The Three Eras of Religion

Religion, like everything else on this planet, either evolves, or dies. Even
though Nietzsche announced the death of God over a century ago, religion
itself continues to evolve. As it’s evolved it has passed through two distinct
eras and is now entering a third. For simplicity’s sake, we will call these
three eras, the Era of the Father, the Era of the Son, and the Era of the Holy
Spirit. Though we are using Christian terminology, the three era model
applies, at least in a metaphorical sense, to most all religions, as well as
other cultural institutions.

The Era of the Father

In the Era of the Father, the Divine, for simplicity’s sake we will call It, God,
is seen anthropomorphically as a Big Daddy in the sky. God the Father is a
stern taskmaster. And though his PR flaks, also know as priests, have tried to
spin his behavior as loving, He is basically one capricious, vindictive,
jealous, tyrannical, badass dude. God the Father rules this roost of a
universe, and what he says goes, no questions asked.

Why? Because he supposedly created all and everything. The physical

world, all living creatures, even life, itself – the whole enchilada -- is all His
game, so He gets to make the rules, and then break them will nilly. God the
Father loves to test us, punish us, sometimes reward us, and generally play
favorites.

In the Era of the Father, religious observance is based on placating Daddy.

There are lots of sacrifices to be made, from goats to free will, from your
children, to your rational mind. You sacrifice it all, and more, in hopes of
making Big Daddy happy, and proud of you, and thus winning his favor with
perks like peace, prosperity and eternal life.

From our vantage point today, the Era of the Father is religious pre-school.
The whole shebang comes off as immature, irrational, and dysfunctional.
That’s because it is. The Era of the Father is childish spirituality, at best, and
it belongs more in a museum of religious history than it does in a position of
power in this post-modern world.
The Era of the Son

The Era of the Son, might in Eastern terms, be called the Era of the Guru. In
the Era of the Son, God is made flesh, at least in the mind of His believers.
He’s no longer just a distant dude in the sky, he’s now deigned to come
down here to Earth and hang out with us common citizens and sinners. The
thing is, just like God the Father, whatever God the Son, or God the Guru,
says goes. His word is law. Talking with Him or Her is just like talking with
the Big Guy, Himself, except your less likely to get smote.

In the Era of the son, there is only one divine representative here on Earth.
At least only one per religion. Religion still has an “it’s-my-way-or-the-
highway” (to hell) attitude, it’s only that now “my way” has a human face.

One of the problems with the Era of the Son is that there are many
competing sons, and even some daughters, who all lay claim to the role of
Divine Spokesmodel. It’s merely an earthly version of the Battle of the Big
Bad Gods that we saw in the previous era, a battle where all us lucky
bastards were being claimed by a whole pantheon of jealous fathers.

In both of these first two eras, religion is basically a divisive institution

which is competing with other institutions for power and control over the
masses (pun intended). Sure, religion is ostensibly supposed to bring people
together, but in truth what happens in the first two eras is that competing
gods and competing gurus, and competing religions battle each other for the
hearts, minds, souls, and, of course, money, of humankind.

The Era of the Holy Spirit

The Era of the Holy Spirit does away with all that divisive and competitive
nonsense. There’s only one Holy Spirit, but that’s plenty to go around. It’s
the heart of, and energy behind, all religions, all spiritual paths, and indeed
all human thought and activity. As the old hymn says, “We are one in the
Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be
restored.”

Well, it has been. That day is today. We are presently in the beginning stages
of the Era of the Holy Spirit. And, if truth be told, our unity was never lost,
split asunder or destroyed, and so it really didn’t need to be “restored;” it
only needed to be re-cognized.

In the Era of the Holy Spirit, faith is paramount and beliefs are bullshit.
Resurrection, virgin birth, infallible holy books, heaven and hell – all that
adolescent crap is jettisoned in favor of faith beyond belief.

Beliefs merely divide us. They are unproven hypotheses that are presented
as truths, but they add nothing to the quality of daily life. Faith, on the other
hand, brings us together. We do not have faith in some particular
anthropomorphic image of God, not in a specific emissary or son of God,
but rather in the Spirit, Itself, the Spirit that constitutes the essence of all of
us, regardless of our beliefs.

In the Era of the Spirit nothing is more obvious than that we’re all in this
together. Nothing is more imperative than giving up divisive beliefs,
competing mythologies, and the mental masturbation of theology in favor of
the real, visceral, heart-felt experience of Oneness and Unity.

The gospel of the Era of the Spirit is not some dusty, old tome, but rather
Reality, Itself. The gospel is now – what is happening inside us, between us,
and around us right at this very insatnt. The gospel truth of our era is
presented to us in the present moment, each moment, an open secret for all
of us to see with no intermediaries needed, and no more second hand God.

And so, it matters not whether you were raised Buddhist or Christian,
Muslim or Jew, Hindu or Scientologist, all beliefs must go! Spirit alone is
supreme, Spirit alone matters in this day and age of diversity, individuality,
and instantaneous communication. And the Spirit is always right here and
right now with each and every one of us. There is no place It is not. There is
no person, place or thing that is without Spirit.

And our practice, our only essential religious observance, is to see the Spirit
in everyone and then to live accordingly.