Create Your Own Religion (36 page)

So let's be brave and give it a try. Our new, global world deserves the creation of improbable, multifaceted personalities who can handle a future where interconnectedness will be the name of the game. Many challenges lie ahead. And if we are to avoid self-destruction, it's time to plant the seeds of worldviews richer and weirder than anyone ever imagined; it's time to start celebrating paradoxical marriages of opposites. What we need from the religions of the future is the ability to unite what so far has been kept separate.

Ah . . . the hour is late and it's time for me to finally shut up. My typing fingers are tired, and the smell of pasta sauce heating on the stove is drawing my stomach away from this page. I can tell you this: creating your own religion can sure make you hungry.

But before I dive headfirst into the biggest plate of spaghetti ever cooked, I have one last thing to say. As much as I stand behind every syllable I have written, my goal here is not to sell you a set of ideas. If you can gain anything useful from these pages, great: my job is done and I can go on to enjoy my well-deserved pasta. If not, I don't take it personally. Whether you agree with me or not is not the point. The only truly important thing is that—either here or elsewhere—you find the answers you need to bring greater happiness to your life and to everyone around you. Finding ways to multiply joy is what it's all about. So if you don't like these answers (and perhaps even if you do), just go ahead and create your own.

To Isabella Han Bolelli:

You're my three-year-old hero. You're the reason why I smiled my way through hell. I can't possibly love anyone more than I love you—even though you made me listen to Bob Marley's “Buffalo Soldier” more times than should be legally allowed.

To Gloria and Franco:

Since my very first day on this planet . . . my best allies, accomplices, and friends.

To Pete McCormack, Matt Staggs, Chris Stiles, Liezel Legaspi, Jeff Hendricks, Thaddeus Russell, and Mike Vallely:

A universe that has allowed me to cross paths with you can't be all bad. Thank you for being my friends.

To Savannah Em:

I never wanted another relationship again. I had already tasted more love, more intensity, more passion than any mortal could hope
to experience. It was clear to me there was no way I'd run into someone able to match that. That door had closed for me. I had made my peace with it. And then I met you . . . and you kicked the door down. When your lips are pressed to mine, all evil in the world disappears.

To Zina Bolelli:

Ti amo—e non solo per avermi cucinato i cibi piu' buoni che abbia mai mangiato.

To Duncan Trussell and Joe Rogan:

There aren't enough words to thank you. You have helped me more than you know. If you need help burying a body, I'm your man.

To the memory of Marina Mattioni, Stelio Bolelli, Liliana Germani, Sidney Keith, Shannon Richardson, and Ray Allen.

And, of course, to Elizabeth Han:

I miss you, sweetie . . . so fuckin' much.

I love you—now and forever.

Thank you to my partners in crime: Marlon Mercado; Tatianna Em; Cody and Monique; Chris and Tania Reid; Manuela Mantegazza; Ben Harper; Shannon Lee; José Camacho; Junella Chin; Federico Giordano; Julio Perez; Rick Tucci; Gary Baddeley; Jan Johnson; Giancarlo Serafino; Tom and Alexa Robbins; Amy and Wes Tang; Rich Evirs; Evan Culver; Ale Rossi; Rocco Attisani; Anthony Formoso; Roberto Bonomelli and Lory; Roberto Banchini and his tribe; James Weddell; Viva Guerrero; Emilie Nguyen; Heming Gu;
Genevieve Dezso; John Evans; Will Ford; Jane Dabel; Brenda De River; Adonis Puentes; Alex Rueda; Lynn Cavallaro; Shawn Brennan; Maria Ramas; Bruno Dorella; Aronne dell'Oro; Michele Dalai; John Torres; Li Schroeder; Lorenzo Cherubini; Tatiana Molinar; Jason Yaselli; Joseph and Elizabeth Morales; Joey Calmer; Luciano Palermi; Rachael Pugh; Melinda Martinez and Jorge Ojeda; Kriszanne Napalan; Scott Czerniak; Giorgio Presca; Shannon Seta; Cavan Cox; Daniel Guedea; Jack Clark; Jack Carter; Litty Mathew and Melkon Khosrovian; Emily and Jamie Ludovise; Axel Hernandez and Adriana Yanez; Annie and Mike and Michaela Esposito; Diana and Jeff Gordon; Troy Johnson; Nancy Quam-Wickham; Harvey Stromberg; Tim Lopez, Brian Carr, Eddie Martinez, and everyone at CSULB BJJ; Tim Cartmell; Sharon Wikel; Dennis Jelinek; Al Herrera; Kolja Fuchs; Felicia Federico; Leo Hirai; Alessandra Chiricosta; Paul Bowman; Adam Scorgie; Alan Predolin; Igor Neyman; Jason Corliss; Joey Varner; Manolo Macchetta; Angela Morado; Sif Goodale; Eugene and Margaret Carpenter; Paul Klawiter; Robert Subiaga; Sam Sheridan; Sumati Bonsai; and Bryan Kest.

1
. The full quote reads, “The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level at which we created them. . . . We shall require a substantial new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” In James Christian,
Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering
, 9th edition (Stamford: Wadsworth, 2006), 40.

2
. Huston Smith,
Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief
(New York: HarperOne, 2001), 191.

3
. Huston Smith,
A Seat at the Table: Huston Smith in Conversation with Native Americans on Religious Freedom
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 31.

4
. Ibid., 12.

5
. Ibid., xvi.

6
. Susan Jacoby,
Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), 120.

7
. Giangiorgio Pasqualotto,
Il Tao della Filosofia: Corrispondenza tra Pensieri d'Oriente e d'Occidente
(Milan, Italy: Nuova Pratica Editrice, 1997 [1989]), 120.

8
. Friedrich Nietzsche as quoted in Daniele Bolelli,
On the Warrior's Path: Philosophy, Figthing and Martial Arts Mythology
(Berkeley: Frog, Ltd. 2003).

9
. Thomas Paine,
The Age of Reason
(London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896), 31.

10
. William Blake quoted in Tom Robbins,
Another Roadside Attraction
(New York: Bantam, 2003 [1972]), 213.

11
. Walt Whitman quoted in Jacoby,
Freethinkers
, 214–5.

12
. Alan Watts,
The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work, and Art in the Far East
(New York: Grove Press, 1994 [1936]), 49.

13
. John Stevens,
Three Zen Masters: Ikkyū, Hakuin, and Ryōkan
(New York: Kodansha International, 1993), 46.

14
. E. A. Burtt, ed.,
Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha
(New York: Signet, 1955).

15
. Chuang Tzu,
Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings
, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), 37.

16
. Bruce Lee,
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do
(Santa Clarita: Ohara Publications, 1975).

17
. Ibid.

18
. Bruce Lee,
The Warrior Within
, trans. John Little (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1996), 114.

19
. Lee,
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do
.

20
. Thomas Merton,
The Way of Chuang Tzu
(New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1969), 104.

21
. Friedrich Nietzsche,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(New York: The Modern Library, 1995 [1885]), 105.

22
. Hermann Hesse,
Steppenwolf: A Novel
(New York: Picador, 2002 [1927]), 32.

23
. If you think this title sounds familiar, you are probably right. I have been watching a CSI marathon, and Grissom's immortal words are stuck in my head.

24
. Rosa Brooks, “The Dark Side of Faith,”
Los Angeles Times
(Oct. 1, 2005). Brooks refers to a study by Gregory Paul of Creighton University's Center for the Study of Religion. The study was published in the
Journal of Religion and Society
under the title “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies.”

25
. Paine,
The Age of Reason
, 196.

26
. A. H. Shaw and I. H. Harper,
Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony
vol 4, chapter 16 (1902).

27
. Christopher Hitchens,
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
(New York: Twelve Books, 2007), 167.

28
. Ibn Warraq,
Why I Am Not a Muslim
(New York: Prometheus Books, 2003 [1995]), 100.

29
. Paine,
The Age of Reason
, 48.

30
. Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, eds.,
Albert Einstein, The Human Side
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 43.

31
. Lao Tzu,
The Sayings of Lao Tzu
, trans. Lin Yutang (Taipei: Confucius Publishing Company).

32
. Ibid., 245.

33
. Lao Tzu,
Tao Te Ching
, trans. Ralph Alan Dale (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2005), 9.

34
. Huston Smith,
A Seat at the Table
, 148.

35
. Lao Tzu,
The Sayings of Lao Tzu
, trans. Lin Yutang, 167.

36
. Bruce Bawer,
Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998), 125.

37
. Karl Marx,
The Portable Karl Marx
(New York: Penguin Books, 1983), 115.

38
. Hitchens,
God Is Not Great
, 247.

39
. Ibid., 57.

40
. Lewis M. Hopfe,
Religions of the World
, 7th edition, ed. Mark R. Woodward, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), 247.

41
. Leviticus 18:19, 15:19–24, 18:29.

42
. Matthew 24:34

43
. John 18:36.

44
. “New bin Laden Video Shows 9/11 Hijacker,”
The Independent UK
(Sept. 11, 2007),
www.independent.co.uk

45
. 1 John 2:15–16.

46
. Koran, Sura 29:64.

47
. Koran, Sura 57:20. See also Sura 3:185.

48
. Jacoby,
Freethinkers
, 358.

49
. Robert Spencer, “Sharon's Stroke,”
Front Page Magazine
(December 19, 2005).
FrontPageMagazine.com
. See also Steven Stalinsky “Dealing in Death,”
National Review
(May 24, 2004), online version.

50
. Peter C. Myers,
Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008), 63.

51
. David Miller,
Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story
(New York: Penguin Group, 1992 [1957]), 131.

52
. Kathryn Sparling, trans.,
The Way of the Samurai: Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life
(New York: Basic Books, 1977), 128.

53
. Daniele Bolelli,
On the Warrior's Path: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology
(Berkeley, CA: Blue Snake Books, 2008 [2003]), 197.

54
. Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki, comps.,
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
(North Clarendon, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1998 [1957]), 39.

55
. Exodus 32:26–27

56
. Numbers 25

57
. 1 Kings 18

58
. 2 Kings 9: 30–37

59
. Jonathan Kirsch,
God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism
. (New York: Viking Adult, 2004), 7.

60
. Paine,
The Age of Reason
, 208.

61
. Gary B. Nash,
Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America
, 4th edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000 [1974]), 66–7.

62
. John 14:6. Plenty of other passages reinforce the same idea in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament. Consider for example Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else,” or John 3:18: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

63
. Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23. In other parts of the Gospels, Jesus states the exact opposite. In Mark 9:40, Jesus says, “. . . for whoever is not against us is for us.” This logical contradiction has allowed both inclusive and exclusive Christians to make a case for Jesus saying what they want him to say. They can conveniently cite the passage that supports their position and ignore the others.

64
. Transcript of President Bush's address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, September 20, 2001. CNN,
edition.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen.bush.transcript
.

65
. Helen Ellerbe,
The Dark Side of Christian History
(Orlando, FL: Morningstar and Lark, 1999), 183.

66
. Bruce Bawer,
While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within
(New York: Broadway Books, 2006), 16.

67
. Charles Kimball,
When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs
(San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008), 249.

68
. Chris Hedges,
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
(New York: Free Press, 2006), 109.

69
. While we would be hard-pressed to discover alliances between Communism and organized religion, Fascism was often openly allied to the Catholic Church. In the infamous 1929 Lateran Pacts, the Pope encouraged Catholics to support Mussolini's Fascist regime in exchange for Mussolini naming Catholicism the only official religion of the state, giving them a monopoly over issues of birth, death, marriage, and education. Pressured to justify the use of poisonous gas against the Ethiopians, Mussolini painted himself as a paladin of Catholic dogma by saying the Ethiopians deserved it since they practiced a heretical form of Christianity. The Church also supported Fascist movements in Spain, Portugal, and Croatia.