Have you ever wondered why people always try to use religion to either cover-up and/or justify the most wicked of their actions and ideals? Is it possible blind faith and belief can substitute for rational thought and importantly, the cold hard truth?
I argue it cannot. For whatever the reasons might be, living a lie will always be nothing more or less than living a lie. Any attempt to alter the truth through nothing more than a misplaced conviction of knowing the unknowable is not only unwise, it is also in my estimation, a sin.
In the Judeo/Christian tradition, the basic understanding among scholars and let’s call them the more enlightened of followers, there exists a celestial body of being and knowledge that was purposely placed beyond the understanding of us dwelling in the temporal world.
Further, from personal observation, we humans seem particularly susceptible to inference, illogic and illusion. It is almost as if we yearn for unquestioned acceptance of nothing more than our personal opinions. The more wacky and unbelievable the story, the better for the proving, or as is usually the case, a reliance on a misreading of scripture filling in for obvious, and often glaring inconsistencies between, well, let’s say the fantastic fallacy and the rejection of brass-tacks authenticity in this corporeality and hence far from perfect understanding of both the acting with divinity and the will of the divine.
As a result of our general shared inability to utter the words “I don’t know” rather than admit to our lack of knowledge of the unknowable, we turn not to the inner, the peace and quiet within all of us, a serenity that allows us to think and feel from the inside out, but to our fellow and equally shortsighted and at times soulless practitioners and adherents as if they can somehow see through the same blinkers we all wear as we circle around the eternal racetrack of life.
If I may pontificate for a moment, the way of the sectarian world starts with something of a saint, or a sinner, prophet or false idol looking for his or her flock to guide. If enough lonely and empty people decide to join what invariably become a crusade to enlist more lost souls with the promise of spiritual enlightenment during this life, and invariably salvation in the next, what was once a cult now becomes with the aid of mass hysteria, a movement and then, not a way, or a path for those vehicles need you to take a journey to an unknown destination, but a religion.
A religion that regardless of the strangeness and absurdity of its core beliefs and canons has through the “miracle” of the taming and submission of the masses to abandon what can only be described as common sense, these stories, unverifiable accounts of so many deeds of wonder, become not just real, but more than real.
The victim being any semblance of character or personal accountability, replaced by what is really nothing more than an uneasy sense of “it’ll all work out” not because of empirical evidence, but the ever so slightly more desperate lapse of reason end with “it has too”. Even when it doesn’t, and unfortunately, won’t.
What must it feel like to be on one’s death bed and suddenly realize your life, now all but over, was essentially lived in vain, waiting for a day that in the back of your mind, you knew would never come?
Now don’t get me wrong. It is my sincere belief we are all following down the yellow brick road we were meant to travel for a purpose. I see nothing fundamentally wrong with looking for answers to our biggest questions wherever we may believe them to be hidden. If you believe the solution to all your earthly woes lies within a house of worship, shined upon by a celestial light filtered through oh so pretty stained-glass windows, then go there.
If you conclude the mysteries of the universe are found, not so much hidden, but must be experienced in nature, perhaps among the tops of the highest trees, then get thee to a forest. If you desire to be a disciple of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, go to the water, sit on the beach.
If you accept the proposition that the spark of divine light and life is within all of us, then go inside. At first, you might not find what you expected. Confronting oneself can be a frightening, painful experience. It is not for everyone. However, life is for the brave and if you seek within, you may find yourself with one of the greatest of all gifts.
The knowledge that to change the world, you must first change yourself. And, to this end, to truly conquer the world you must first conquer yourself. It is not funny, but I often laugh at why so many persons of all shapes and sizes, lifestyles and backgrounds, of all colors, polka dot patterns and stripes, never realize that changing the world is a matter of perception and nothing more.
In other words, the world does not change, but you can. Rivers will always flow downstream. The ground, if treated with care and respect will grow food. The sun will shine, and the clouds will rain. Yet whether you feel full or hungry, warm or cold, dry or wet, is up to you. You can see the world as one miracle after another, with nature a gift of indescribable loving and kindness, or you can sit in a cold, empty room waiting for the levee to break.
This is why it is possible to be lonely in a crowded room. Felling? set apart from the billions of souls on this planet that surround you, that are always there. This is why you can feel forsaken by our Creator because you are not rich, wealthy, perhaps healthy and in any case, happy.
Don’t fool yourself or let yourself be fooled. We are all born with a sense of right and wrong. If we base our sense of worth, purpose and happiness on doing wrong you will reap what you sow. If there is one thing I could teach the world, it would be you cannot plant hate and believe love will grow.
Yet so many of us do. Racism, misogyny, sexism, intolerance to the rights of others, are various outward expressions of a hatred that burns within. It is an infernal inferno that can never be satisfied. As with any fire, it feeds upon whatever it can, finally running out of oxygen with nothing left but the burnt embers of a flame consumed by itself.
Hatred is a chain that binds both the master and the slave. It equally steals both of their dignity and humanity. The ability to love, care and show compassion become weakness, when in fact it is our human ability to feel empathy, our basic desire to do good that is the only force strong enough to break the cruel bondage that many of us have voluntarily chosen to adopt as our Lord and savior.
A sad belief that our own happiness and spiritual fulfillment can be built upon the exploited, the dead and the dying, that are the results of our own foul actions. The separation and division from the truth that we are all connected and to hurt one, is to hurt all, including ourselves.
When will it all end? When will we as a species finally drop the pretense of physical, mental, and moral superiority based upon our ability to diminish the lives of our brothers and sisters based on nothing more than the words typed within a book, or upon a screen, said in a private chat room, or perhaps in the back of an elevator? Something said, possibly in the heat of the moment, or out of sheer ignorance that you didn’t think could be heard by the target of your ire, but was?
Parents telling their children they are “stupid” a “mistake” and, worst of all, “unloved.” Is this where it starts? Feelings of inadequacy and abandonment from an early age? Is this the gift we want to pass down to the next generation?
It is a question worth pondering as we continue to burn down buildings, books and due to global warming and climate change, the earth and sky itself. Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s ignorance. Isn’t it time we all at least admit that? Platitudes, panaceas, and placebos, no matter how well intentioned can never take the place of an objective search for the truth. For this is truly the path to knowledge and wisdom.
Some would call this education. That through the learning process, we can and will come up with forward looking if not elegant solutions to our current problems. Or, we can wait for Biblical era “miracles” that will save us from, ourselves?
The best way to influence the future is to plan for it in advance. When did we as a society decide to leave our children a future most analogous to a boat pushed out to sea with one oar and their hands tied behind their backs? But then again, education leads to understanding. Understanding leads to acceptance and I would argue passionately acceptance will eventually lead to admiration. And admiration might just lead to love.
This is the future I wish to leave behind. What if we all decided to skip the three RRRs in favor of passing on the blessing of preparing for and working together on the best and brightest future possible for those who in their innocence trusted us to do so, and we didn’t. But we still can. Who’s with me?
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