Thank you for your super good article (“You are thinking for yourself. Even if you don’t want to,” by George Pyle, Tribune, Jan. 20).
I have experienced how important it is to search for truth from as many sources as possible. That has detached me from a very demanding organized religion, where strict obedience is a major factor. My spirit feels more free and happy than ever before.
It is an unbelievable freedom where I feel God’s spirit in everything around me that is good and true. It felt like I popped out of a straitjacket. The human spirit needs to soar and not be locked up in doctrines.
Is that, maybe, why Christians are compared with sheep? I never thought much about it when I moved with the sheep in the herd. I knew it was all true and followed obediently in the direction of the shepherd’s voice and the driving force of the dogs.
Sheep actually are the income of the shepherd because of their wool and meat. That's why, if one is lost, the shepherd is going to find it. The more sheep, the richer the shepherd.
History has proven that organized religion is too powerful and uses force to bring people into submission, with earthly and eternal punishments attached for disobedience or speaking against it.
I do not need a church to feel God's spirit. We need “true knowledge” about everything and to "do good only," as the Buddha said 600 years before Christ. Wow, that's only 2,600 years ago!
Maria Van Lent, Woods Cross