Let me say right up front that I am not a very religious person. Not in the least.
I consider myself to be a very spiritual person who has fashioned a web of beliefs, and aspirations based on the teachings of hom I consider to be great philosophers, such as Ghandi, Mohammed, Buddha and Christ. These basic tenets of life by which I attempt to live, however, have little or nothing to do with Religion (with a capital ‘R”) in general, or any church in particular.
I consider Religion to be just the opposite of what it claims to be – the words and insights of a higher being. And, for the most part, throughout history, all Religion has done is prop certain groups of people up in their own minds so as they consider themselves to be above others. (The Chosen People, The One True Faith, God’s Children.) In other words, Religion gives people the license that they desire in order to condemn and persecute others who may believe differently than they do themselves. It is the great separator. The great divider.
I was raised Roman Catholic. I went to all Catholic schools, starting in kindergarten and finishing with college. I was an altar boy, and I could say the whole Mass in Latin. I studied the Bible formally for sixteen years under teachers who were considered to experts in the field.
And I came away from it all with a deep and abiding love the words of the above-mentioned philosophers, and a stark understanding that their teachings have never been put into practice.
Their words have been distorted, mangled and manipulated in order to justify prejudices and hatreds and intolerance of others.
Jesus wept. And he would weep today if he knew how his message of love for all was being bastardized by groups as diverse as the Religious Right in this country to the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
The same, I believe, would hold true with Mohammed and how the extremists in the Muslim faith twist his thoughts to feed their hatred.
In my mind, there is no difference between Religions. Religion is Religion is Religion. And Religion preaches that everybody that disagrees with it is somehow unenlightened and sub-human. The infidels, pagans, blasphemers, non-believers must be either taught to see the light and be “Saved”, or they should be destroyed because they are an abomination to ‘God” (Read “God” as “Us”, for “God” is simply an interpretation of what is right as perceived by imperfect and prejudiced human beings.)
We are all prejudiced. Every single one of us. We are prejudiced by our upbringing, the teachings and examples of our parents, the teachings of our society, and our life experiences. We cannot help it.
Most rational people, I think, would agree with the above statement. That being the case then, how can any one pretend to know what is the ultimate good? How can any one of us be so unbending in our beliefs as to think WE have the ONLY right answers? So much so that we are willing to condemn and even kill those who merely disagree with us?
Religion itself tells us that we are flawed and imperfect creatures. Being such, we cannot think for ourselves and come up with pristine, truthful answers. Perfection cannot come from a flawed foundation. Apples from apple trees, right?
So, Religion tells us that, since we can never hope to come up the true answers on our own, we must turn to a greater source – The Word Of God…as interpreted by people who are no different than we are, but who had and still have the audacity to claim that they have been enlightened by the Almighty itself!
(More on this in the next post.)