We Are Aliens Amongst All Our Searching

Someone send me an email today. Says she had a "falling out" with her sister and brother-in-law over the topic of the mosque at ground zero. Of all things, none of them are actually involved, no money being made or friends being relocated to the projects because of it. But this person is so fundamentally religious, it's almost impossible to imagine her without that part of her character.

I think religion started as a way for people to not feel so alone. At some point it morphed into the need to control people, and now in the modern age is a way for people to feel different from other people. Its enough to justify anything I feel one way or another.

For people who are conviced they know what "the" truth is, as if there was any such thing, the world looks different. It looks like swiss cheese in every way...holes just waiting to be filled. And not with just anything, but very specific, important things. Things that the rest of the world either need to know badly, or are too ignorant to learn or accept. In essence, everyone looks like you need to help change them.

Change is natural. Our earth changes is so many beautiful ways, from sunrise and sunset to tectonic plates over millenia. This is not because we make it so. It occurs for reasons that do not follow of our individual wishes or beliefs.

Such is also the case with humans, it is our nature to evolve and change over time. This is what most contemporary western religions fail to admit or appreciate. Religion placates the natural desire to resist this change by promising false absolutes. The feeling that something is unchangeable is so foreign to our actual reality, that it often deleriously appears as hope against a backdrop of instablility.

This is where I break with the story. I don't mind seeing the world for what it is. If there is a need to feel safe, I will seek higher ground. If I need to resist an external influence, I will adopt a defence. If I want to risk something, I will go on an adventure. These are things we can choose to visit, and do not have to reside in.

I was born human. I was born into a world where change is intrinsic. Not a constant, but a theme.

I will be disappointed in American culture if we turn to fear of change for answers to the question of whether we should allow for equality of religious freedoms [insert your mosque or church or meeting here], instead of looking at how much we've gained in human liberties by releasing our grip on feelings of personal rightness and false hope, liberties gained only through clarity and perseverance [insert your bill of rights here].

More than likely though, the way our culture plays out their religious beliefs like baseball fanatics locked in to a yelling match about which team is better, yet can't see that good sportsmanship increases the value of the sport overall, Muslims and Christians are in for quite a fight.

A real shame, since there's so much in common.

A read through the Holy Quaran and the Holy Bible over the last month has really proven edifying. So many core principals alike, and so many outcomes equal in virtue. But it's those that are so pursuaded by religion that can't let go of the few differences when it matters the most.