COMMON TRAITS SHARED AMONG RELIGIONS

Monopoly on Truth

All religions claim that every other religion is false (or at the very least, misguided). Each religion claims to have a monopoly on absolute truth, usually through some prophet who purports to have received word directly from god that he (more often than she) is the vessel of the final revelation, the last word. There cannot be more prophets after him, and never any greater.

Religions resort to these tactics because admitting that truth is an ever changing phenomenon would jeopardize any hope of a truly loyal following, decreasing the religions' power in direct proportion to their loss of attendance.

How can any one human being lay claim to absolute truth? That's absurd, truth is often one thing in the morning and something completely different in the evening.

And if a religion were to be honest and say there have been many revelations, some with a greater degree of light than others? And that there would be more revelations in the future coinciding with the general spiritual growth of the entire human race as a whole?

Some will say "It's just a passing fad, a fancy of fashion". Others may say that it's a stepping stone up along our ever-evolving path.

The Shards does not require you to believe in any human godhead figure. It requires no icons. All you need is a little research and a consequent awareness of your role as a member of the continuum.

Get on with the business of life.

The Desire to be Somehow Immortal

The majority of religions have a belief that the soul is (or can be) immortal. In some religions there is a promise of everlasting "heaven" or "hell" (depending on how well you did in the "test of life").

Reincarnation religions can have one's soul moving up or down the pecking order (depending once again on how well one does in the "test of this life").

The Shards is species specific. As long as the species does not go extinct the collective soul lives on within each and every one of us.

We are responsible for creating heaven or hell right here on this Earth. The Shards does not allude to any exterior form of eternal bliss or damnation. This is not the test of life - This IS life.

The only test is what kind of world we leave for those siblings who come after us.

Belief in the Soul

A ripe receptor and a "homeless" Shard are attracted to each other.

The Shard and the receptor come together in the same natural way as a bee to a flower.

How does the Shard know where the receptor is? A Shard has been defined as a "proto-soul" which can also be interpreted as a "Proto-Consciousness". A Shard IS conscious, and what is the Shard's desire? Immediately after the Shattering (death) each Shard wants to begin inhabiting a new receptacle as quickly as possible to avoid dissipation.

Faith in God

God is female, symbolizing the creative, procreative, primal evolutionary desire within us.

The Over-God and the Inner-God are one and the same, all life is but God's infinitely varied manifestations.

Prayer

"I pray to you and thank you Lord for everything you do:
The Infinite Universe, the Smallest Particle, the Miracle of Life and You.
I'll always try to do my Best in everything I do.
I will endeavor to couple Positive Desire with Positive Action.
I will endeavor to avoid perpetuating Negative Action.
I will endeavor to make the Earth a better place for all my Sisters and Brothers to live in so that we all may dynamically progress towards truth, knowledge and peace of mind.
Your humble servant I remain."

Prayer or similar sorts of "positive wishing" take place in virtually every religion. It's totally egotistical to pray for yourself, as in "Oh, dear God please get me more money at my job", etc. Because most religions have the idea of "selflessness", i.e. the opposite of selfishness. Prayer properly used, is praying for humankind and often is used to pray for loved ones. Desire, i.e. wishes/wants is the basis, but positive wishing. Positive wishing in an internal quiet situation (very much akin to the types of situations in which prayer is used in most religions) can accomplish an awful lot.

In the first place, it helps you to actually clarify what it is that is needed. Secondly by defining the problem, routes of action can be seen more clearly. No positive wishing is complete without positive action, so that after the prayer is finished, you have to go out and do what is needed to help fulfil what you were praying about.

Internal changes can be effected by either negative thoughts and desires or by positive ones. The goal is a healthy mind in a healthy body. So by using prayer one can also make physical changes in the being, which can also be later transmitted genetically.

Prayer is not very useful unless there is a positive action to back up these positive desires.

A Reason To Be

The individual cannot cope with the possibility that the Universe is a big accident, and is consequently given a goal or direction. Through religious motivation, life is given meaning.

Encourage Good Will

Unfortunately most of this good will only extends to immediate family and to those who share said religion.

With The Shards this good will must, by definition, extend to every man, woman and child on this planet.

Punish Offenders

If you insist on doing anti-social acts you may have to be restrained, but revenge is not a form of justice. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" should have been taken less literally to mean: If you were to cause damage to another's person or property, how would you like the same thing to happen to you under similar circumstances? In any case, a punishment can never equal a crime, just as two wrong actions can never result in positive act. And you cannot erase the evil from someone's heart just by locking them up, or beating them - in fact, these oppressive actions often have quite the opposite effect, with the resolution in the law-breakers mind: "Next time I won't get caught".

All religions say that every other religion (except the religion in question) is not true. Or, in other words, every other religion except "my" religion is bunko.

The SHARDS does not preach this, in the SHARDS religion it is accepted that in every religion on this planet there is a certain degree of truth.

But because the source of evil is the scattering of energy, there is also a lot of rubbish in every religion (except the Shards). If someone wants to believe in any particular religion, that is fine by me.

However, the Shards are here, and this religion needs to be taken into account in exactly the same way as one takes into account social conditions, genetic patterns, and any of the things that control or influence human behavior.

Up to this point we have been ignorant of the fact that the Shards exist. Now that we realize what we're working with, we can deal with life on a much more intelligent level.

Shards©1984