From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 12. FAITH: THE SUICIDE OF INTELLIGENCE
What life can you have?
You don’t even know yourself
You don’t know from where you are coming, to where you are going, what the purpose of all this
is. Who has prevented you from knowing? Not the devil but the popes, the priests, the rabbis, the
shankaracharyas – these are the real devils.
As far as I can see, all these synagogues, temples, mosques, churches – they are all dedicated to
the devil, not to God, because what they have done is not divine, it is sheer murder: the slaughter
of the whole human mind.
But they have done many other things also. This fundamental harm cannot be done alone, it needs
support from many other harms. For example: the religions have demystified the universe. I consider
it to be one of the greatest crimes.
Let me repeat, they have demystified the universe, and I consider it to be one of the greatest crimes
– and they have done it so cunningly, so cleverly, that you are not even aware what has been done.
What do I mean when I say demystifying the universe? I mean they have supplied ready-made
answers for you.
All the religions have a certain catechism. Christians have approached me: ”Why don’t you publish
a small booklet which contains your catechism?because you have so many books that it is difficult
to read them all, to find out and to figure out what your message is. It will be easy; just like the
Christians have done, you can publish the catechism on a postcard.”
I had to tell them, ”It is impossible for me because I don’t have a catechism at all. You will have to
look into my books. You will have to enter into this jungle and you will have to find the message. And
I don’t know whether you will be able to find one, or whether you will be lost yourself The second is
the more probable possibility.”
But all the religions have provided a catechism. What is a catechism? For questions which are
unanswerable they give you answers, even before you have asked. The child has not asked who
has created the world; the child is not yet mature enough to ask such a question, but religions catch
him before he becomes mature and the question arises. Once the question arises then their answer
is not going to help.
Once the child asks who has created the world, then the answer that God has created the world is
not going to help because the child is bound to ask, ”Who has created God Their answer is not an
answer because the question remains the same; it is just delayed a little bit – one step backwards.
And finally religions say, ”God has not been created by anybody.” Very strange – because the logic
behind their God is that everything that exists needs a creator.
I asked one of my religious teachers – I had to go every week to listen to his crap – ”You gave me
the logic: everything that exists needs a creator.”
He said, ”Of course.”
From Ignorance to Innocence 155 Osho