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Monotheism is the primitive religion which centers human consciousness on Hive Authority. There is One God and His Name is (substitute Hive-Label). If there is only One God then there is no choice, no option, no selection of reality. There is only Submission or Heresy. The word Islam means "submission." The basic posture of Christianity is kneeling. Thy will be done. Monotheism therefore does no harm to hive-oriented terrestrials (Stages 10, 11 and 12) who eagerly seek to lay-off responsibility on some Big Boss. Monotheism does profound mischief to those who are evolving to post-hive stages of reality. Advanced mutants (Stages 13 to 18) do make the discovery that "All is One," as the realization dawns that "My Brain creates all the realities that I experience." The discovery of Self is frightening because the novitiate possessor of the Automobile Body and the Automobile Brain must accept all the power that the hive religions attributed to the jealous Jehovah. The First Commandment of all monotheisms is: I am the Lord, thy God: Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. All monotheisms are vengeful, aggressive, expansionist, intolerant.

   Stage 10: Islam-Catholicism
   Stage 11: Protestant Evangelism
   Stage 12: Communist-Dulles Imperialism

     It is the duty of a monotheist to destroy any competitive heresy. Concepts such as devil, hell, guilt, eternal damnation, sin, evil are fabrications by the hive to insure loyalty to Hive Central. All these doctrines are precisely designed to intimidate and crush Individualism. The process of mutating into Self-hood plunges the mutant into this cross fire of neurogenetic moral flak. Most of the freak-outs, bad trips and hellish experiences are caused by Monotheistic Morality. Again, it must be emphasized, that Monotheism is a necessary stage. Monotheism is a technology, a tool, to bring pre-civilized tribespeople and caste-segregated primitives into the collectives necessary to develop the post-hive, post-terrestrial technologies.

     The major evolutionary step is taken when the individual says: "There is only one God who creates the universe. This God is my Brain. As the driver of this Brain I have created a universe in which there are innumerable other Gods of equal post-hive autonomy with whom I seek to interest. And my universe was, itself, created by a Higher Level of Divinity—DNA, whose mysteries and wonders I seek to understand and harmonize with."

From The Intelligence Agents by Dr. Timothy Leary, Ph.D.

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What are your opinions on this? I think that while religion in general can have its uses, monotheism is detrimental to the individual.

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set out runnin but I take my time
a friend of the devil is a friend of mine
if I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

It can go for the more funamentalist sects of the Abrahamic religions, though.

Post edited at 8:16 pm on Nov. 19, 2008 by The Nowhere Man

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The clouds will part and the sky cracks open
And god himself which reach his f---ing arm through just to push you down

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Yes, I can see how that applies to every person who believes in one God rather than none, the bipolar God/Goddess thing, or a pantheon.  

It can go for the more funamentalist sects of the Abrahamic religions, though.

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I wouldn't consider the latter two to be monotheistic.

As for the first one, could you clarify what you mean? Or at least provide proof otherwise because as far as I know it seems to be a pretty legit statement in terms of monotheistic religions.

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set out runnin but I take my time
a friend of the devil is a friend of mine
if I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

(Wow I butchered that paragraph...)

I see where you were confused, I have crappy wording. What I meant was something like "why is the belief in a single God, with or without that you're-wrong-I'm-right attitude, any more harmful/ignorant than the belief in a pantheon or a God and Goddess, if the beliefs of the individual otherwise do not vary much aside from that point?"

Post edited at 8:49 pm on Nov. 19, 2008 by The Nowhere Man

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The clouds will part and the sky cracks open
And god himself which reach his f---ing arm through just to push you down

Just my opinion but also I'm not the most well-versed in pantheism so enlighten me if you feel like it.

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set out runnin but I take my time
a friend of the devil is a friend of mine
if I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

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Do you know who Timothy Leary is?

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...yes, why?

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set out runnin but I take my time
a friend of the devil is a friend of mine
if I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

My main point is that that is not the case with all monotheistic religions. Cases in point: Quakers, The Baha'i Faith. Monotheists who don't want to label themselves with a religion tend to just stick around as spirituals/agnostic theists or to UU if they still want a community... They're generally pretty quiet about it, same as the above. Granted, the majority of monotheistic people are parts of a monotheistic religion, and as always it's the louder ones of those who we hear from more often.  

Some of your points and those in the quote are very valid, but I still think it's a vast (and unfair, but that's petty and not worth worrying about) generalistion to tar all monotheists - everyone who believes in a single God - with that brush. Still, you seem to be taking monotheism to mean solely the "big three" Abrahamic religions (which are the most well known for worshiping one God), which with the exception of a few of the more liberal sects, you'd be right about.

Post edited at 1:44 am on Nov. 21, 2008 by The Nowhere Man

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The clouds will part and the sky cracks open
And god himself which reach his f---ing arm through just to push you down

I see what you're saying but didn't the Quakers and those of the Bahai faith form their beliefs as a reaction to the problems that seemed to be inherent in monotheism? Not saying that changes much but I also don't think Leary's point was exactly that "every monotheistic religion is a piece of shit" but rather that "the form that monotheistic religion tends to take in humans is a piece of shit" haha. Pure speculation though. I mean of course you can't group everyone together but generalizations do serve a purpose.

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set out runnin but I take my time
a friend of the devil is a friend of mine
if I get home before daylight, I just might get some sleep tonight.

Shit, lost the rest of this post somehow when the modem decided it wanted a coffee break. Can't remember what it was now... Probably nothing important anyway.

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The clouds will part and the sky cracks open
And god himself which reach his f---ing arm through just to push you down