God and Religion

I would like to explore a little bit your relationship to organized religion. If you are available to anyone at anytime why do organized religions exist, why do we need them?

Several reasons. Early man did indeed commune directly with me, over the ages this has truly been the preferred method of of communication. One to One. Man to God and God to Man. Co-equals sharing view points. Even today more people commune directly with me than through the intermediary of organized religion. Most are like you in that they profess allegiance to  one particular viewpoint (In your case Christianity), but have questions about what they have been told. Like you they may use the religious organization as more of a social rather than spiritual function. A way of bringing people of common belief together to worship in an atmosphere of secure, mutual support. Also, early on man recognized the political potential of a large group of like minded individuals to effect change in the secular world. Often this was beneficial as in those instances when religion organized to solve social problems. Unfortunately as often religious leaders fostered an us against them mentality. In effect saying that one set of beliefs or one way of worship was correct. You can think of your own examples. Another factor in the growth of organized religion through the ages has been the growth of human population and civilization. Your species has been incredibly successful at multiplying and gaining dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and all the living things that move on the earth. When there were relatively few of you, it was much easier for any one of you to find the space and the solitude to seek out the “small, still voice, your connection to How The Universe Works. Eventually that voice was drowned out by the hustle of city life and with the voices of moralistic, strident priests who claimed to speak for me.

But weren't you involved with the priests as much as with ordinary citizens?

With many of them I was involved. But often these men and women would seek out my guidance and find what they were seeking. Sometimes though seeking the “still small voice” while given lip service as admirable was in actuality treated with scorn and skepticism by their superiors, causing doubt in their own abilities to receive personal guidance. Also talking to God was often claimed to be a sign of mental illness and truthfully often it was. The mentally ill have access to me as does anyone else. Though in some cases the answers received were in conflict with their own beliefs, values and expectations leading to further confusion and frustration and acting out this frustration in sometimes violent ways.

And this was true for laymen as well as priests alike?

Sure, ordinary people had long been discouraged from seeking answers outside the bounds of their own established religions where only the priests and elders of the church had access to God's word. This is beginning to turn somewhat in some parts of the world but unfortunately some societies, those often run by some form of fundamentalism, continue to repress people.

What is your relationship to organized religion today.

Most of the religious leaders today as in years past are sincere and forthright people who honestly seek a better understanding of my relationship to the world and how to relate that understanding to their adherents and to genuinely effect spiritual growth among those adherents. In Judeo -Christian traditions these efforts have been stymied by an erroneous understanding of my relationship to the Universe. Too often the definition of God includes a separation between the Creator and the created when in fact no separation exists.

I had expected you to be harder on some of the religious leaders of today.
 
That's more your axe to grind than mine.  We'll continue soon?
 
Certainly.