Coursianity Is My Dis|Organized Religion
What is religion: a force for good, a tool for social or political manipulation, the “opiate of the masses”…or a bit of all three?
I created my own bespoke religion to fill a spirit-sized hole in my psyche and to explore the curious human compulsion to create faith-based belief systems in order to cope with the stress and uncertainties of life both here and beyond.
At the most virtuous level, religions are able to address our most profound existential anxieties, offer a framework for understanding an often chaotic world, promote social cohesion, and act as a bridge to facilitate cooperation across ethnic, cultural and economic divides.
At the other end of the spectrum, organized religions have repeatedly shown an unsettling capacity for perpetuating harm through holy wars, ethnic cleansings, the oppression of marginalized groups, the support of caste systems, and the use of divine scripture to justify slavery, racial discrimination and a host of other egregious acts.
Those are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. How does one make sense of it?
The Road to Faith
I was raised in a Christian household—Sunday school and church attendance, home-based Bible lessons, and bedtime prayers—yet the fundamental narrative preached from the pulpit and presented in the illustrated Bible my mother shared with me and my siblings never fully resonated in my curious adolescent mind. At least not in a way that allowed the established framework to fully take hold in my consciousness.
I was taught that the Holy Trinity is a core doctrine of Christian faith, but due to its complex nature, it was best thought of as a mystery of faith, revealed in Scripture, but not fully comprehensible to human reason.
That explanation only served to raise my doubts and pique my curiosity.
I was also taught that reason allows us to make logical sense of the world and serves to evolve our thinking to address changing information and circumstances. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work, but I was being asked to suspend reason with regard to religion, while applying it in all other aspects in my life.
Over time the questions continued to mount, but the answers seemed less than logical.
For instance, why did Jesus preach to turn the other cheek and love our enemies while telling his disciples that he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. And why did the Bible tells us that God loves all of his children yet chose to protect only the favored or “chosen” while visiting plagues, murder and worldwide destruction on others?
Many who reach this point choose to become atheists, agnostics or the religiously unaffiliated or “nones,” but I was still a “believer,” albeit of a slightly different shade or shape.
The established Christian mold was broken in my mind and I didn’t know how to put it back together in a way that would serve to preserve and enrich my most cherished beliefs.
Over time, it become increasingly difficult to accept the notion that my most fundamental beliefs about life, love and ultimate reality—including a passionate belief of the existence and significance of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit—should be denied a religious identity simply because those beliefs differ markedly from any of the organized religions of the day.
The Traditional Path
On the surface, I appear to be Christian given my nationality, geography, ethnicity, and professed belief in God. But I’ve never felt like that label was a good fit.
I’ve heard it said that there are thousands of Christian denominations, so determining the criteria for calling oneself a Christian appears to be largely open to interpretation…without getting into the particulars of what constitutes a “real Christian.”
While wholesale agreement regarding articles of faith are varied, some core beliefs are typically held by most Christians:
God exists in three co-equal persons: Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the only Son of God, fully God and fully human.
The Bible is God’s inspired word and the ultimate authority for faith and practice.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
All humans have sinned, resulting in separation from God.
Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity.
Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, conquering sin and death.
Forgiveness of sins is gained exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.
We are called to live lives of love and good works.
One out of ten; that’s as close as I get to being a card carrying Christian. The importance of love and good works is the only core belief that I wholly embrace without the need for substantial reinterpretation.
My Dis|Organized Detour
Coursianity promotes a Spirit First approach to life that places a high value on divine guidance and the immense power of interpersonal expressions of love, kindness, empathy, and forgiveness.
It is a religion of One; looking within rather than without, and seeing all of God’s children as sharing a common creation experience that makes them equally worthy of His eternal, unalterable and unconditional love.
I named my religion Coursianity because it looks to a book titled A Course in Miracles (ACIM or Course) as its designated sacred text and because it shares some of the better elements of Christianity without all the added rites, rituals and dogma. Love is the watchword of my religion and it’s the only thing that keeps me sane in this crazy, upside down world.
I call it disorganized because it balances somewhere between a fully structured religion and purely individualized spiritual beliefs. Coursianity offers a modicum of structure in the form of a widely available sacred text—with more than a million copies sold worldwide—a well established means of learning and practicing the core lessons set forth in the text, and a list of core principles in the form of a creed, which I’ll explore in a future post.
Coursianity holds the following beliefs:
The Trinity includes God as Creator/Source; the children of God who are expressed as unique beings or souls that are also unified in a single universal Self or Christ; and the Holy Spirit, who serves as the Voice for God in this world.
The historic Jesus exemplifies the extraordinary depth of empathy, kindness, and loving/healing actions that an incarnated soul can achieve in a human lifetime.
Post resurrection, Jesus serves as a teacher and guide for those who seek to live by his example.
A Course in Miracles contains new teachings of Jesus that seek to set the record straight on key lessons that have either been forgotten, suppressed or intentionally altered to suit the needs of those in power.
Jesus was conceived and born in the same manner as the rest of us.
We choose to believe that we’re separate from God, but that error (not sin) is temporal, addressable and correctable without the need for fear or punishment…eternal or otherwise.
Jesus died on the cross due to the greed, envy, and fear of those who choose power over peace and love.
Jesus rose from the dead to prove that death is an illusion and life everlasting.
What you give or project onto others comes back to you in equal measure. Give love, get love. Give fear, get fear. It’s really that simple. We find our true identity through how we perceive and treat others.
The world will meet a quick, quiet and joyful end when all illusions are undone.
We are called to live lives of love and good works.
It’s not a conversion religion. There’s no declaration of faith, tithing or genuflecting. It’s a theology of the Mind, so there are no steepled cathedrals or holy sacraments.
Nothing is added that would distract from looking deeply within for the path that leads to our waking from the dream and returning to the Kingdom that we are and have never truly left.
The Journey Onward
It wouldn’t feel right to end without acknowledging that Christianity—on the whole, as a religion—has inspired countless individuals around the world to feed, clothe, house, and generally care for millions of those in need over the course of its existence. That’s a fact, not opinion, so it’s certainly worthy of recognition and admiration.
It just doesn’t work for me.
I’m drawn to a different truth, one that is more inclusive and anchored in love in a way that doesn’t allow for exclusion or contradiction in any way, shape or form. And there’s no allowance for the use of fear, judgement or guilt as tools of coercion, persuasion or persecution.
God is love and so are we…period.
I also want it to be clear that Coursianity is tailored to satisfy a specific need that I have to make sense of the world, universe/multiverse, AI, quantum effects, aliens (both local and galactic), and more—as informed by ACIM—but not explicitly covered in its teachings.
It’s my self-crafted, cognitive framework for understanding Life.
It’s not something I’m asking you to join, other than following and/or sharing this account if you find my journey of interest and potentially beneficial to your own search for deeper meaning.
If this post resonates with you..or not, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Your insights help to shape my future writings and aid in creating a community of awakening.
Questions for Reflection
Do you think that religion is a dirty word or the best hope for humanity?
Does the idea of a self-crafted, disorganized religion make sense to you?
If you created your own religion, what would it look like?
Up Next
The Coursian Creed: 11 Core Principles for Daily Decisionmaking
How to learn more about A Course in Miracles
Circle of Atonement - An online community for learning and practicing ACIM
Coursianity.com - A website companion to this Substack account
Coursianity is not affiliated with any Course-related organizations and the thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed are the author’s alone.