Religion 2.0

Religion 1.0

• There is only one true religion, and it is mine.
• God views all who practice other religions as infidels, unbelievers, misguided souls, deceivers, or primitives; they will never reach heaven.
• It is my job to either bring them to my religion or to make them subservient to me and my religion or to rid the world of them in God's name. Their very existence prevents humanity from reaching one with God.
• God is watching us, and will aid me in my mission. He will smite those who oppose me and aid my comrades.
• I will be rewarded in the afterlife for whatever I do to advance the cause of my religion.
• Life is temporary; eternal bliss is waiting for me for my good deeds in His name.

Religion 2.0

• God has granted us great gifts denied to lower animals: rational thought, imagination, communication and hands that allow us to act on our thoughts and on nature and to pass knowledge, flawed as it may be, from one generation to the next, allowing continual advancement over the eons.
• Religions are each a way of trying to understand God through the flawed thinking and memories of humans. None is absolute; all have some merit. All are flawed.
• Some overarching measures of goodness exist. These are the qualities that require adoption and worship.
• If we continue to move in the direction of good, we will someday reach the bliss that we deserve.

As an aside to the atheists, consider this: we have no trouble attributing convuluted rationale for our politicians' actions, but seem to have difficulty accepting this in a Creator. Also, we can accept the self-made man, but not the self made God. If you are an atheist, how do you derive any inalienable rights? The only position that makes any sense is deism, practiced by following the traditions that make you feel the most comfortable, but acknowledging that any approach to God that is deist in nature is good.