I am not an atheist per se. I am an agnostic or a "possibilian". I don't believe that there are books and rules and special houses to interact with higher power (if it in fact exists). There are close to 2000 "religions" in the world. Every one of them has its own history and absolute faith based conviction in it being "the" correct religion for the rest of humanity. And there is the rub. People have spent most of their history killing each over deviations (sometimes very minute ones) in their set of religious beliefs. Even today, at the dawn of 21st century, majority of us are willing to perform acts in the range from quaint to bizzar, all in the name of some set of centuries old beliefs. Which would be ok, if in many cases it didn't come at the expense of other groups of people who happened to believe in a different set of books. And so , as has been so powerfully demonstrated by Al Quaeda, we continue to be willing to be brainwashed to reduce the stature of non-believers to the point where it becomes trivial to do anything to them. Including killing them.
I think we are fast approaching the point where we, as humanity, will have to make a break with organized religions of the past. When I say "fast", I don't mean next year, or even next decade. But if generations of today can finally start loosening the medieval yoke of organized religions, and begin by simply accepting the fact that others beliefs may have merit and most certainly don't equate them to maggots, we will be well under way. From there it is not difficult to imagine the future where religions, as we know them, will be confined to history books and cause surprise and disbelief in the future high school pupils the way historic fact of slavery does today. I think this century maybe the one that can truly lead us to enlightenment.
Comments