The Religion Taboo


Roland Stahl
August, 2018


      Continuing along the line of the observation that if we draw a map of the world in which every area is colored according to my scheme of aura colors, then there is a startling overlap of the most volatile areas, in the colors of Red and Purple, with the range of Islam over the globe.  But that’s not the Islam I know – isn’t Islam all about peace, and obedience to the Will of Allah? So why is the face of Islam so mired in the Red of aggression and violence, and the Purple of oppression and defeat?

     I know that it is not considered politically correct to question another person’s religion, but I have found that, even though all religions speak of similar themes, there seem to be differences among the major religions that suggest to me sorting them out according to the colors of their aura.  This is a pretty radical political venture.  It suggests that there are differences in spiritual or ethical value among the religions of the world: that some are better than others.

     All of the placement of the colors seems to be obvious, except perhaps the Orange of Hinduism, but I see Hinduism as a religion of engagement with the world, where Buddhism is a religion of withdrawal from the world (Blue).  Christianity has always been the clearest voice for the message of love (Yellow).  The Jews have historically been oppressed people (Purple), while Moslems seem to be on an endless jihad (Red).  

     So here it is possible to see the levels of value, with the Black of Satanism on the bottom, and the Jews and Moslems slugging it out, literally, on the line between life and death, with Hinduism and Buddhism at a clearly elevated plane of consciousness above.  This puts Christianity close to the top, along with the Grace of God (Yellow and Green).  Above is the merger into Cosmic Consciousness at the apex of Union (White).


     I am just sitting here stunned at the extent to which this is all politically incorrect.  How can I sit here and make these judgments?  Well, I just call them as I see them, and I find Christianity to be the clearest expression of the highest religious experience.  Leaving aside Hinduism and Buddhism, both of which impart valuable spiritual values to their followers, that leaves Islam and Judaism as problematic religions, and I look at them not through their theology, but through the actions of their adherents.  I find them both to be primitive (somewhere on the level of the Old Testament God).  Someone should send missionaries to spread the message of higher levels of experience.

     Well, intellectual honesty compels me to acknowledge that I do not believe that all religions are equally worthy of respect, but that some are better than others (from the point of view of world harmony).  I have eaten fearlessly from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Apple of Discord.  According to Homeric myth, the Apple of Discord was the source of the origin of the cosmos, which I call “The Laughter of God.”


     As I look over what I wrote yesterday, I see that it is deeply flawed.  I have been critical of both Islam and Judaism, not because of their theology or stated principles, but because of the way the people live their lives.  Obviously this is a gross generalization – I am just reacting to what I see on the ground, and that is the unconscionable behavior of the Israelis towards the Palestinians as they pursue the “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem” without any appreciation of the historical irony, and the endless jihad of Moslems all over the globe.  I must, in fairness, dissociate the State of Israel from the Jewish people worldwide, most of whom seem to live their lives innocuously enough.  

     However, in the case of Christianity, I have focused on the essence of what it is all about, rather than the actions of Christians.  But even if we only look at the present day, and ignore all of the historical atrocities committed in the name of Jesus Christ, the picture is not unequivocal.  The United States is predominately Christian, overall, yet its government is out of control in planetary-wide life-threatening depravity.  Perhaps it is more accurate to characterize the United States as essentially lacking in any religious awareness at all.  In any case, it is very hard to find any uniform standards by which to compare the integrity of religious beliefs.

     I guess I have to conclude that my catalog of religious beliefs according to the predominant aura color is just an idle amusement which cannot be seriously defended.  But it is useless to consider the value of religious teaching while neglecting the way that teaching influences the moral expression of its adherents.  


     I wrote all of that several days ago, and I have been unhappy about it ever since.  At the very least, we will have to say that it is grossly oversimplified, if not entirely misleading and worthless.  And yet, something about the idea persists, and I just can’t let it go.  The basic problem is that it deliberately targets both Jews and Moslems as living under a substandard religious influence, with negative consequences.  

     But, if that is the core of the issue, perhaps there is something to it.  As I look at what I know of Judaism and Islam (and I take my knowledge not from their sacred literature and traditions, but from an observance of the effect of their religion on personal behavior), I have to say that I don’t see much of any tendency to love thy neighbor.  Islam gets points for their hospitality to strangers and travelers, and I have always felt that one of the most charming traditions of Judaism is the Seder, some special memorial dinner in which one is urged to find someone who is alone and invite him to share the meal together with your family.  I also want to mention that I have traveled extensively in Moslem countries and I have encountered numerous instances of very friendly people who have gone out of their way to be helpful to me, and I have never personally witnessed any moral shortcomings of the Moslem people.  But that still leaves the unimaginable depravity of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people, and the endless jihad of Moslems, mostly against other Moslems, not just against The Great Satan and other Western countries.  If it is unfair of me to malign these religions on the basis of the actions of some minority of their adherents, I would say that it is up to the religious leaders of both Judaism and Islam to speak out against those abuses and clarify the position of their faith.  Place your bets here: will the leaders of Judaism be the first to speak out against the State of Israel, or will the leaders of Islam speak out against the endless wars carried on in the name of Islam?

     On the whole, Christianity is way out in front expressing the high ground of spiritual consciousness.  “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  (John XIII: 34-35)

     Now I want to get down to cases.  First of all, levels of spiritual consciousness contain both sides in their aura – Yellow and Green, Orange and Blue, and Red and Purple.  I have placed the Moslems on the Red side, and Jews on the Purple side, but in the case of the relationship between the Jews and the Palestinians in Israel/Palestine, the Jews are clearly the violent aggressors (Red), and the Palestinians are the oppressed victims (Purple).  I have seen as a general observation of human nature that when someone commits an injustice upon someone else, rather than apologize for their error, they double-down and increase their violent attacks against their victim.  Here, the Israelis are clearly exhibiting the characteristic behavior of persons ruled by a Red/Purple aura, which typically oscillates between aggression and violence on the one hand, and then further oppression as victim on the other.  It is a vicious cycle that can only be transcended by going upwards.  

     More and more I am thinking that my “facetious” suggestion that Jews should convert to Christianity and Moslems to Buddhism is literally the way forward in this thousand year old conflict in the Middle East.  If the Jews were suddenly visited with Christ Consciousness (like Saul on the road to Damascus), they might make a sudden leap upwards in spiritual consciousness, open their borders to returning Palestinians, end all embargo by sea, rebuild the infrastructure that they have been so persistently demolishing for the last hundred years, and offer cash reparations to Palestinians who have been forcibly removed from their land.  If they were to do all of this, then relations between the Jews and Palestinians might approach normal conditions in as little as two or three generations.  And, as for Moslems embracing Buddhism, I think that would be the best thing for the peace of the earth.  They need to try meditation and find peace within; they need to let go of all of the anger and aggression, and return to the love of their families and friends.  

     Anyway, instead of fighting against any of these people, either Jews or Moslems, they should be offered opportunities of religious education, something like Christian Science Reading Rooms (rather than, for example, more aggressive Missionaries).  Whether Jews or Moslems actually convert to Christianity or Buddhism, or whether they just advance new sects which embody higher levels of spiritual awareness and expression, it all amounts to the same thing in the end.  


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