Harvard Divinity Grad Calls the Major World Religions an Obstacle to Human Progress

Los Angeles, CA, USA, May 19, 2009 – Harvard Divinity grad Joe Simonetta, says “ancient and antiquated major world religions, historically problematical, yet still mainstream, are dysfunctional, divisive and war-causing. Even though the stories that formed them are inconsistent and discredited, these religions continue to control countless minds and complicate and often cause many of the world’s wars, terrorist strikes, senseless killings, and social injustices.”

The great majority of religious thought originated thousands of years ago in the infancy of our intelligence. These untested collections of dogmatic principles, formed before the age of science, were built upon foundations of falsehood, fabrication, and superstition with the purpose of gaining power over the weak and to curry favor among the strong, he asserts.

“The mythical gods and fantasy worlds associated with these world religions have countless people out of touch with the real world in which we exist. As a consequence, complicated political, economic and environmental problems gravitate toward horrific outcomes,” says Simonetta who holds several degrees (Harvard, Penn State, University of Colorado) and has had broad life experiences (military officer, professional athlete, businessman, architect, author, U.S. Congressional candidate, more).

“On balance, despite whatever contributions the major world religions may have made within the environments and time frames in which they were spawned, these old belief systems now are unequivocally an obstacle to human progress,” says Simonetta.

He paves a new path in his book and DVD by the same name, Seven Words That Can Change the World. Neale Donald Walsch, New York Times best-selling author of the Conversations With God series, describes Simonetta’s work as the “The formula. The answer. The way.”

The effect of these flawed creeds, says Simonetta, has not been to bring us together but to separate us permanently. The violence in our world is due to too much religion rather than too little. We praise distant mythological gods as we exploit our neighbors. We dream of the “hereafter” as we destroy the “here.” The inconsistencies and incredibilities of traditional religions, derived typically from supernatural sources and that which is referred to as “divine revelation,” are nothing more than a fantasy and delusion left over from the ignorant and superstitious childhood of the human race.

Incendiary claims to the exclusive possession of inerrant and infallible “truths” fans the flames of tribalism, and has fomented bloody discord. Religion, with fallacious authority, often provides noble-sounding excuses for warfare. History shows there is no end to what people ginned up on their particular form of self-righteousness have done and will do, he asserts.

Simonetta says, “Our planet is in dire straits. When we examine almost every measurable criteria by which we evaluate the health of the planet and our communities, things have gotten worse. Our world, driven by the relentless needs of a global population growing out of control, is in ecological overshoot. Humanity is a passenger on a sinking ship. The dysfunctional belief systems that got us into this fix are out of step with reality. We must let go of the nonsensical religious thinking on which many of us were nurtured and cope with the demands of life as it is, not as we fantasize it to be.”

“One would have to have his head deep in the sand and his mind intoxicated with dogma not to see the endless problems associated with these old world religions. Religion, with all its elaborate rituals, costumes and falsehoods, is likely the world’s longest, most magnificent and pernicious charade. It’s time for humanity to travel on a new track: reality. Humanity must be weaned off of this dogmatic, delusional and divisive, war-causing form of intoxication and enter into a completely new way of thinking about reality.”

Simonetta’s Seven Words That Can Change the World explains in simple language what life requires of us unequivocally in order to reverse our destructive and unsustainable momentum, end our needless suffering, prosper together, find peace, sustain humanity, and advance our civilization.

“Our window of opportunity to accomplish the necessary and monumental shift in thinking is small,” he says, “compared to the large obstacles within our belief systems that must be dissolved. Yet, we must do this if we and all the life forms that share this jewel of a planet are to survive.”

Simonetta’s book, DVD and bio are available at http://www.sevenwords.org

Questions Answered in Seven Words http://www.sevenwords.org/questions-answered-in-dvd/

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