If you disapprove of having your religion questioned, don’t read any further. Please also be aware that I am not needing you to change your view of your religion. I’m simply expressing why religion doesn’t work for me.

The very first thing that is fundamental for me, is that mainstream religion’s Gods are just too small. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all came into being in what is now the Middle East. Besides the fact that many of the holy scripts can be refuted by science, I simply cannot put my head around the fact that a message that came from a very small region on planet earth defines God. 

When we take simple things like getting lost in a desert for 40 years and one learns that desert was no bigger than the Free State, then surely ones logical mind has to question how it is possible for a group of people to get lost in a desert for 40 years, when all they could have done was walk in the direction of the sunrise for five minutes every morning and it would have taken them far less time to get out of such a small desert. 

This kind of story ranks right up there with the story of Noah’s flood. Again, we have a God that annihilates the entire population on the planet, because of a few sinners. Besides the fact that one has to question where Noah found the kangaroos. This story is simply not logical. Therefore, the story of a small, localised flood, is a story of myth and simply is not based in reality whatsoever. 

If we look at the glaring holes in the creation myth, we know that it is not possible.

Archeologists have found human remains from hundreds of thousands of years ago. To suggest that Adam was created by God a few thousand years ago, is preposterous. 

Religion says that man was made in the image of God. What I believe, is that man has created Gods in the image of man. You see, I can simply not conjure up an all-powerful God, who is everywhere at the same time, a God without ego, a God of love and compassion, who will then create 10 rules that need to be strictly followed and should they not be, one will burn forever in fires of hell. This to me, smacks of judgment and retribution which are characteristics of humanity and therefore, I say man has created God in his image.

Let’s explore the bigger picture.

I stated before that the Gods of religion are simply too small for me. Three of the world’s major religions came about in what is now known as the Middle East. What, in my opinion, was intended to be motivational and aspirational messages were turned into distorted, confused, shortsighted, angry, judgmental and restrictive dogma instead.

The three major religions that were started in a very small, confined area of planet earth and the Gods the people of the area created in their image, are supposed to be the almighty God according to their religion. These gods were created not just to be Gods of the region but Gods of the entire universe. This small, conflicted, isolated area on planet earth created Gods that are supposed to be the guardians of all existence. 

But let’s just look at our Galaxy.

Our Galaxy has billions of stars and each one of those billions of stars has their own solar system of planets. Are the gods that the three major religions created, the Gods of our entire Galaxy? You see, this does not feel real to me because in the context of just our Galaxy, how can those ten meager rules be the essence of what guides, motivates and inpires billions of solar systems and the life that may or may not live upon it? You see, the God of religion is simply too small for me.

And I haven’t even gone beyond our Galaxy. If one looks at the religion’s Gods in the context of the universe, I don’t even have words with which I can explain to you how small, insignificant and restrictive these Gods, that we have created in our image, are.

For me God is that which makes the atoms move. Not some egotistical, demanding, insecure being that is depicted as a father-figure and an angry one at that. I am simply unable to process this man-made God at all.

In my world, everything that exists is made up of what I term, divine consciousness. I use that term because words fail me when I try to describe that which makes me feel in awe of a simple sunset. Just the thought that there are billions of suns, no really, billions of suns, just in our galaxy makes my head spin. Scientists are estimating that they are two trillion galaxies in the universe. In the context of this, I’m simply unable to accept that the God that we created in the image of man can possibly be that divine intelligence that brought into being this magnificence.

The Gods of our religions are simply too small for me.

In the picture attached to this article are several thousand galaxies. Earth is an invisible speck in one of those galaxies.