The purported purpose of religion is to keep the knowledge God and the "light" continually passed on from one generation to the next throughout the world. Our various global religions have contributed somewhat to an education that God does exist but, in doing so, have perpetuated a belief in a God of fear and judgment. Through this warped perspective of God, religion has influenced people to embrace moral values which are intrinsically good, however, the majority of these social doctrines contradict and interfere with the free-will choices of others. For example, it makes sense that we should not kill others or sexually abuse children, but teaching that God has specific demands about the foods we eat, that homosexuals are an abomination to God, or that women must follow extreme rules of keeping themselves fully covered so as not to provoke the sexual thoughts of men, leads us to forgo our common sense and deny our free-will to make choices.

If we examine our religious systems in the context of the free-will God has given us, both the insidious and overt influences of the dark side become apparent. Religion has given man the means to alter spiritual truths and thus manipulate others to do their bidding through fear of God, fear of satan, and fear of eternal punishment-which is available to us but only through our own choosing. The "dark side" energies  thrive on the fear of man in whatever form it comes as fear is a negative energy.

God does not punish us for making choices contrary to Its rules because God does not have rules for us to follow-it is ludicrous to even imagine that an all-powerful unlimited God would keep score of which rules we were to follow and reward or punish us accordingly. All the information about our choices to love and our choices to fear are cached away in our energy fields or auras and determine how we perceive our world. God leaves us to freely determine our own behaviour and to thus gain experience about the power of love or destructiveness of fear during our stay on earth. Religion has debased the fact that our soul purpose is self-directed.

Ours is a dark planet which is ruled by fear on almost every level of personal and social interaction, including our political, economic, educational, and religious systems. If we view our world from a truly objective perspective, it becomes difficult to say we are motivated by love; few recognize and treat all people as brothers and sisters. Frequently, religion promotes the judgment of all those who do not believe or behave in the same manner that they endorse. In this way, our religions predominantly serve the dark side even though this is not their intent or the motivation of those who embrace it.

If we look at our world history, you will notice that a high percentage of the wars and injustices towards people were a result of the religious beliefs of the people. There have been countless numbers of people who have been condemned, tortured, and even murdered by the members of various religious groups simply because they spoke their truth about their beliefs which were in contrast to the ruling religion. Even today, there are world leaders who have used religion to justify going to war on other countries.

It is important to note that the vast majority of people who embrace a particular religious belief system do so out of their desire to do the right thing and/or because they have inherited their religion from their parents or the society they were born into. I have counselled many people who were in extreme distress because their own family members disowned them after they refused to embrace the family’s religion. Some religions make it very clear to their members that they must reject any family who do not stay within their faith. Those who do not comply are considered evil or satanic. Rejection thus becomes a requirement of their religion; if you do not reject your disbelieving spouse, son, or daughter, God will reject you. Some religions require that you not love your "disbelieving" family members. This is a prime example of how love and religion have been twisted apart by those whose own hunger for power and control have made them vulnerable to manipulation by dark energies.

There are many religions that require their followers not to think for themselves. In any situation where one is taught to blindly believe a doctrine there is no opportunity for spiritual growth. It is in the discussion and investigation of every dogma that the truth or falsehood of the underlying purpose will be revealed. Without scrutiny, every belief system is just that-a manmade system of rule eager to take away power from anyone who is willing to give theirs away. There are many seemingly intelligent people who choose to support religions full of obvious contradictions that also require one to deny their innate ability to communicate with God. For some reason, these people will actually spend time in praise and worship of the messenger who first introduced the teaching into this world, i.e., Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. In making the messenger the main focus, it simply reduces the value of the message. If you were to deliver a message of love to a people who had forgotten what love is, would you require worship in the process?

Many religion based people believe that in order to gain God's favour you must follow very specific requirements. Prayers must be done at specific times, in specific postures, and for specific purposes. Many are taught that God will not acknowledge them unless they complete all the prayer requirements. Prayer is also taught as a means to ask God to change the circumstances of our life or that of our family, friends, or world. However, they are also taught that God expects them to follow "His" will though it would seem that only those of the religion’s hierarchy know exactly what that will is. Regardless, they believe that God controls and/or influences what goes on in their world even though they are being continually "tested by Him", yet somehow their actions will determine whether God is happy or angry. It certainly gets confusing!

Any belief that God is willing to change or interfere in our lives requires that we deny our own personal responsibility for our choices. It also requires us to stand in judgment of the free-will choices of others who are here to gain experience from their positive or negative creating. Praying requires us to ignore the fact that we all have free-will and that God does not interfere in what we or others have created.

If God is really as It is portrayed in most religions, God would have to be a very insecure, angry, vindictive, judgmental, controlling being who is totally conditional in "His" love. If we were to ask anyone who belonged to a religion, if they believed God is all-powerful and all-knowing they would answer, yes, and they would be correct. Yet, if God knows everything why does God have any need to test them? In my conversations with God, I have been told that It reads our souls like an open book. God knows our thoughts before we even form them. God is totally aware of all our capabilities and all of the choices we have made or are ever going to make. To believe that God needs to test us requires a belief that God is limited in Its knowingness.

God’s love is without condition. Conditional love is a human experience; it is not at all like the love we experience from God. Love is often misunderstood because most have learned to place conditions on who and how we love. If we place any kind of judgment or expectation on even one person, we render ourselves unable to truly love. The same is true for anyone who chooses to allow fear to control any part of their lives as negative energy will interfere in their ability to love unconditionally. Those who choose to put conditions on their love for others are motivated to do so from a place of fear.

God has created us with free-will  and honours our right to use it as we choose. Any religion that teaches punishment as the end result for those who disobey God-or, more accurately, disobey the rules of their religion-require the elimination of their membership’s free-will. One of the questions I asked God at the beginning of my spiritual journey was, "Is there a hell? Do you punish those who engage in negative or evil things?" God's response was simply, "I have created you with free-will and given you the power to create with love or to create with fear. Do you think I would punish you for using the abilities I created you with?" Would a truly loving father reject his child simply because the child chose to do something negative? Would a loving mother punish her child for exploring his choices? Would any parent, whose intent was to totally love their child, instil fear as a way of punishing his or her child?

The reality of our religions is that the majority do use some form of fear to motivate people to know God. This shows me clearly that those who lead or participate in those fear based religions have no clear understanding of the true nature of God or their relationship with God. The love that God expresses is the highest form you can experience. God's energies are totally positive and loving. Any religion or belief system that teaches people to fear the wrath of God and the consequential eternal damnation for not following the dictates of that religion actually cause the energy of their followers to decrease through fear based thinking. Those with fear-based energies cannot communicate clearly with God. Like energies attract like energies. Love opens you to God and fear opens you to the dark side. You cannot be in both places at the same time.

To commune with God your energies must be positive and loving. By instilling fear, religions cause people to deny God, to deny the truth of who they are, and open them to those lower energy beings who call themselves gods in the realms of darkness. These are the beings who require blind obedience, praise, and worship-something God has no need of.

Religions that engage in fear mongering ensure that the truth of God will never be known. They guarantee that God's messengers of unconditional love will be rejected. By teaching people to close their minds and to become totally dependent on their religious leaders to interpret God’s will for them, they prevent their members from developing their own spiritual awareness. This kind of control prohibits people from using their innate ability to connect with their Creator and know spiritual truths for themselves. In order for the truth to "set you free" it has to be the truth-not someone else’s interpretation of it.

The Christian bible is a collection of writings from many different authors over many centuries; some of it channelled, some of it passed on through word of mouth. It interesting to note that millions of people believe the information in this book to be authentic and yet condemn anyone who professes to communicate with God as did the authors of the bible.

Christians limit their ability to commune with God because they only accept religious text from the distant past and claim it to be the only word of God and the only means God can communicate with us. There are many who bring through spiritual truths today and are rejected outright and considered satanic and evil because they do not conform to biblical teachings. Christians would be well served to study the history of the compilation of the bible.

Many religious texts were examined and accepted or discarded depending upon the prejudice of these religious scholars. The original texts did not come directly from God but through those individual authors who recorded their perceptions of spiritual truths in languages that have been translated many times over. As a consequence, the truth of the original documents has become distorted and contradictory. The bible authors communicated with God and the higher levels in the exact same way as we can today. It must be noted that the ability to communicate accurately with God or any higher being is influenced by any preconceived ideas or beliefs that you may have, hence the need to have an open mind.

Though we are all equal in God's eyes, the authorship of the bible and other religious texts of the past would have us believe that God only lends "His voice" or gives "His word" to men. The doctrines of male superiority give church leaders the "right" to maintain power over women even though it completely contradicts the truth of God’s love. The dictates of male authority were only established because they needed an excuse to suppress the women who could challenge them in their spiritual beliefs. Women posed a threat in being spiritually and emotionally more open than men. Because they were not afraid to exercise their ability to nurture and love those in their experience, especially their children, women were typically more able to link to and accurately communicate with God and the higher realms-the like attracts like principle of energy in action. To keep spiritually astute women from showing up their male counterparts, men used the authority of their religion to establish rules to keep women from using their spiritual connections/abilities. Hence, women came to be thought incapable of understanding spiritual teachings to the level that men can.

To this day, few religions will allow women into positions of authority. It is still widely believed and accepted that men were created in the physical image of a masculine God-instead of all being created in the same image of a non-gender pure consciousness energy form. Our physical bodies are simply creations that allow the spiritual aspect or soul of our being to access this physical reality. It is only on levels of duality that there is a separation of Source energies into a male and female aspect.

If the predisposition for male superiority were true, it would require God to be totally conditional in Its love for humanity. Had our religions begun by treating women equally and fairly, our world would be a totally different place today. This act of female discrimination explains why the church went out of its way to brand any woman with highly developed spiritual abilities as witches, etc.

Most children come into this world spiritually aware. As a consequence of their faculty for energy consciousness, they can easily see, feel, and commune with their guides and angels. Spiritual guides will present themselves to children in whatever form that child feels most comfortable. For example, a four year old child appears to be talking to himself while alone in the backyard, while in reality, he is communicating with his spiritual guides.

The child’s mother might notice this as one-sided interaction and ask the child who he is talking to. The child will truthfully respond that he is talking to a friend. The parent, who is unaware of the energies of her own guides, will tell her child that his "friend" is really just imaginary or not real. Depending on the mother’s religious beliefs, she may also tell her child that what he is doing is evil and not to play like that. From that moment forward, the child who sees his parents as the most powerful people in his experience and believes what they say is true, will start to shut down to his spiritual abilities. In essence, the child links to the fears of his parent, and in doing so, his energies or vibratory rate decrease. As a result, the son will become more open to the influences of dark entities and energies and begin to doubt himself and his ability to commune with his own soul, his guides, his angels, and to God. All this is simply a result of the way the parent has been negatively influenced by their fear-based religion.

Many people believe that the religion they are born into is the correct one. If they had been born into or incarnated as a member of a family who practised a different religion, they would have no difficulty embracing that belief system and most likely stand in judgment of every one who did not hold the same beliefs. When I mention this quandary of logic, most Christians go out of their way to change the topic or refuse to discuss it. Many religious people become very threatened any time someone questions their beliefs, yet it is only through dialogue that we have an opportunity to grow in understanding of what we believe. When we refuse to engage in dialogue, we deny opportunity to grow spiritually and to see the bigger picture of our beliefs.

It also needs to be pointed out that most religious organizations throughout this world invest huge amounts of time and money in building and maintaining their places of worship. The resources that might have been directed to teaching and assisting those who are hungry and homeless is spent on elaborate garments and the ritual materials needed to praise and worship not only God, but God's messengers. None of these practices serve to spiritually empower people; they only establish further inequality between the upper and lower echelons of value within the church. If this time and energy was used to help the underprivileged and undereducated, our religions would have a powerfully positive affect on achieving human equality. If our places of worship became places of higher learning, this world would finally have an opportunity to embrace peace.

Finally, if we look at the teachings of Jesus, we are reminded that he did not hold himself above the people he served. Jesus did not use fear of hell, fire, and damnation to convince people to believe in God or to develop their spiritual awareness. He did not require worship, ritual, or tithing. He did not judge the prostitute or the men who put him on trial for teaching unconditional love. But somewhere between then and now, the vast majority of those who live according to their religious system have come to believe that they must do these things to gain access to heaven. If we all learned to love without judgement or condition we would have no need for religion and we would experience inner and outer peace.

The list of specific requirements used to uphold the dogma of world religions is fearfully long. The following is an example of the religion based requirements that are in total contradiction to the Universal law of love, free-will, and non-interference. In order to qualify for membership in any religion or religious group one is required to:

If the truth were to be known about all of the falsehoods within religion the current world systems of religious instruction would drastically change. They would cease to exist in their present form; there would be teachers of unconditional love assisting people in their spiritual understandings and abilities as opposed to preachers who promote fear and spiritual suffocation.

The stated intent of religions has been to empower people spiritually but clearly that has not been the outcome. Those who are enlightened from within do not need to seek the truth outside of themselves. Ultimately, a spiritually aware person has no need for religion at all.