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||T hough I remain interested in other religions and esoteric systems, I've found that they all pretty much teach the same thing: Do unto others, etc. -all of them wear good-guy badges of some sort or another. I've studied so many different religious traditions looking for answers that I've become nauseated with their similarities, despite their differences in dogma.
It is strange to note that the nature of human language requires that we define things by what they are not. These diametrically-opposed relationships can be observed in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Ask yourself to define these ideas and see if you can't avoid the trap: cold, bad, poor, slow, anarchy. Sometimes it seems that there is a clear-cut definition. Anarchy, for instance, is chaos; but what does chaos mean but lack of order? Even things perceived by our five senses fit this concept; something that smells sweet is not bitter, bright is not dim, rough is not smooth.
Religions and ideologies are very much the same way. Protestant and Catholic. Jew and Gentile. Communist and Capitalist. Fascist and Democratic. East and West. Despite the Church of Satan's belief that the Christian Church could not exist without the Devil, it is also true that Satanism could not exist without being based on the Christian fear of Satan. Just as every other Pagan or Irreligious group in the West has thrived from being unique - as opposed to Christianity.
Why the human race should require such a variety of philosophies and theologies is evidence of our species' natural inclination toward paradox. Human beings as individuals are rational and caring people; as a mass they are irrational and act in such stupid ways.
In this way of logic, a common thread can be seen linking everything together: to follow a teaching, you must see it as appealing before you will believe it. Some religions offer love, others offer knowledge, still others violence, for each person is pushed and pulled by their own spirits. Some people want to believe that love is better than hate, some see knowledge as a way to advance their spirit, some see violence as a way to counter the falsehoods they see around them. All of them offer a truth to their followers. And for each individual who follows a particular set of dogmas, there are enough minor differences to found a new denomination or even a new religion.
And this is what I believe has plagued humanity for thousands of years: the arrogance of the masses to hold their truth above other truths as if it were the only one. This, in one way or another, has been the root of all suffering in the world since the dawn of time. This behaviour has ignored the fact that all truths have sprung from other truths and that all truths are only small parts of the Truth. Judaism separated itself from the pantheisms of the day, Christianity defined itself only by its opposition to Judaism, Islam to Judaic and Christian teachings, Satanism to Christianity, Paganism to Satanism, and so on.
The Truth is far greater than every major faith in the world, for it is all-encompassing. Satan and God and Vishnu and Buddha and Mohammad and Moses and Merlin and Nature and Science are all equal; through each can be seen as an aspect of the Truth. The way the human mind exists requires that Truth be seen only in small parts, just as a television camera can only capture two dimensions. We are expected to imagine that there is more present though the effects are only simulated. It is the same way with religions, for each can only explain a small amount in a straightforward way, explaining a higher dimension of the Truth as a mystery of God or the Cosmos.
And what of the paradoxes that cling to our childlike race? What of God and Satan, Good and Evil, Intelligence and Stupidity? What of it? I suppose it doesn't matter, except that these opposites fuel the flames of the greater Belief. In a way, this way of thought leads to the ultimate synthesis, to believe in everything and nothing, for everything contains part of the Truth.
Nearly every religion in the world requires that everything be divided, classified, and categorized into systems that can be easily processed by the masses. Early shaman thought did this first by dividing the natural from the supernatural. Later esoteric systems built on this by subdividing things even further, eventually producing complex systems evidenced in the Books of the Dead, Qaballa, Greek, and Celtic mysticism, Daoism, and so many others.
But it must be said that one of the major developments that contributed toward the spiritual mess of Western Civilization was the evolution of monotheism, over which many an argument and war have been fought. This oversimplification has caused more trouble than any of the barbaric ancient religions it replaced with such force.
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