Languages Contents Introduction
21 May 1989
As stated in the first chapter, the vzajku *) religion knows no personal God. God is reflected in nature, man is part of nature, so God is in man. The relation of man to God is in essence the relation to oneself, to the divine aspects of man. That is why the vzajku religion deals largely with the way man controls his own life, his own behaviour, and religion becomes largely identical with ethics.
It is important to take the moral rules not merely as obligations that you have to adhere to, for this will invoke strong resistances within yourself. The rules should be accepted as personal objectives, so the stress is shifted from “having to” to “wanting to”.
Praying to God is unnecessary, as God is not a person you can talk to. But if anyone might feel like praying, there is nothing against it. Because of the incorporation of God into man, if praying means communication between man and God, then it means communication within yourself, so it is in fact contemplation. As such it may be useful, but the vzajku religion does not prescribe it.
As God is within you and around you, you always have direct access to God. To reach It, no mediators are necessary, like for example the roman catholics, despite their supposed monotheism, find in Jesus, Maria and in a crowd of saints.
*) pronounced “vzicoo”
No church, no organization, no clergy, no hierarchy are needed. The vzajku religion appeals directly to each individual. Organizations may exist with several aims in part inspired by the vzajku religion, but they must not have the sole intention of constituting the religion itself.
There are no services or forms of worship. There is no holy day of the week. All days are equally holy, and life itself becomes the worship. It is however wise to have a day or days of rest at regular intervals, and that is probably the original intention of commandments about a holy day found in other religions.
Redemption, if any such thing is at all possible, can only be accomplished through man’s own efforts. It does not involve the grace of God, nor does it require anybody’s suffering and death, like the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which the christian faith relies upon.
The vzajku religion contains no ideas about life after death. It may exist or it may not, but there is no way of knowing that. Salvation is not to be expected after death but must be an aim in our lives here on earth. Worldly life was created by God, is part of God’s wonder, and it is therefore blasphemy if it is rejected, as does Buddhism, which tries to achieve an extinction of all desires. The same tendencies are found in certain branches of christianity and islam.
Vzajku does not recommend any special position for men or women, they both have equal rights. Though it is hard or even impossible to prove scientifically, it seems obvious that there are intrinsic differences between man and woman. It can be quite allright if this leads to certain specializations, provided they are based on free, individual choice.
The vzajku religion does not instigate violence, but almost totally rejects it. *). Noone may ever be persuaded by anything other than reasonable arguments to adopt this religion. Unfortunately, this is not the case with many other religions. The christian church inspired the crusaders, who formed true armies. The inquisition sentenced and executed innocent people. In northern Ireland today, both parties in the civil war get inspiration from their religion, which is a lasting disgrace for christianity.
The islam introduced the idea of jihād or holy war, although it is widely alleged that this must not be understood as a real war. Nonetheless, in Lebanon several innocent people have been held hostage for years now, which is a form of torture of immense cruelty, towards both the victims and their family. This surely does not imply that islam as a whole is a criminal religion, but any muslim who does not reject these atrocities, shares in the responsability for them.
Holy books, which are the basis of many religions, are indeed inspired by God, because they were written by humans from their wisdom, which is part of God’s holy creation. But they are not infallible, the inherited divine responsability of mankind makes it an obligation to regard those holy books critically, to take from them what is good, but to improve, or if necessary even reject, what is inappropriate.
*) There are exceptions, among them are self-defence or witnessing rape.
Copyright 1989, 2014, R. Harmsen, all rights reserved.