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For many people it is the organization of organized religion that drive them to seek out the so-called New Age thoughts and practices. Organized religion, ie. the Big Three (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) teach that communion with the Creator is only possible in a certain place at a certain time. They teach that humanity is devoid of the Divine presence because of some primordial mistake that humanity committed at the beginning of time, the horrible world-shattering desire for knowledge, also known as becoming one with God. The Big Three teach that God created the universe and all in it but is not the Universe himself, He is separate and distinct from His creation. The only way, according to the book faiths, to connect with God is through His grace only, and even then salvation is not guaranteed.

The New Age beliefs teach that The Goddess/God/Source IS the Universe, thus is immanent in ourselves and everything. In most there is no hierarchy of priests, rabbis or imams, there are no intermediaries but ourselves, which leaves the onus of our own existence squarely on our own shoulders. This is why the organized religions despise the New Age. If one is responsible for ones own destiny and actions it completely nullifies the need for intermediaries and structures; two thousand years years of dogma, war, repression , of self-hate and misplaced guilt falls to dust. According to the Big Three, one cannot nor should even attempt to come to an understanding of God, to do so was the original sin.
The New Age sees no sin but what hurts others or ourselves(itself a concept too complex for the scope of this essay). It seeks to commit that original sin over and over again. The New Age teaches that God is nothing to be afraid of, that knowledge is not only our right but our obligation to seek out. Ignorance is the most evil thing in the world. As opposed to the old saying "ignorance is bliss", knowledge brings understanding of the universe, an understanding of love, the greatest bliss of them all.
To me the greatest difference between organized religion and the New Age lies in the way the Truth is revealed. The Big Three are ruled by holy books: the Torah, the Bible, the Koran. It is there and only there that God laid down the purpose and curse of life. There is NO reflection or interpretation. All religious experiences of its adherents are to be compared to those described in the books, ones own thoughts, feeling and private revelations are irrelevant. If any part of their testimony is in any way even slightly different to the Revealed Truth of the Book, then the entire experience and experiencer is ignored and/or destroyed. The New Age teaches that our experience is what matters. God has no face but the one we see in the mirror, the intake and exhale of our breath, the look and feel of the wind, grass, whatever one can imagine because all that one can imagine IS God. There can be no separation of us from the Infinite, no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do to screw up our lives because everything that happens or that we do occurs in order for our eyes to be open to God, to come to an understanding of ourselves, which is God.
Unfortunately one is either a follower of organized religion or one is not. According to the New Age one can be any faith under the Sun. The Big Three say that there is only one way to God. In this New Age we are the way to God.

Learn more about this author, Michael Finlay.
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