Peace, Love, & Why The Heck Can’t People Just Accept It?
Back during the innocent days of High School (Catholic, mind you), there was a teacher that displayed a formula on how to determine the date that Easter would occur each year.
- Easter falls on the first Sunday, following the first Full Moon, following the Spring Equinox.
It’s brilliant, and one of the few actual life-applying lessons that I learned during that time, since even Algebra apparently changes over the years. The odd thing, however, is that it is seemingly Pagan based with the Spring Equinox, and a method that the Church adopted, making it into their own (gasp!). I have a strange suspicion that this was the beginning of my desire to look at the world outside of the Catholic, and organized religion in general, bubble.
It’s Easter time in the world, along with Passover, Theravadin New Year, and probably a handful of other holidays. These holidays encourage forgiveness, peace, hope, new life, and then it seems to go wrong.
In V for Vendetta, Stephen Fry’s character mentions the Qur’an: “I don’t have to be Muslim to find the images beautiful or its poetry moving”. The Torah and Christian Bible (and its many variances therein) possesses equally powerful passages, however, since a good chunk of the world is Jewish or Christian based, admitting that a completely different script was equally as beautiful makes for a more striking sentiment.
Each religion possesses its own beauty, and in it, core beliefs which are meant to make its followers into the best people that they can be. Each religion is tailored to a society’s specific needs, and a desire for fulfillment that the purpose of life transcends Earthly meaning.
Each religion is right. Each religion will defend its 
beliefs. Traditions are hard to sway unless forcibly made to. While many religions preach for a display of peace and a show of universal love to everyone, it appears to need only apply to those within the same umbrella of that religion. It’s a teensy bit hypocritical.
There are sparks of hope. While doctrinal religion, overall, holds tight, there are the individuals who accept humanity for what it is, rather than what they believe in.
If a person is a good human being, does religion matter? If a person speaks or looks different, does it mean that they are automatically inclined to hurt you? Alternately, are you automatically inclined to hurt them? What makes you more “right” than someone else? What makes it so difficult to be accepting?
Does another person’s life choice (religion, gender, sexual preference, etc) change yours in any way? You would still love the people you love and go about your daily business in the same way. Why are you allowed to pick and choose the “acceptable” qualities in people, while cutting down anything that doesn’t jive with yours?
If you haven’t noticed, we’re only in this life for a blink of an eye. Why would you want to spend it with hate or fear in you?
Your basis of religion stems from something that was taught to you. You were molded and formed to behave within the collectively agreed upon set of values. While you accept the certain method of thought, you were not born knowing your religion. You may have been born “knowing God” in whichever form you want to believe, sure, but you would have known him in a true essence. You had to grow into your religion. You can choose, at any point in your life, to change.
While the human race has an incredibly long way to go, change is happening. Change will come.
~~Wishing you all of the love and peace that the universe has to offer.~~
