Life is not black and white
I've been having a lot of conversations lately about life, religion, love, and other related subjects lately and I'm feeling a lot of desperation right now. Ideally life would be like John Lennon's song Imagine - all the people, sharing all the world. I say that I want this but in the very core of my being I don't feel like it will ever actually happen. I don't think the world can be eradicated of religion - people would come up with new religions. Human beings feel an innate need to explain the world around them and they do this through religion. I just wish that everyone else could see what seems so clear to me - love really is the most important thing.
If people could love one another then I think many problems in the world could be solved. You can disagree with someone and still love them, you can feel like you don't understand someone and still love them, you can believe different things and still love them. Love does something powerful though because even if you disagree with someone you love you still care about their well-being and wouldn't do anything or want anything bad to happen to them.
Respect is also incredibly important. If you respect people then you can tell them when you disagree with them but still allow them to believe whatever it is they believe. If people had more respect for one another then religion would be less of an issue. Why do you have to tell someone else their religion is wrong? Why is that your right, or job, or place? You can tell them respectfully that you don't agree with them but having that respect means that you give them their personal freedom to practice and believe what they want.
I think that all religions are interesting and often in many ways serve a purpose. I just wish that people wouldn't use them as an excuse to mistreat, demean, or act violently against others. If people really looked at their religions, and at themselves, I wonder if they would be able to see that the purpose is not to breed hate and to give people an excuse to condemn their neighbors, but that its goal is to ultimately improve the self and in doing so to hopefully show others how to be better people.
I'm not particularly religious, I don't subscribe to any single set of beliefs, but I do believe that there is a force, something that moves in and through all living things and that we should be working together rather than against one another.
So although I would love for John Lennon's world to exist, it doesn't and sadly I think it never can. I would settle for a world in which people helped one another, where money was not the most important thing, where religion was not something that caused hatred and violence but which caused people to strive to be the best that they could, and that people could truly be free to believe whatever they want but that everyone would respect one another and that discussion and understanding would lead to peace rather than hate. People need to focus more on themselves and on their own faults rather than looking to point out flaws in others.
I just want a world where people live by the "Golden Rule" and treat others as they wish to be treated. Is love and respect just too much to ask? Is that so radical?
If people could love one another then I think many problems in the world could be solved. You can disagree with someone and still love them, you can feel like you don't understand someone and still love them, you can believe different things and still love them. Love does something powerful though because even if you disagree with someone you love you still care about their well-being and wouldn't do anything or want anything bad to happen to them.
Respect is also incredibly important. If you respect people then you can tell them when you disagree with them but still allow them to believe whatever it is they believe. If people had more respect for one another then religion would be less of an issue. Why do you have to tell someone else their religion is wrong? Why is that your right, or job, or place? You can tell them respectfully that you don't agree with them but having that respect means that you give them their personal freedom to practice and believe what they want.
I think that all religions are interesting and often in many ways serve a purpose. I just wish that people wouldn't use them as an excuse to mistreat, demean, or act violently against others. If people really looked at their religions, and at themselves, I wonder if they would be able to see that the purpose is not to breed hate and to give people an excuse to condemn their neighbors, but that its goal is to ultimately improve the self and in doing so to hopefully show others how to be better people.
I'm not particularly religious, I don't subscribe to any single set of beliefs, but I do believe that there is a force, something that moves in and through all living things and that we should be working together rather than against one another.
So although I would love for John Lennon's world to exist, it doesn't and sadly I think it never can. I would settle for a world in which people helped one another, where money was not the most important thing, where religion was not something that caused hatred and violence but which caused people to strive to be the best that they could, and that people could truly be free to believe whatever they want but that everyone would respect one another and that discussion and understanding would lead to peace rather than hate. People need to focus more on themselves and on their own faults rather than looking to point out flaws in others.
I just want a world where people live by the "Golden Rule" and treat others as they wish to be treated. Is love and respect just too much to ask? Is that so radical?