.

Though for me and thousands and millions and maybe eventually billions of others finding truth might be very painful and for some impossible to endure and stay alive, still actually finding out the truth about everything in life tends to help the human race to prosper and to survive on into the future in every way.

So, my personal sacrifice of what I cherished and believed as a child multiplied by billions (the residents of earth) is likely what it will take in the end for mankind to survive what it now faces. Both individually and collectively we must find our way.

In some ways I see religion in some ways like people who believe gossip and the people who demand the truth like police investigators in a homicide investigation. They don't give up until they find the truth wherever it takes them.

However, most people just don't have the time, motivation and energy to look for truth. Most people must make do with whatever keeps them alive day to day. And if we look around the world that is where most people are: living and basing their lives upon old wives tales and gossip based upon what people have believed for hundreds and thousands of years.

To a certain degree this lends to cohesiveness and a feelings of continuity. But if we only have cohesiveness and continuity at some point the whole thing will break down because the universe after all is not static, it is constantly changing and rearranging itself in multiple ways.

So, if there aren't enough people and other beings constantly looking for truth in every situation then the survival of all beings might come into question.