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“The bondage of creeds is one of your world's afflictions. It is worse than pestilence and disease, far worse than the physical sufferings of the body through illness, for it is an affliction of the soul. It puts the spirit in blinkers.”
— Silver Birch |
Featured Book from
The Church of
Rational Spiritism
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Detail from The Combat of Love and Chastity, Pietro Perugino, 1505
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The fact that a serial killer is otherwise an amiable and helpful guy does not mean that we should pardon his gruesome crimes. Just so, the fact that many religious organizations do
charitable work and
give lip-service to compassion and forgiveness does not mean that we should ignore their innumerable atrocities.
In addition to several thousand years of divine bloodshed, religions have proven to be the major promoters of insidious lies that buttress existing and would-be despots and dictators.
Adding "Jesus," "Mohamed," or "God" to every third sentences is a powerful
way to deflect investigation, avoid scrutinity, and dodge indictments. This
is as true today as when the technique was first discovered millenia ago.
All those who think that people should not be forced to support (via their votes or their taxes) any religiously inspired limitations on our personal rights and freedoms, owe it to themselves (and to society) to join the ranks of
Rational Spirits. A good place to start is to become familiar with the facts,
information, and opinions contained within the books described below.
Interspersed with the recommended books are quotes from various discarnate spirits demonstrating their general opposition to creedal religions.
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“Religions were created to control people and nations when armies
failed, and fear was the tool that kept them in line. If you take
the divinity out of any man—take God out of him—then you can easily
rule and control him.”
— source-1
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The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious
Nationalism
For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Stewart presents chilling evidence that millions of American churchgoers are being inflamed and exploited by a cynical, well-funded alliance of power seekers.
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“We are striving always to teach the children of matter how to be
free and how to bask in the sunlight of spiritual truth, how to cast
off the serfdom of creedal slavery. That is not an easy task, for
once the trappings of religion have mastered you, it takes a long
time for spiritual truth to penetrate that thick wall of
superstition.” — source-10
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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:
The title of this book must have been added by some dunce in the marketing department — being human, the author is clearly unqualified to judge what God is or isn't. But the subtitle is absolutely accurate. Christopher Hitchens was an atheist who had no understanding of spirituality, yet his book is highly recommended for all readers because it thoroughly and clearly reveals the true and fearsome nature of organized religions. |
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"We abjure and denounce that most destructive doctrine that faith, belief, assent to dogmatic statements, have power to erase the traces of transgression; that an Earth lifetime of vice and sloth and sin can be wiped away, and the spirit stand purified by a blind acceptance of a belief, of an idea, of a fancy, of a creed. Such teaching has debased more souls than anything else to which we can point."
— source-2
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The Dark Side of Christian History:
Over the past 2 millenia, the Christian church has oppressed, brutilized, and killed millions of individuals in their rather successful efforts to control and
repress spirituality. This book reveals in painstaking detail the tragedies, sorrows, and injustices inflicted upon humanity by the church.
The author's exposé is a compelling and passionate cry for human dignity and spiritual freedom. Required reading for all
rational spirits.
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| “I meet some who are absolutely lost and in total outer darkness because of a false theological training. Such go wandering and moaning about in search of a personal God seated on a great white throne, and their Savior, the only begotten Son of God, sitting at the right hand of God; and great convoys of angels flying in the midst of the heavens and round about the great white throne, with golden harps in their hands. From the time they were born until they reached the hour of death they never knew or heard or dreamed of any possible different condition to meet them in the great beyond. These are the hardest of all cases to be led to the real and saving truth and light.”
— source-3
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America’s War on Sex: The Continuing Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty:
Why does our government want to censor what you read, hear, and see, try to limit your access to contraception, attempt to legislate good moral values, and try to brainwash your kids about abstinence? With hundreds of examples ripped from today's headlines,
the author names names, challenges political hypocrisy, and shows the financial connections between government and conservative religious groups that are systematically taking away your rights. |
“Spirits do not come to overthrow religion, as is sometimes asserted; they come, on the contrary, to confirm and sanction it by irrefutable proofs. But, as the time has arrived to renounce the use of figurative language, they speak without allegories, and give to every statement a clear and precise meaning that obviates all danger of false interpretation."
— source-4
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The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American:
Christian nationalists assert that the
U.S.A. was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and advocate an agenda based on this popular historical claim. But is this belief true?
The Founding Myth answers the question once and for all.
The author, a constitutional attorney, proves that America was not built on the Bible and that Christian nationalism is, in fact, un-American. |
| “Over the doors of the churches is not written: ‘We are loyal to truth and truth alone.’ Rather does it say: ‘We preach a creed, we espouse a doctrine, we practise ritual, we are tied to ceremony.’ The
churches are the means of opposing truth.”
— source-5
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“Our religious teachers belong to that class of persons who were
noted, during their probation on Earth, for their philanthropy and
deeds of moral bravery; those who, regardless of the scoffs and
sneers of the time-serving multitude, dared to promulgate and defend
the doctrines of civil and religious liberty. These practical
reformers and saviours of the race, instead of worrying their
hearers, as is the custom with many on Earth, with horrible
denunciations and awful threats of eternal vengeance for their
misdoing, admonish and exhort them to higher and nobler aims and
aspirations; to the study of Deity as manifested in his stupendous
works."
— source-6
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A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:
Despite the title, this is not a history of God — that would obviously be impossible — but it is a fairly readable and most useful history of the growth of western religions. All people interested in freeing themselves from the bonds those tryannical organizations have imposed should avail themselves of the information in this book. |
| “God has not created a hell or a devil. Those were dreadful creations of man to torment his brothers. They were created through religious dogma for the purpose of intimidating the masses into a controllable organization.”
— source-7
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The
Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History:
Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence,
the author finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor; that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews; and ultimately that Christianity was a success because it provided those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life.
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“The churches — of whatever denomination — have built up a monstrous
conception of the Eternal Father of Heaven. They have made of Him,
on the one hand, a mountain of corruption by shallow lip service, by
spending large sums of money to erect churches and chapels to His
`glory,' by pretending a groveling contrition for having offended
Him, by professing to fear Him. Fear Him! Who is all love!”
— source-8
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The Profits of Religion:
An expose of the abuses by American religious institutions circa 1918. Although some refrences will be unfamiliar to contempory audiences, Sinclair's revelations and warnings are even more pertinent today. A Pulitzer Prize winning author of nearly 100 books and booklets, Sinclair was a dedicated crusader whose
work had major impacts on our society.
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“There are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers here, and all the different sects of religious beliefs, just as among you. … Heaven is altogether different from what they pictured; but their beliefs and prejudices are stronger than the facts which come under their observation (is not this also the rule in the Earth life?), and so they merely readjust themselves, still clinging as far as possible to their old tenets; but the time comes, sooner or later, when they grow out of these superstitions.”
— source-9
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References
1. Knight, J.Z., Ramtha, 1986,
p. 35.
2. Moses, W. Stainton, Spirit
Teachings, 1883, p. 55.
3. Aber, William W. and Jabez Hunt Nixon, Beyond the Vail, 1906, p. 22.
4. Kardec, Alan, The Spirit's Book, 1857, p. 403.
5. Austen, A.W. ed., Teachings of Silver Birch, 1938, p. 82.
6. Hare, Robert, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations, 1855, p. 92.
7. Knight, J.Z., Ramtha, 1986, p. 35.
8. Borgia, Anthony, Life In the World Unseen, 1954,
p. 57.
9. Duffey, Eliza Bisbee, Heaven Revised, 1921, p. 78.
10. Austen, A.W. ed., Teachings of Silver Birch, 1938, p. 28.
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