Closeness to nature, the primal feeling of connection, it is mixed up with a sense of the whole, good and bad residing together, the one necessitating the other, yin and yang I suppose. I am trying to describe it but keep deleting! It feels like contentment, like you are 'home'. I feel linked to everyone and all things. Not in a cerebral way but instinctively, like I am part of something that has always been and always will be, and it is comforting, a bit scary in an overwhelming way. There is running intermingled with this the feeling of continuance and procreation, and joy. Now I know that sounds pretty much like a religious text and when I have tried to explain this to a curate he said simply that it is God that I believe in, so why when organized religion is added do I feel cheated and devalued? Why do I still search for something more?

Religion likes to put us in boxes and does not allow expression. I believe strongly in the sanctity of marriage and am a moral person. But religion does not have room for 'wild', it squashes the exuberant and while it accepts the wonders of nature as God's gifts, it tries to put boundaries around it, to hem it in. But as I continue to be interested in religion I must feel that there is something there to offer me. Though my question is still does religion sanitize?

It is my observation that most organized religion of today has been "watered down" over the last few thousand years to make it more suited to the philosophies of men. Eternal truth encompasses what you are feeling, but it is so far reaching and so all encompassing that the religions of today have no concept of it.

This may sound somewhat judgmental on my part and I don't wish to put anyone down for their beliefs, but allow me for a moment to try and explain this in the most concise way I can.

Truth to me is that we are the literal offspring of God. We are his children as he is the Father of the Spirits which give our mortal bodies life. This belief of divine origin and divine potential, is highly criticized by organized religions of today, even though it is taught in the Bible (see Acts 17:29, Romans 8:16-17, Hebrews 12:9 and John 20:17). This knowledge throws a whole different light on who we are, where we came from and the purpose for our existence. This life is so much more than what is taught in any of the religions to which you and I are referring, so much more.

You speak of the existence of the "wild" as an important part of life. Let me quote a passage from the Book of Mormon: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, ... righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. ... And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 2:11 & 13)

This is not saying that "anything goes", but it does emphasize the importance of free agency of choice in the process of human learning and growth.

I would like to invite you to check out the My Beliefs section of my web site. Go to the Multimedia link and there you will find a whole section devoted to explain these kinds of things. Click on the "Life's Greatest Questions" presentation and let me know what you think. If you are interested, I can arrange to share with you the big picture of what I am eluding to here.

I am anxious to hear from you again,

Sincerely,

Donny Osmond


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