Lecture Notes on Religion and Dominion

Key Concepts

The Nature of Religion

• All religions are described as humanity's attempt to find something it lost.
• Religions create complex systems, rituals, and customs to satisfy a longing in the human heart.
• Religions keep individuals busy to prevent them from contemplating their own emptiness and lack of peace.
• The concept that religion itself will never satisfy the human heart.

The Fall of Adam

• Adam did not fall from heaven; he fell from dominion over the earth.
• Different religions offer different concepts of an ideal state or place (e.g., heaven, paradise, reincarnation).
• Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism all discuss an ideal place to reach, but Jesus' teachings were different.

God's Original Idea

• God intended to make Earth a colony of Heaven.
• Earth was created not to be empty but to be inhabited by God's offspring.
• Biblical reference: Isaiah 45:18 - God formed the Earth to be inhabited.
• Earth will never be empty; God's word and intention for Earth will always hold.
• Jesus spoke about a new heaven and a new earth, reinforcing that Earth was always intended to be inhabited.

Dominion Over Earth

• Psalms 115:16 - Heaven belongs to the Lord, but Earth is given to man.
• Humans were born to be rulers and kings over Earth, not merely servants.
• The title