Awesome Dude asks: “I have a question… It’s quite serious (for me personally.) I am a religious person (wait, don’t click away!) I have found alignment within my religion. I’m a Muslim and I found out that the Law of Attraction fits in perfectly with my religion. The only thing that I don’t really understand is the prohibition of some stuff, including Homosexuality, Adultery, Alcohol, drugs in general. I mean if God (or in your case source) wants us to expand and grow, why did he prohibit the things that help us do just that? The reason why I’m asking you and not some religious leader is that some of them are a little bit on the crazy side…most of them claim to have knowledge about religion but I can feel the discord in their tone. And you’re really awesome and I trust that your answer is going to be not crazy (I hope XD).”

Hey there Awesome Dude,

First of all, “crazy” is relative. I’m about to do a post on God which will fly in the face of A LOT of what religions have taught us. Some might call that crazy.

Also, don’t worry. We don’t hate religious people around here. We don’t hate anyone. Just like God. See what I did there? Yeah, you do…

I’m happy to use the term “God” if that’s your thing. If it’s not, you can translate it into “Source”, “Universe” or “Your Higher Self”. It’s all basically the same thing (we are all aspects of God, the Divine, the Universe, whatever), so use the term that makes you feel the best.

But, if we’re going to use the term God, then we have to define it first. Because there are a lot of definitions out there, and not all of them are what we would call resistance free.

What God isn’t

God doesn’t hate. God doesn’t prohibit. God doesn’t exclude. Go doesn’t punish. God is not angry with humanity.  God is will not make you burn in hell for all eternity for making a “mistake”. God is not testing you. God is not powerlessness. God does not want you to suffer. God does not need you to prove your worthiness. God is not petty. God did not give you “free will” only to smack you for doing something he doesn’t like. God doesn’t put things on the menu that you’re not allowed to order (that is not free will). God is not the douchebag.

What God is

God is love. God is compassion. God is inclusive. God is kindness. There is no punishment because there’s no need to punish. God doesn’t judge. There is no eternal damnation (holding a grudge for eternity… Really, religion?). God is empowering. God is joy. God is playfulness. God gave you free will so you can use it, and however you use it is ok because there’s value in all experiences. God knows your worth. God knows your perfection. God is emotionally balanced. God is pretty damn awesome.

The contradiction

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s dig in a little further. The confusion that you’re feeling is normal (this stuff should confuse you. It makes no sense). Disclaimer (like it’s going to help at this point…): The following description is kind of an amalgamation of modern religion, and isn’t meant to be a representation of the Islam faith or any other specific belief system. It will, however, be colored pretty heavily by Christianity, because that’s the faith I grew up in and know the most about. As always, take the bits that resonate with you and disregard the rest.

You’re told that God is loving, but then people try to use that same God as a justification to hate, torture and kill others. They use the concept of God as a way to exclude others, call them unnatural, and judge anyone who dares not to conform to whatever rigid rules they’ve decided connote virtuousness. And I know that I’m going to get letters for this (don’t care), but God didn’t prohibit anything. Why would he need to? Think about. The basic concept of God that most of us have been sold is this:

Picture an angry, petty, yet all powerful being that creates a planet and puts a bunch of beings on it. He decides to make one being the “master” of all the others, so the beasts are in service to man. He can basically be as shitty to them as he likes, and that’s ok. Also, he can do pretty much anything to women and children, too. They don’t really count as much, either. So, the whole system is based on hierarchy, with someone being at the top (God, then man, then maybe horses, then male children, then women, then livestock and then female children. Or something like that…) and all others being somewhere below that. The higher you are on that pyramid scheme, the more you get to torture those below you under the guise of keeping them in line with God’s Will.

Which, by the way, is fickle. God doesn’t like a whole lot of stuff, and it’s always changing, depending on who’s talking to God. That’s not going to be you, of course, since you’re not qualified. Someone with a higher standing than you, like a man of the church, will do that for you. But I’m sure they’re all totally unbiased and never have their own agenda.

Now, this God totally loves you, but if you mess up even a little bit, and seriously, it could just a teensy bit and be something totally arbitrary, you should be put to death, preferably in a horrific way. You’ll then burn in hell for all eternity. If all of humanity pisses God off, or if he’s had too much to drink, he’ll just wipe us all out. He created us, but apparently he kind of messed us up (we’re broken), but because his ego won’t let him admit it, he blames us and charges us with proving our worthiness despite our inherent design flaws. He also loves to play mind games and incite wars, inflict famine, withhold affection and food, and is basically a collection of humanity’s worst qualities. This God is more representative of an abusive husband than an all-powerful, loving creator.

How did we get it so wrong?

Now, before you despair or go screaming “conspiracy theory”, let’s take a quick look at how we could’ve gotten so far off course on this whole religion thing. I mean, it’s pretty clear from the early teachings of each religion that the base of each was bathed in love and compassion and empowerment. But then, it kind of got off track. Why?

If you remember that your reality is simply a mirror to your vibration, and that society as a whole is a mirror to society’s collective vibration, then it stands to reason that the way we see the concept of God is merely a reflection of our collective beliefs. In other words, if we feel powerless, then we have to have a God that reflects that to us. If we feel unworthy, then we will have to have a God that requires us to prove our worth, but never really allows us to. If we feel judgmental, the so will our God. If we feel angry, then so will our God. Our God is a reflection of us. So, when we see a concept of God that basically reflects the worst of humanity, this is merely a mirror of the vibration that was present at that time. In Christianity, the Old Testament God is a hell of a lot more emotionally and psychologically unbalanced than the New Testament God. Well, so were the people.

When you feel completely powerless, it actually feels good to think that there’s a vengeful God up there somewhere who will smite the “bad” people. And if you are drawn to the idea of torturing others in order to express the fear within you and your civilization, then what better way to give yourself permission to do that than to convince yourself that this is what God would do? And if Homosexuality makes you uncomfortable because you have strong beliefs that won’t allow you to be who you really want to be (and if you can’t be yourself then why should they be allowed to, goddammit), then God hating gays becomes a convenient excuse.

Don’t blame the words

God’s words don’t cause us to judge and hate others. But how we choose to interpret those words (any words really, but let’s stick to religion in this case) is a reflection of the fears and judgments that are already present. If you have a lot of fear in your heart, you’re going to read the Bible or the Qur’an or whatever very differently than when you’re coming from a place of love. In other words, don’t blame religion for fundamentalism. Fundamentalists are crazy, hateful people who will use anything as an excuse to lash out (they are coming from a place of extreme fear), and God fits the bill nicely. Because you can’t argue with the word of God, can you. Or can you?

Well, I happen to think you can. “God said so” is not a valid way to justify an action or point of view. Whose God said so? Not my God. Maybe your God. But why would you choose to focus on a version of God that’s so fear based? Why does your God have to be so afraid?

Yeah… you have a choice

But that’s the rub, isn’t it? People don’t realize they have a choice. In fact, we’re told actively that we cannot simply choose whatever version of God appeals to us. We have to accept the one we’re presented with, no matter how crazy, vindictive, hateful, prejudiced, or petty that version may be. And boy will we fight to the death to prove to each other that OUR shitty version of God is the “real” one. We should be afraid of God. And we should have the good decency to hate ourselves for not being good enough for this mentally unstable, abusive douchebag. Well, I call Bullshit.

God isn’t a douchebag. But some people are. And we can use the concept of God to try and justify our doucheyness all we want (and we will not be stopped, free will and all that), but in the end, it’s still all us. God doesn’t force us to hate anyone. In fact, there’s a reason that hate feels the way it does. It’s because God, the Universe, our Inner Being, doesn’t agree with hate! God isn’t afraid and has no need to force us into conformity. Again, that’s all us.

I have an idea: Why don’t we all agree to stop using God as an excuse to be assholes?

So, Gays and Booze and sleeping around are ok?

The short answer to that is: yes. From God’s or the Universe’s point of view, it’s ALL ok. If it wasn’t ok, it wouldn’t be on the menu. You can order whatever you want. The key is to figure out what you want, what serves you.

There’s nothing unnatural about being homosexual or heterosexual or transsexual or nonsexual or anythingelsesexual. There’s nothing unnatural about the human body and its urges. Because there’s nothing unnatural about us.

Now, I know that sex is a loaded topic, and while I can’t address the whole subject here, I’m happy to hit a couple of highlights. When sex comes up, we inevitably hear about the dangers of sex, specifically how it might impact the children. We should all stop having sex or even talking about it because of the children. They’ll either want to do it, or they’ll get molested. Because that’s how pedophilia happens (that’s sarcasm right there, in case you missed it)…  Of course, the ideal and balanced sexual state is one that involves not only the consent of both (or however many) parties involved, but total abandon, free from shame or guilt or judgment. The key to avoiding unbalanced sexual encounters, however, is not to demonize sex altogether, but rather to look at what causes the imbalance in the first place. This means, that we need to talk MORE about it, address imbalance openly, allow people to examine and release their fears, and embrace what is so obviously a gift of immense pleasure.

In other words, the way to stop pedophilia or unwanted teenage pregnancies is not to make kids afraid of sex. It’s honesty, openness and a willingness to delve into our own discomfort. Of course, if you don’t understand how people function or how emotions work, and you’re too afraid to deal with your own shame and fear, then hating anything that triggers you and blaming God for it is, well let’s face it, a lot easier.

It’s also totally ok to drink alcohol. Now, you may not choose to, because it doesn’t make you feel good, personally, but don’t condemn the whole concept of drinking. I personally only drink about once a year now, and only champagne (it’s the only kind of alcohol that still agrees with me, and only when I really feel like it). I don’t try to stay away from alcohol, it simply holds no appeal for me, and I’m happy to be around people who are drinking, as long as they’re happy drunks. My recent video on Marijuana outlined how I feel about drugs, and my post on cheating covers adultery.

Be willing to dig deeper

The point is no activity is inherently “bad”. There are activities that are creative and inclusive and move you towards love and Who You Really Are (God), and there are activities that are destructive and exclusive and move you away from Who You Really Are. Which activities fall into which category is going to differ from person to person, and from time to time. For example, you may find that you cheated on someone in the past, but you now want to stop that cycle.

In order to shift those behaviors, however, we need to dig a little bit into the root cause of those actions. What would make a person want to get drunk every night or cheat on their partner? What would make a person hate others? What would make a person lash out violently against people or animals and justify cruelty? There are answers to these questions, but they’ll be different for each person. Having one, simple solution for all is a great marketing tactic, but it’s not helpful in the least.

We’re waking up

If being intolerant no longer feels good to you, then good. The reflection of intolerance (the church’s decree to hate a group of people) will no longer “fit” for you, and you should drop it. Remember that your religious beliefs are a reflection of your vibration, not the cause of it. If you’re intolerant, it’s not God’s fault, even if it’s easier to blame him than get to the source of your intolerance.

If judging certain behaviors to be unacceptable no longer resonates with you, then good. It means you’re becoming less judgmental and more God-like. God doesn’t judge. When you can allow others to be who they are, and where they are on their path, when you can learn to shine your own light so brightly that you can’t help but illuminate all those around you, instead of focusing on how others should NOT shine theirs, when you can give yourself FULL permission to be Who You Really Are, to be happy, to be joyful, to be love, to be worthy, to remember who you’ve always known you were, that’s when you’ll feel closest to God. That’s when you’ll know God. That’s when you’ll realize that you are God. And, it has to be said, it’s about freaking time.