Anyway, onward.
For this topic I'll be relying fairly heavily on a previous piece of writing I did for a seperate blogging site, but expanding where I feel necessary in this instance. This is because, try as I might, for the most part I can't find a better way of explaining my views on the topic better than I've already managed. So a heads up, to some of you bits of this will, no doubt, be familiar. Plus, it's not plagiarism if you originally wrote it... The topic in question is religion. Well, more the perception of religion, and people of faith, by a startling amount of people.
I’m not religious, far from it in fact. I dont believe in any god, or maybe deity is a better suited term. However, abusing someone because they do, doesn’t make you clever. It doesn't make you 'look good'. It most certainly doesn't make you 'cool'. To put it politely, it makes you a prick of the highest order. As a rule people (who do such a thing) will go postal if anyone even argues with their belief, or possibly lack thereof, let alone disrespect them for it. So how on earth is it ok for such a person to do it to others?
There is not one single, valid, argument anyone can put forward that makes them superior to anyone else based on faith. I personally think that is key to remember.
A person's value is based on their strong moral fibre, affable attitude, positive values & integrity. Frankly, if you abuse someone in this way, or any way, you lack all of them.
However, the main thing that really gets to me is the attitude that religion is the reason for all the bad in the world. Religion doesn’t create the bad in people. People create the bad in religion. Religion does not make good people do bad things. (Note here that when I'm talking of 'religion' I am not talking about organised religion. I'm talking about the religious concept. Religion down to the bare bones, as it were. Faith.) Having 'faith' doesn't suddenly make a person into some kind of horrendous being. The person is the active ingredient in the equation, religion is purely the 'tool', for lack of a better word, that tends to get the blame. ‘The deity’, the original ‘get out of jail free card’ if you will.
A scalpel; nothing more than a blade. In the right hands, brings hope to possibly, probably, everyone at some point in their lives, whether directly or indirectly. However, a blade in the wrong hands? It becomes nothing less than a murder weapon.
Question: Do we abuse or attack all medically trained personnel for saving lives in the names of every person ever killed by an idiot with a knife? Of course we don’t, but 'That's different!' I hear so many shout. How is it exactly? It's not, in any way, different because a blade is only a weapon when in the hands of a bad person with negative intentions. In the hands of a good person with positive intentions it saves lives. It brings hope. Religion is no different to that. In the 'hands' of a bad person whose only intention is to cause harm, bad things happen. But that doesn't make the 'tool' responsible. In the 'hands' of a good person, who has positive intentions, religion (faith) does good. It brings hope.
Taking it down to basics, without the human component, the religious concept does not exist. However, for argument's sake, let's remove the 'Religion' component from the humanity convention. Does that then make it impossible for bad things to happen? Would that undeniably stop bad people doing bad things? Does that stop warfare from happening? Would that stop people killing other people? No, it doesn’t and no, it wouldn't. For one very simple reason that has absolutely fuck all to do with religion of any kind; the *people* who would do those things 'in the name of (a) religion', would do them without religion. They would find another excuse, because that's quintessentially the kind of people they are. If they're going to do bad things, they're going to do them regardless. Religion, along with any other reasoning, is only plucked out of the air when these people are called to explain their actions and they have no other way of doing so. Except it's not a 'reason', it's an excuse. We, as a society, really do need to stop getting those words confused with one another.
For example, it's a sad fact that there are people who shoot other people every day within our societies. Take the guns away, a man will stab with blades. Take the blades away, a man will beat with sticks. Take the sticks away, a man will punch with fists. The key component here? Man. He is man. (I use 'man' here in general reference to 'mankind', cool those jets, boys.) Take the weapons away, take the money away, take religion away, he will still be man.
Now, this is in no way endorsing the wrong that people do with these things. I know, sadly, I leave myself open for it to be twisted as such, but that is categorically untrue. My point is thus: none of these things are the real problem, because on their own, without people, they are nothing.
Religion isn’t the problem. Society is the problem. Perception is the problem. Interpretation is the problem. People are the problem.
If a person uses anything, including religion, as a reason to do negative things, that reflects on the person they are, not religion itself. Nor does it reflect on anyone else who subscribes to that religion. If they do that, they do not understand the base concepts of religion properly to begin with. Anyone who blames the religion concept for such a person's actions does not understand humans properly.
Now, people are often baffled as to why this topic strikes such a personal chord with me, however, I reject the notion that it shouldn't. I'm, as best I can describe, a homo-romantic, bisexual, atheist, woman. In short, a woman, who believes in no god, who is likely to end up romantically tied with another woman. So, of course, the general concensus is I should dislike religion, (especially the more widely practised religions in my nation; Christianity and Islam.) and everything it stands for. That was made clear due to some responses via social media to my first blog post (if you haven't read it, catch up).
I find myself quite personally insulted by such a fairly common reaction and I feel, simply, it is an insult to my intelligence (Not to blow my own trumpet. Toot toot.). However, not only did I find myself personally offended but also offended on the behalf of several people I consider to be friends of mine and hold quite dear to me, hence feeling the need to write a piece on the topic. Not only are some of the most intelligent, articulate, and genuinely inspiring people I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know, religious, some of the most gentle, loving and kind-hearted have been too. Yet, I've witnessed one of my Muslim friends be labelled a terrorist because she has faith in Allah. I've witnessed a Catholic friend be labelled a paedophile because she has faith in God. Except neither of those things has a thing to do with Islamic faith or Christian faith. Do we really live in a society where this is deemed acceptable and the norm? If you deem it as such, chances are you stopped reading this post at the point I referred to such people as being 'pricks of the highest order'. If not, I'd quite like to revert your attention back to that point so you can read it again.
So really, I guess, this is more a piece about them than it is anything to do with me. And I guess it's even more to do with you than it is with them. You see, how we not only judge people, but judge and respect the things they put their faith in, should reflect far more on ourselves than it does on anyone else. And it will. To those people who are capable of rational thought. Then they, in turn, will judge you.
I hope you and your beliefs are then judged in the same way you judge others and theirs. Maybe then we'll all get on a bit better, think a bit more sensibly, act a bit more sensibly, speak a bit more sensibly, and judge and respect others, and ourselves, in a far more attentive and rational manner than we tend to do now.
We all have faith. It may be in the religious sense or it may not be, everyone is different. But we all need faith.
Faith - noun; Confidence or trust in a person or thing. A set of firmly held principles or beliefs. A strong or unshakeable belief in something.
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