December 31, 2017
Dear World (and everyone kind enough to read this till the very end),
Before the year ends and starts anew, I'd like to shed some light on a religious and moral issue rampant on our globe (since apparently that's not going anywhere).
From the clouds and heavens up above, it all comes down to The-Dark-Ages-old (and possibly older) question: Does Religion, or dare I say does a specific church, own "Morality"? And by extension, assumes that those who don't belong in that group are inherently immoral and evil and whatnot...
Short version of the answer? NO, not necessarily.
Maybe it did, culturally speaking, during the time when people hunted down, fought against and burned other people alive at stakes, all in the name of the "One True God" (a.k.a. the times hailed as The Middle Ages or The Dark Ages) and other similar times, but OBJECTIVELY and LOGICALLY? NO. NEVER... And the reason is simple: you can't preach about love and peace, and then speak of hate, oppresion and "you disagree, you burn" policy nonsense, and proceed to doing acts that resemble the exact opposite of what Love truly means. And while such "practice", irony and hypocrisy is a "The Dark Ages Thing", sadly, it still happens to this day.
According to various researches, secular countries tend to have lower crime rates than religious countries... Numbers and Statistics never lie. Also, countless people from various cultures and timelines, religious or otherwise, have been shown to be moral, kind and loving. And the number of the irreligious who killed, burned, bombed and opressed people all in the name of science, reason and "nothing"? ZERO POINT ZERO ZERO DOT DOT DOT ZERO. And the blood that was shed, blown up and burned, all in the name of "God" and Religion (and possibly a hidden political agenda)? IMMEASURABLY ABUNDANT... All evident in our world's history.
Luckily, there are religious organizations today that grew and rose above that wretched past, just like a healthy person should.
But the conflict is not over. Some religious people wonder how the irreligious don't share the same beliefs as them. Even I used to. But the answer was already there, hiding in plain sight... Setting emperical, scientific and epistemological issues aside, it's simply because NO SANE HUMAN BEING COULD EVER BELIEVE A PERSON WHO CLAIMS TO LIVE AND PREACH LOVE, AND THEN SPEAK OF HATE, ANGER AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE THE SAME RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AS HIM OR THOSE WHO LACK ANY RELIGIOUS BELIEF WHATSOEVER. He'd be like a hunter trying to shoot a bird down with a shotgun, while he speaks of loving birds, and then miss, then wonder why the bird flew away, and HATE AND BLAME THE BIRD FOR IT. Think about it.. A hateful Christian or a hateful man who claims follows a religion of love? It's oxymoronic (and it might as well lack the "oxy-").
Religion is supposed to spread love, kindness and harmony, it's NOT supposed to breed hatred, bigotry and conflict.
Hence, like how we should look at how our governments treat their poorest people, look at your religions, churches, and their members, and observe how they treat the ones who don't share the same religious beliefs as them - the followers of other religions, the nonbelievers, the misfits, the deemed untouchables, the different and everyone else I might have left out... And if your religion and your church show even a hint of hatred, anger, and discrimination towards any of them, you might want to consider LEAVING. Take it from someone who has experienced the best (and the worst) of both worlds. You know you're in the right when they uphold Love, Kindness and Respect above all else, instead of preaching love, peace and "morality", only to become hostile when faced with disagreements no matter how small.
Our differences, big and small, don't hinder us to attain peace, it's the lack of respect, lack of compassion, and the unwillingness to listen with gentleness and understanding to such differences that do.
BIGOTRY IS NEVER THE ANSWER, IT NEVER WAS AND IT NEVER WILL...
AND IF YOU CAN'T FEEL THE SENSE OF MORALITY AND THE COMPASSION WITHIN YOURSELF ALONE, THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LACK OF RELIGION OR FAITH, BUT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH LACK OF EMPATHY.
Morality has less to do with your creed, but more to do with your deeds. Everyone can be good, and everyone can also be bad, regardless of religion, race, gender, and whatever label we have made up to brand people.
Finally, you may favor Religion over Science, or it could be the other way around. Either way, with all of our limited human intellect, NO ONE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING. The devout doesn't know everything that God was doing before "The Creation", and the scientist doesn't know everything that happened before "The Big Bang". We are all lost in this unfathomably large universe, and the least that we could do is to respect one another, and work together for a better tomorrow before it's too late (and now, cue John Lennon's Imagine to play as background music).
Thank you for reading, and I hope this inspired you to rise above, and to be better than what society and religion tells you and what they say you should become. Let's make this world a world that transcends Love beyond culture, race and religion.
Yours truly,
Niño Pajaron Wenceslao
