Thesis "Believe"
Belief in a higher reality and in God is as old as humanity.
The belief that there is something invisible yet present has been taught in all religions. Whether it is called God, the Universe, Nirvana, or the origin of all being is not so important.
Religions have always been on the right path as long as there has been a lived spiritual practice of faith.
However, when the priestly class prioritizes its own power and places itself between God and the faithful, things go wrong. At this point, at the latest, the priestly class realizes that the people no longer fully trust them and begins to use violence to maintain their control.
This leads to schisms within the Church and wars, and the actual spiritual experience becomes completely secondary.
Thus, the major religions, such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Shiite and Sunni Islam, and many others, have deprived themselves of their own legitimacy and are no longer a help in solving the problems of humanity, but rather part of the problem.
Dogma stifles spiritual experience
When the Church condemns people as sinners and dictates precisely what they are to believe, what they may read, and how they may dress, then the Church is on the wrong path. From the Middle Ages well into the nineteenth century, the Catholic Church did exactly that.
Islamic radicals are still doing the same in the twenty-first century.
In these churches, only fear and dread of the authorities prevail, because every transgression is punished with draconian penalties.
This enforced faith, of course, cannot generate any spirituality and inevitably leads to religious wars, as the ruling priestly castes realize that they can only keep their people in line through violence and need an external enemy.
Religious war instead of renewal
In the stage of religious war, only power and being right matter. These religious wars, in which almost all religions have been involved at some point in their history, have already claimed millions of lives.
These wars have never brought solutions. They have only produced losers, as they have destroyed people's faith. Religious leaders who call for religious war have already lost before the first shot is fired.
That there are still states in the 21st century that militarily support this religious madness is appalling and should be condemned internationally as quickly as possible.
For the struggle for faith and spiritual experience always takes place within each individual and can never be imposed on another. Violence and spiritual experience are incompatible.
Overcoming stagnation - new beginnings
Only when we rediscover the origins of faith, and there are no longer rigid rules and hierarchies, but rather lived spirituality and love of one's neighbor, can faith communities once again play a greater role in the development of humanity.
When people are guided to the personal experience of their own spirituality, churches will regain their purpose.
The old rules and regulations will then be regarded merely as folklore and will no longer have any significance in people's lives, since people, in spiritual connection with the Divine, will know what to do and what to refrain from doing.
However, most religious communities are still very far from this state, so much spiritual work lies ahead for all of us.