Religion and Theology

The book Universe Next Door  is basically one of the rare books which trying to bring the core of the prevalent world religions.The book staes the point of views of The Higher energy or so called GOD and the way the humankind has been has been interpreting it till date.According to him many people on this planet follow religions without even being aware that they are a part of religion.The book shows and perhaps raises a very important question what if we are not following a religion  Even we are an atheist we still would be classed as atheist which is a type of religion after all.The main aim of mankind since the days of its existence has been find out the cause of the things we cant interpret.living in a pluralistic society we strive to find out what is the reason of the things the way they appear to be.Every human being is different and has a point of view about some sort of supreme being if He or She exists.This book primarily deals with the most prevalent world famous religions.The book is good, lucid and a good read for those who are not into religion and theology too.This secular book deals clearly about the various of ideas. On a personal basis this book has influenced my thought about the religion and prejudices I had been having without my own knowledge.The book has given me an insight that all humans are equal even though we may be complex machines or may not even be existing in real.Although this book creates a turbulence of logical reasonings in ones own mind but it never propagates any particular religion or supports its too discretely.But overall this book teaches us and enlightens us about the craving of us humans to find something works subtle way guiding the cosmos or may be its we humans that we need something to hold on to . The book raises a lot of questions and leaves the human mind to ponder the realms.

Theism Middle Ages 500-1500 (1000 years)
This Chapter of the book shows the nature of god as omnipotent,omniscient,omnipresent.It states that God  is personally in contact with all of us and we are nothing but a part of god.. According to Christian Theism God is not the only controller of the human life or universe but also He lets us , humans to infuecne our so called life.It represents the idea of christianity that God had provided all his qualities to the humans but we humans have devolved from that part and now we can choose so as to enter his realms after death or hell which is a place where our human aspirations might be all fulfilled but it would be eternal separation from him.But he contradicts himself as he states that history is a sequence of events going on as per the plan of God that will help him fullfill the purpose of making humanity. The question arises there that if the history has been a part of his plan then why not present  And if it is then how are we choosing our path because ultimately the plan of God has to succeed.

Deism Renaissance 1500-1630 (130 years)
Only Basic Deism has been discussed by the author.According to this theory we humans are a part of a bigger system in a clock work manner.Every thing has its own cause and effect.God has made us and left us to work it out on our own.He has been stated as just a type of energy who is not at all accessible by the living beings.He has just created the universe in a closed system which means that no miracles are possible because God does not take any interest in human affairs. He just seldom has a glance at the world and is not at all interested in it. We can understand the mysteries of universe as well as God just by gaining knowledge. God is nothing extreme supreme intelligent just some matter of energy which has created life and can be understood by studying it .Deism basically shows the practical side of human life as it states that universe does what is write and ethics are dependent on the humans not on any super power.

Naturalism Enlightenment 1630-1870 (240 yrs)
Naturalism provides a more subtle and euphemistic view point of spiritual realms. Naturalism states that matter has always existed and it was not created by any super power .The whole cosmos exists as the matter in the whole universe is balanced.We human beings exteremely volatile complex manifestation of the scientific properties we yet do not understand. Unlike in christianity and deism death has been accepted has nothing but end of life and individuality.Naturalism does not rely on supernatural events but is concerned about practical point of views for getting knowledge about the working of the universe.Also Naturalism supports secular humanism as it removes all the diversity of religion and unites humans beings as one and all. That is why naturalism has also been adopted by the Marxists because according to Marx the principle to be free to social naturalism and transfigure from idealism to materialism and thereby can arise a conception of positivism where every law is made by authoritative social process. Also Naturalism states that since God does not exist we humans have to adjust our ethics as per the time we are in.

Nihilism 1870-1930 (60 years)
Nihilism is a very interesting topic which has negated all the positivity of human existence.According to ethical nihilism there is no morality because there is no good or bad .right or wrong as every action benefits some or the other human being.Again metaphysical nihilism states that there might be no existence at all as there are no objective qualities to separate the real from non real.

Existentialism 1920-1965 (45 yrs) Existentialism has been explained in two ways by Sire. Basic Atheistic  Basic Theistic.

Basic Atheistic
This philosophy states that even though the cosmos is solely in perfect harmony with matter we humans are of two types . Subjective and Objective.Being human our existence precedes our essence and we are the sole owner of our selves and our destiny.We make ourselves who we are .The whole world is organised perfectly but humans.The real authentic human is supposed to bring about a change through his actions and create something which has substanstial value in the universe. Sire has successfully separated Nihilism and Basic Atheistic Existentialism by a thin line .

Basic Theistic Existentialism
Basic Theistic Existentialism is full of positive morales. According to it human beings have the ability do develop counsciousness and when they achieve it find themselves in some new universes.The questions as to whether God exists or not has been kept as a matter which should be unravelled by faith rather than reasons.This philosophy focuses on the individual self to be precise and values it. Knowledge has not been provided equal stands with faith in here.Because knowledge has been looked upon as a subject and Whole Truth has been stated to be often too paradoxical.This branch of philosophical spirituality does not reckon History as any thing but records of events which have been done in the past, but still is provided with extreme importance.Interestingly this Basic Theistic Philosophy has similarities with the Eastern Pantheistic Monism which has been discussed in the next chapter.

Eastern Pantheistic Monism 1950-1975 (25 yrs)
According to it Atman (Soul) is the small manifestation of the Brahman (Supreme Soul). Every human is thus a part of the supreme soul as they have a soul.All the things that we do have a reason and its own importance.Most if not all the path we take in our life to understand spirituality leads to the same Brahman.Being a part of the supreme soul an individual is encouraged to look within self to understand the soul and be one with the soul.In that way by achieving oneness with the soul one can understand the cosmosbut for that one has to evolve from hanging on to individualistic personality.And to understand the cosmos fully one has to pass beyond knowledge as knowledge is subjective.Also the principle of non contradiction does not apply where ultimate reality is concerned because that is the supreme soul we are engaging with so it is beyond every possible matter and reality.Then again we have to look beyond good and evil and be neutral because the cosmos which is a manifestation of eternal supreme soul brahman is is perfect and stable and any given moment of time.Death is looked upon as end of personal individualistic existence but not the end of soul as the characteristics of soul does not change, it is constant forever.And to ultimately unite with the supreme soul brahman one has to pass beyond cosmos and time as time is unreal and the history is nothing but cyclical because history is dependent on time and the brahman is beyond time.
This philosophy has there fore contradicted with most of the western spiritual theories.

New Age 1965-1990 (25 yrs)
According to Sire there has been a tremendous radical change in the human existence which has laid a deep impact on his inference of the universe and ultimately changing the spiritual laws.The new age religion has manifested its principles from understanding cosmos and universe by various subjects like psychology,anthropology,natural science,health,politics,psychic theorists,trans-personal psychology,movies ,fiction and so on.

The basic principles of New Age Religion are
No matter whatever is the nature of the being,be it matter,energy,idea its self is the ultimate reality.We, humans are on the verge of a new change as we grasp the above mentioned fact.The whole cosmos when in oneness with self can be represented in various dimensions. First the universe which can be inferred by ordinary level of consciousness like the five senses and other is the subconscious self which can only be interpreted by the mind in various states of consciousness.That is where drug therapy,psychology and psychic theories are incorporated.As we humans look into our soul to achieve unity with the supreme the laws of space,time and morality merge with each other.And as we tend to look for the supreme self consciousness our fear of death and miseries are eradicated because only the individual dies not the soul.
The metaphysical realms of the new age religion can be understood only by 3 ways
The occult version according to which all matter exists apart from self consciousness
The psychedelic version according to which every matter is a projection of self.

The conceptual relativist version according to which the cosmic activity of a mind can be used to interpret any models for reality where none of the truth contradict each other.The example of new age has been well explained by citing Shirley Maclaine as an example.

Post Modernism 1990-2011 (11 yrs)
Post modernism has risen from critical acclamation of philosophical views of continental philosophy,structuralism and existentialism. This branch of philosophy stresses the problems of a philosopher by differentiating  the knowledge from ignorance, social taboos. It has quite similiar features with that of Nihilism. It has been widely influenced by decontructionism, post structuralism in the 20th century.It largely battles the emotionally charged ideologies.According to new age philosophers post modernism is one of the most depressing philosophies of the western world where it states that we have stopped growing and all the ways have been explored and we are doomed to strive the for the meanings eternally.As a result it is also reffered to as weak theology in some parts of the world as its states God to be weak and as a result he does not interfere with the works of the nature so its the human kind who has to take up the reigns and bring about a change.And as God is weak this philosophy emphasizes weak virtues of the humans like kindness,forgiveness,compassion,sentiments etc.As a result it parables the state of power in powerlessness.