.

The Typical and the Traditional:   The Life Center is distinctly different from the common, well-known, traditional, western, religious organizations.   The common, traditional, religious organizations are  based on an exclusive theology, with a specific doctrine and a fixed and unchangeable set of dogmatic rules for the belief and behavior of all its members.   The devotees of these organizations are taught to believe that "God" is a super-human-being who is up there somewhere above the clouds,  separate from themselves.   The church leaders usually claim their religion to be the one-and-only essential intermediary between themselves and "God."   The devotees are told that without the leaders and the church structure, they are disconnected from God.   

Their church doctrine is usually spelled out in a sacred book.   The church leaders claim divine inspiration and exclusive authority in interpreting said sacred book.   Whatever-the-church-leader-say is claimed, by them, to be "The Absolute Word of God".   Their words are claimed to hold the same authority as if Jesus, Mohammad, the angel Moroni, or God Himself spoke the words directly to the believer.   The church leaders demand that the believers and devotees rigidly adhere to all of the organization's beliefs, rules and codes of conduct under threat of exclusion from the in-group and eternal damnation in hell.  

Religious leaders on the conservative (fundamentalist) end of these religions commonly claim to be closer to God than their followers.   They claim that all other religions are false religions.   They also declare that their theology cannot be wrong; not even one word can be wrong.  

They say this in order to preserve their self-proclaimed supremacy, their self-proclaimed absolute authority, their self-proclaimed exclusive access to God, and  their self-proclaimed literal interpretation of their sacred text.   IF even one word of their sacred text is subject to question or to an unorthodox  interpretation, then everything in their entire theology becomes a target for questioning and for non-orthodox interpretations.   What they don't acknowledge is that a literal interpretation is just one interpretation among many.

.

.

The Life Center's Perspective:   The beliefs and behaviors described above represent the antithesis of what TLC- Life- Center stands for.   The TLC-LIfe-Center perspective is that:

1)    "The Source of All That Is"  (commonly referred to as God) in so grand, so big, and so complex that it's beyond human understanding; 

2)    We cannot say what God is or how "It/He/She"  functions;  

3)    Our best guesses about the answers to life's unanswerable question are based upon what the evidence tells us is most likely to represent reality.  

4)    We have no theology that is fixed and carved is stone;   All beliefs and behaviors are subject the update and revision as new evidence becomes available;

5)   All religions are pathways to God.   

6)   All spiritual teachers have apiece of the truth; none (ourselves included) have the complete truth.   

7)   We honor and respect the visionaries who brought us the teaching which are the foundations of all religions.   Sarathrustra, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, Joseph Smith and the like were teachers, each of whom brought us the truth from a slightly different perspective.

8)   You and I and everything else are part of grand unity.  Everything is One.

9)   Either everything is sacred or nothing is.   

     :::   .