PureInsight | August 27, 2001
The idea of “human rights bestowed by heaven” was brought up for the pursuit of worldly power and other interests after the deterioration and decline of religions. Its initial intention was not of preserving belief in God. In the religion-prone medieval times, Gods were first. There was no such concept as “human rights bestowed from heaven”.
On the issue of believing in God, it is disrespectful and distorted to use words like “human rights bestowed by heaven” or “freedom of belief”. Although these words were helpful in resisting damage to righteous beliefs, God and belief should not be the object of rights or freedom. Cultivators should return to their true selves, should be firm. God has compassion on people. One should not talk about cultivation with arguments like rights and freedom.
The so-called freedom of belief means that people can believe in this and that, no matter whether the belief is right or wrong. We can say that when people are talking about issues of freedom of belief, they have no concept of the differences between the righteous and the evil. This has resulted from the degeneration of humankind. In my view, evil should not exist. Mankind should not believe in evil stuff. There is no issue of freedom when the belief is evil. This is not an individual rights issue, but the issue of responsibility to society.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/8/11/11281.html
