My wife and I are long-time subscribers to Consumer Reports. Now we mainly consult its recommendations online, but we also get the monthly paper publication.
Of course, we use other sources of product ratings and reviews. Amazon’s reviews can be very helpful in learning what purchasers of a product like and dislike about it. Claude, ChatGPT, and GoogleAI provide useful information by searching the internet for sources.
After the Oxo induction-ready fry pan lost much of its non-stickiness due to how often I use it for Little Links at breakfast, Hodo tofu burger at lunch, and sometimes stir fry/rice at dinner, Claude advised me on a replacement pan. I’ve been using a new All-Clad pan for a couple of days, and it’s been a non-stick delight.
Which got me to thinking…
Why can’t there be a religious Consumer Reports? What stands in the way of having an unbiased rating of how well the world’s leading religions provide the “product” that they’re offering? Where are the quality ratings of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and such?
Easy answer to each question: this isn’t possible, because religions aren’t in the business of providing a demonstrable product. They’re in the business of lofty immeasurable promises.
Salvation. Life after death. Access to an ineffable ultimate reality. Enlightenment.
There’s no way to tell whether any particular religion, or any religion at all, is able to fulfill the promises made to those who embrace a faith. It’s easy to tell if the food I’m cooking is sticking to the pan — which is the promise of the manufacturer of a non-stick pan. But no human ever has known whether a religion provides life after death, since this supposedly happens after death, not while someone is alive.
Thus every religion is a con job.
Religions have billions of followers because people like to be conned. Religious believers enjoy empty promises because they offer hope in what often can seem like a hopeless world. “Good news” is willingly substituted for “factual news.” Feeling special, a member of God’s chosen, is favored over being an ordinary inhabitant of our planet.
The teaching of a guru can seem like an alternative to religious dogma. But this seeming is an illusion. The promises of gurus are just as wispy as the promises of religions. There’s no way to tell if a guru really is who they are claimed to be.
I spoke about this in a 2010 blog post, “What if a ‘guru’ is no different from us?” The guru example I cite, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, heads up a religious organization in India, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, which I was a member of for 35 years.
I’m learning Tai Chi from a guy who is obviously expert in it. My wife and I are taking ballroom dancing lessons from a woman who can clearly demonstrate her skills. Today I took our Toyota Highlander to be serviced at a dealership where the technicians are certified to know what they’re doing.
But when it comes to salvation, enlightenment, or God-realization, lots of people are amazingly trusting that a supposed “guru” (the specific title differs in various religions) actually can walk the spiritual walk, and not just talk the spiritual talk.
One of my favorite sayings of the current guru, Gurinder Singh, is “How do you know that I don’t just have the gift of gab?” (I’m not sure if he’s still using this line in his talks, but he did fairly often in the early/mid 1990’s, when I saw him numerous times).
Yes, indeed. How do we know that anyone has special expertise in some field? We can confirm that a mountain climber knows how to scale difficult peaks. We can document that a computer technician is able to get balky machines running smoothly again.
Yet where’s the evidence that a guru is any different from you or me when it comes to knowing what, if anything, lies beyond the physical reality that we experience now? How could we tell that a guru is able to get one’s mind/soul in good working order?
I like to visualize a “Who’s the Guru?” game show, somewhat akin to the 1950s-60s “What’s My Line?” The goal would be to pick the satguru (“true guru”) out of a bunch of impostors.
How could this be done? What questions would be asked? Of course, the biggest question is whether the game even is possible, since the producers of the show would have to find a genuine true guru themselves.
This isn’t a fantasy game. It is being played by millions of people in every corner of the world.
Heck, make that billions if we have a expansive definition of “guru,” one that includes ministers, imams, rabbis, priests, yogis, and others who claim some special knowledge of a divine aspect to reality.
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I hardly believe that people are interested in the things you mentioned. Of course,as I cannot see what there is in their heads and hearts, it need not to be as I wrote.
My information is based on the couple of religion, spirituality and world view that are weekly on TV.
What I see their is smiling faces participating in this or that protestant singing service.
Or the elderly participating in a rc mass
Or this or that resort and spa like yoga, mindfulness event.
These are all small groups for the majority religion is something of the past, their parents and grandparents.
Churches are closing their doors as do monasteries and every shop related to spirituality …well those that sell insence, gemstones etc feel good stuff are still around
So al in all the majority seems no longer interested and what remains is some feel good consumer stuff.
In the meantime the inner cities of our towns are transformed into …oral feel good shops .. all craft shops are replaced by restaurants, bars etc one next to the other an all filled up with people biding their time in pleasure
And the generation of would be mystics are all leaving this world and the rest returns to business as usual ….making their live as comfortable as they can.
The drive to survive as individual and species goes with pleasure … if it would not, humans are fare to lazy and they would not eat and procreate.
That pleasure has overtime become the main interest of social and cultural endeavor…walk our streets and you will see …. a sea of entrepreneurs calling you in to offer you the pleasures of the senses ….
Santmat in india has always been part of ordinary life, nothing special ….we, have made it into something special …like peackockfethers to walk proudly with…
The exaggerations of the hippy culture unwilling and often unable to live a simple live in a simple way
Fake, would be …back to normal…and for those that are not willing and able today, there us tiktok
“What if a ‘guru’ is no different from us?”
Well, I think that many of those who call themselves gurus, masters, etc., are different from us – or rather, they have characteristics that generally set them apart from the average person. The main aspect of such folk is charisma – enhanced by a certain appearance and proclaiming things we want to hear. Of course, this is not exclusive to spiritual types – politicians and leaders of the various institutions can also have charismatic attributes.
I don’t know if people like to be conned, more that people seem to be continually on the lookout for that something extra, that something special that seems to make sense of life or provides some sort of more acceptable vision – or hope – from what we actually are. Generally, we humans never seem satisfied with who or what we are. Not that one should not work to change a bad situation, but rather that the fact that we are humans who quite naturally are subject to pain and disease, joys and pleasures, birth and death – the whole gamut of being a biological organism- is seen as being unsatisfactory.
The guru, as an example, offers an escape from being human, from being what we are. Some are quite harmless in that they provide a cosy community where one can feel ‘at home’ – much like some orthodox religious communities. But one should be suspicious of many of their teachings that promise a continued existence in an other-worldly utopia.
Religion, like so many other activities, trades in happiness.
And their numbers of repeat visitors are their ratings.
This is Anon. I’m not one to usually agree with this guy – but this is genuinely ine of the most accurate things I’ve heard in the comments.
Wish for more. There is more that we can’t see. Science proves this every day.
So believing in just what you see is the basis of bigotry, because we don’t see or hear all those here.
Don’t believe you know everything. That’s a very limited life. But life is far larger than you and I. Believe in that. Seek it out. Seek out wisdom beyond your limited thinking. Seek to be disproven again and again and revel in the rebirth.
Happiness is in the journey, and having hope for better things, being satisfied to move forward, to be in motion, to have hope and faith in what cannot yet be seen: love, respect, decency.
All science operates on these principles, thrives on it. Everything we see is based on much more we don’t. What we see is limited and is largely manufactured by the brain for our consumption, not real.
Don’t be left out! Seek!
Static things are dead, lifeless. Don’t listen to the nihlists or the bigots who claim to know. Listen to the ones still learning, still growing. Those who know they don’t.
Haha .. listen to me spence tepper
If only you could hear yourself.
Pleaae listen.
It should not surprise you that I learned the ideas I voice here from him, whom you call your master.
There is nothing to change for the better.
Life for human beings on earth is now as it always has been…. the stage setting changes, the costumes, the plots …but the actors are always the same.
You are fond of the requisite department
Funny how you and I got quite different teachings from Master.
It speaks to the fact that we should be careful what we ascribe to others, which may be nothing more than justification for our own beliefs.
You believe Maharaji said no one could change and no one would get anything from the path nor their practice.
I believe He taught with great vigor and compassion that the entire path and all its practices and stages is holy, had been around in different forms throughout history: is a path of transformation, and anyone who is drawn to it belongs there, has every right to be there, indeed it is their birthright and they are fully justified in claiming it, so long as they are willing to do the work.
But for those who claim to have all that, so His wisdom, but feel justified in avoiding the work, and then tell others He taught such a thing, and deny the Path as viable to others is just an obstacle in Master’s work.
Funny.
Please do put things in my writing that I did not write
The no change has nothing to do with walking the path.
The sameness is always changing in a unique way.
The weather changes and remains the same
I see what I wrote went far beyond your intent. Please forgive my hyperbole.
People convinced of their messianic rights, the finishing and Hebrew, the sons of Abraham, are fighting a 2000 years old war … because they are convinced of what they believe, of what has been told to them through inner experiences…as you do.
And what of your claims about what others believe? Dogma of any kind harms people.
Such dogma foments bigotry against Jews, Christians, Muslims, anyone who doesn’t believe as you do.
This dogma, the foundation of prejudice, that hates ‘the other’, the ‘different’, has been the cause of war and the shedding of innocent blood since recorded history. Making people wrong for believing differently, for looking differently, for acting differently from what you belive is right.
That’s where wars begin.
And learning to accept the differences, that is where peace begins.
On the foundation of a higher good, God, who supercedes all the territories intellect creates and justifies, that is the platform for universal brotherhood.
Not hatred of one over the other.
The moment you realize soul, you touch something superior to mind, your mind and mine.
The point is that the sages in the different believes are convinced in the same way as you do … they do not go to war …they speak words of love … but others in their name do.
You cannot let go of the idea that what you believe is…universal
Like the prophets, mystics etc do.
And that is the very reason … believe in the universalit….believing to speak in gods name
Your family let go of the messianic believes … believes others are holding on to listening to their sages, sages that are convinced as you do.
I am not telling or suggesting anyone to follow a path or practice…I never did….keep that in mind
Nor to leave
We have, as you correctly point out, in most cases, only the words of the followers, several generations removed.
It is sad because many of the original followers did indeed have the same experiences of divine love.
But the mind degrades all experience into a description. And often that description is colored by the conditioning of our own mind.
We see the problem right here with Brian, Anon,, and your own descriptions of Sant Mat. And my descriptions of your philosophy.
It is entirely understandable. Water seeks its own level. So does the mind.
To get any accuracy in the description of anything we must keep the instrument of the mind clean. But of course that is daily work within ourselves. Daily work for our entire lives.
When we are wrong, generally we don’t know it until someone points it out, which may never happen.
And when they do we get defensive and don’t digest it. That is the human condition.
Learning requires an open, still, attentive mind.
That is the daily practice of spiritual meditation.
“…thus every religion is a con job.” That’s a simple conclusion, but to my mind not a very deep one.
Every Thursday I volunteer at a local food bank, supervising a dozen or so young Mormon missionaries.
Over the years, I suppose I’ve met close to a hundred of them, male and female. It’s no exaggeration that all of them impress me as exceptionally mature and integrated people. All of them far, far more mature than I was at their age.
I keep looking for the exception. The young missionary who in some small way betrays a jaundiced character. Incredibly (to me anyway) I’ve yet to find one.
Nothing new about the argument that most religions are objectively just piles of metaphysical nonsense, run by mercenary thieves. Most religions’ history is suspect, their theology is whack, their leaders have clay feet. The Mormon LDS church is no exception. In fact, many have argued that the Mormon church wins the prize for the most absurd religion there is.
But despite that, the Mormons somehow have a culture that produces exceptional human beings—people who are more honest, more family-oriented, and healthier and happier than the garden-variety secular citizen.
The atheists argue that religion screws people up, while atheism frees them psychologically. Moreover, they claim that freedom from religion produces truly healthy and happy people.
Sometimes this is true. But let’s be honest. The more society has turned atheist, the more dysfunction we’re seeing in our young people. The atheist solution is failing more than it’s succeeding.
We’re only conning ourselves if we believe the world would be better with everyone believing there’s no God, no purpose to life, no free will, no morality.
Agree, I get the criticism about the metaphysical aspects, but to call Religion a con job is ignoring the fact that a lot of people benefit from being associated with a religion. I believe people seek out and stay with a religion for two reasons:
1. They are looking for meaning in life, what it’s all about how they fit into it and how best to live their lives.
2. Having a sense of belonging, where life’s activities are shared with others, and all have a common purpose.
Not all adherents make use of 2. although many religions offer such fellowship to members.
All these, with the overarching belief in hope for the future in form of ‘salvation’, ‘heaven’, ‘nirvana ‘ or some other ideal (or fantasy some may say).
Details vary of course among religions which includes ‘spiritual’ groups, but these two reasons are the fundamental reasons religion exists.
If you delf on the biographies of mystics, saints etc you will find that had to face an unbearable misery of sorts what forced them to cry out for … HELP.
Help that wS received
I do not write “given” … although the recipients will all state it was given.
So if people have no unsolvable problem at hand … they will have to create one if they will stick to a religion.
The two reasons you wrote about are creating an artificial need
Yes, reading it again, I didn’t emphasise the need, or cry for help enough in 1. – a important reason of course, but I wouldn’t say the need for a ‘sense of belonging’ was necessarily an artificial one. Anyway, just my thoughts, thanks for the reply Um.
Thank you.
My command of English is bad but even in my own language it is not that simple to communicate what I think to observe as … re- placate what is needed to function if something is not there.
Humans differ from othet animals that they are able to replicate their natural habitat.
This capacity once one becomes aware of it is to be found in many different fields of human activity.
The brain, needs input, was found by an American researcher, in order to function and to stay alive .. and if the input is not there the brain will create it for her self .. if brain is feminine.. haha
It does also for its contents and its identifications.
People do also try to recreate in their marriage the circumstances they grew up in … unconscious …and is a source of friction between the partners if these original places were very different.
Belonging is also a need, a survival need, and if it is not there it will be created.
That said … if what I write does not make you see what I hint at … just forget it …these are just thoughts of a coffee drinker and coffee might have poisoned his mind
The researcher was prof. Arthur J. Deikman
Mr. Tepper
Is it possible that you react in a defensive way?
It is possible that I told the truth. Not invite further personal criticism. Indeed my effort was to encourage you to let that go. In time. In time.
If you serve a person Apple pie and he tells you out of the goodness of his heart that there is something wrong with it you can ignore it and go on serving the same pie in the same way or you can heet his words.
Some are so convinced that they have mastered the craft of pie making that they have become almost deaf.
That is allright …. it is all in his hands