https://i.imgsafe.org/d9a2d199e6.jpg 

Dan recently posted an article titled [“Why I gave up Christianity“](https://steemit.com/philosophy/@dan/why-i-gave-up-christianity) and Stan replied with [“Why I will never give up Christianity”](https://steemit.com/philosophy/@stan/why-i-will-never-give-up-christianity), and then Dan replied yet again with ["How to Choose your Faith"](https://steemit.com/philosophy/@dantheman/how-to-choose-your-faith). Others have also posted their storied, Camilla posted ["My escape from organized christianity and the path to truth"](https://steemit.com/religion/@camilla/my-escape-from-organized-christianity-and-the-path-to-truth) and benjojo posted ["Heaven, Hell & Children"](https://steemit.com/religion/@benjojo/heaven-hell-children).

The story of Dan and Stan is not unique. All over the world, children are leaving the religion of their parents, causing great suffering for both parties.

In my case, both my mother and father left their religion in their teenage years. This gives me a good outsider perspective on the psychological fallout from the rift between religion and nonreligion, as religion never hurt me in the way many newborn nonreligious describe.

# The Direct Path

My path into the big questions, you might say, was very *direct*. I believed even in kindergarten, before I had ever heard about God or religion, that humans had evolved, that things were made of atoms, that our planet was in a desert of space, and that myself and everyone I knew was going to die. Harsh reality, right?

### So I wondered, what’s the meaning of it all?

Around me people were often arguing about trivial things, and trying to come to a consensus about what is true and what is not true. More often than not however, the underlying feeling was that it was not about truth or honesty at all, it was just ego's arguing for argument’s sake.

### I found that people had motivations in nearly all of their reasoning.

I tried to ask, what is the meaning of life, what is good and evil, what is my nature? But I quickly realized people did not really care about the deep truths. In fact, it was quickly obvious that they had given it little to no thought, that they had no answers, and worse, that *they really **hated** to think about such things.*

https://i.imgsafe.org/d9b0d2f4e1.jpg 

It wasn’t long however, before I looked in the mirror and realized that whatever else that is true or not true:

### I AM - I exist as this aware presence!

And as this was the only thing I knew for certain, I realized that the meaning of life, good and evil, and my nature, somehow had to be understood from this ground of being. If God or anything else was real, it could only be known for certain if I was directly aware of it being true - what other people believe isn't a good guide.

https://i.imgsafe.org/d9cb27d869.jpg 

This was my second insight. We know for certain, directly, that pain is irrefutably evil, and I knew that this was clear enough to lay the foundations for morality and the meaning of life, while resting safe from any subconsciously motivated reasoning. Right off the bat these two insights have given me great clarity in life.

The world we live in is full of noise, and everyone has their own beliefs. In wanting to express myself I knew arguments would be futile. The only way to communicate truth is to show something irrefutably, that it is so.

Once we have established the primacy of our awareness as our identity and ground of being, and pain as irrefutably evil, I realized we need to investigate the brain to see how these phenomena arise.

https://i.imgsafe.org/d9c4242398.jpg 

The matter in your brain that gives rise to your awareness - your pains, and your pleasures, is a part of you, and to investigate how it works is part of the process of waking up to yourself.

# Parent and Child

Everywhere the older and younger generation are splitting apart as the global evolution of mankind accelerates in both social interconnectedness, and science/technology.

### Social Interconnectedness

While the older generation may have had a fairly confined circle of friends, it is not unusual for the younger generation to have friends all over the world. Thus, while the older generation was exposed to only one set of beliefs, the younger generation is exposed to many different worldviews.

While the older generation may stick with a suboptimal belief set, they may over the course of a lifetime deepen it sufficiently to transcend its suboptimal characteristics. While the younger generation may find a more optimal belief set, they may lack faith in a single underlying truth and become arrogant and shallow in the process of choosing between relative worldviews.

### Science and technology

The advancement of technology, perhaps the most powerful force for good in the world today, is based in the scientific method that induces theories from observations. The more familiar one is with the scientific method, the less plausible the religious *claims of physical **facts*** are.

The literal interpretation of religion makes adherents dogmatic and unspiritual. The opponents in turn never get a chance to glimpse the underlying truths that religion sustains. After all, if you have been fooled so badly, so shamefully, then a hard impenetrable shell of skepticism will develop.

Science and technology is thus wrongfully set up as an alternative to religion and spirituality, just as some set religion and spirituality wrongfully up as an alternative to science and technology.

# True Spirituality

https://i.imgsafe.org/d9a7625f20.jpg 

True spirituality would never reject science and technology, as little as true science and technology would reject spirituality. If people have experiences of god or nirvana then something is happening in their body, in their brain, and this can be studied like all other phenomena.

Likewise, the progression of science and technology that is happening in the world today is truly an epic awakening - the universe through us is gradually becoming aware of itself. To study science and technology without experiencing the magnitude of this event is to take the finger for the moon.

To argue about books, dogma, concepts and words, when the truth of spirituality concerns spirit is truly to miss the mark, and I suggest everyone caught up in beliefs take a moment to realize that “God” is not the word, it is not the concept, and if it is anything it is **reality** that can only be witnessed through your own conscious awareness, and not from hearsay or ideas you may have about it.

### The bible itself says it black on white for those who have the silence to listen:
>#### Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! 
>#### for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
https://i.imgsafe.org/d9e56dc2d1.jpg
>## And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM