The Word of God? Who told you?

Bible, Koran, Torah, whatever…. The Word of God? I don't think so.

So many people think they know the one and only Truth in the universe. Even though there are so many different beliefs, each holds fast to their own, knowing in their hearts that all those other poor people, the unfortunate fools, are lost because they don't see the same Truth.

All the stories told, describing events and conversations back to the dawn of time, the Creation of Everything, are said to be exactly as meant or even said by the Force that was both witness to and cause of those events.

So, who wrote all this down and when?

How much changed in the verbal retelling over so many generations after humans supposedly discovered, or were told, by that same Force, the Meaning of It All? How much of the original script was revamped, remembered incorrectly, revised to advance an ulterior motive, etc.?

You read all the time about religious scholars debating the true meaning of scriptures...and one group's views will win out and that will be their "unbroken line" back to a supreme being whose meaning they may have just misinterpreted. And how many times has that happened, in each faith, over centuries?

And how many times have hypocrites ruled the world's churches, acting as if they themselves were God, sending conquering armies out to destroy the world to remake it in their image? From the Crusades to street missions to young men in earnest white shirts, suits, and earnest pamphlets selling their brand-name one-size-fits-all belief; it's all a power play with humanity's own fears of nothingness as a weapon.

You'd better believe in Something or when you die it'll be forever. Or it will be Forever with Pain and Suffering! Or what it won't be is milk and honey and Serenity and Peace Everlasting, with everyone you ever loved (and maybe Fido, too!!) all united in Joy.

You don’t have to disavow a supreme being to to think if there was once a Way we have likely strayed from it. And that what is described at this moment in history as The Way simply must be wrong, even if only through unintentional distortion.

Or you could be a heretical unbeliever who thinks either fabrications or distortions are the framework the world's hopes are hung on.

After all the fire and brimstone ranting and all the calm persuasion, all the serene acceptance and the evangelical sales pitches, there is still only one absolute thing about religious belief.

Nobody knows the truth.

Belief is powerful. It is not Truth.