While Luther freed people from the authority of the Church, he made them submit to a much more
tyrannical authority, that of a God who insisted on complete submission of man and annihilation of the
individual self as the essential condition to his salvation. Luthers faith was the conviction of being loved
upon the condition of surrender, a solution that has much in common with the principle of complete submission
of the individual to the state and the leader.
Unquestioning obedience to divine commands has led to some very cruel and bizarre human behavior, as
Jon Krakauer documents in his recent study of violent faith, UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN. It concerns
what I call the Abraham/Isaac imperative, embracing the willingness to do anything, even to murder ones own
beloved kin, in obedience to inner voices. In my opinion, Abraham showed real courage when he questioned his own
vision, attended to another voice and evolved beyond divinely sanctioned rituals of human sacrifice. All he gets
credit for usually, though, is his blind, unflinching readiness to commit even the most horrible of crimes in blind
obedience to his God.
Religion is an inevitable aspect of human experience. Spirituality is cool. So, more power to enlightened perspectives
(revelations), communities of faithful souls, and so forth. But lets be done with youthful fanaticism cloaked in ancient
myth; lets question authority and think for ourselves. Then, we might realize the liberation about which Alan Watts
speaks in this potent thought: When you get to the point that you know you dont need a religion at all, then its fun
to have one.
-- Bill Joyner