Merry Christmas

I must say that my last post shows me to be somewhat self-absorbed. Surely many people I know are going through bigger hardships then mine. Lacking friends who would absorb themselves in my life isn't the greatest of sorrows. However, I spoke of a problem that I felt needed to be addressed, so I'll leave it at that.

At Midnight Mass this year for Christmas Eve the pastor made mention of a growing phenomenon. People are so easily moved to accept the word of literature or entertainment shows - which are generally inaccurate - as the truth, whereas a book such as the bible is met with such resistance. The probable reason for this is the fact that there is so much stimga against the different religions which follow the testiments. This, compounded with the amount of logical contradictions or statments in the bible which are to be accepted as facts, and aren't accompanied by any deductive proof makes being religious a true test of faith. I mean c'mon, witness testimony these days is considered circumstantial evidence at best; the fact that there were at least 12 eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus seems to not hold up in court anymore, as it were. In any case, this phenomenon got me thinking about something else during the sermon.

Our generation is far too judgmental, in two senses. Firstly, in the sense that we simply pass judgment too much on such things as religion. I mean, for those who feel they are beyond the need or scope of faith, to them I say let those who don't feel the same way have their faith! It's like a grown adult, who long ago lost all desire to suck on a lolly, and now refuses to let a child enjoy the lolly, for no other reason than the adult now knows that a person can get by without it. Back when he was a child, he probably felt he couldn't live without it, but now he 'knows better.' But why refuse the child the lolly, i ask? It makes the child happy, and in the long run it hardly hurts the child. Not at all actually, in fact by allowing the child to enjoy life's pleasures through the lolly, you allow the child to live a fuller and richer life.

As a disclaimer, I'd like to point out that I don't see those in need of faith as immature or 'child-like', which my pervious analogy would implicate. In fact I feel we all unarguably have and need faith in something - as our pastor noted during the sermon as well, coincidentally - however I think that is the general feeling of those faith-smashers that I describe.

Secondly, we're too judgemental in the sense that we're unworthy to pass judgment on any religion, and yet we do. First of all, we know nothing about the religions we bash and yet we do, based on our limited knowledge of them. Maybe we've seen a temple, or attended a sermon at church or watched a biased documentary, or something else vague and unsubstantial. But many of us stand in contention to religions that we know nothing about. I say arguing about religion should be left to theologians, or at least the extremely well versed in the subject of religion. Even those who are extremely faithful fall victim to being unwarranted in their dismissal of other religions. I find virtue in the accpetance of unfmailiar religions. I think if you are not tolerant of other established belife systems a hipocracy in your own belief arises, as you fall victim to the following trap created in a popular quote:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-I've seen this quote accredited to two different people, so for copyright purposes I'll simply say that it wasn't me!

In any case, the meat of my monologue is that if people understand the error of being so judgmental then the human community would benefit. In the first sense that I pointed out, I think that if people understand that people need faith, this will lead to religious tolerance, because those who are without faith will be able to at least accept that there are those who need to be with it. In the second sense, I think that if people understand that whether you believe in it or not, the notion of God and the belief in one is far more grand then we it credit, then this will lead to more then just religious tolerance, but rather religious acceptance. This will hopefully have the subsequent effect of civility between belief-groups, where there currently is not.

Merry Christmas Everyone!