l jump right into it, I completely agree with you that it is disheartening when no one replies to you about banning the Bible. The fact that you had almost had to plead for a response on banning not only the bible but also all religions, I wonder why no one has written. Is because they agree with you or it is because they don’t take you seriously? I am choice b on the circumstance.
Eliminating religions from all areas of life will not magically cure the world from the problems of war. Ridding religion and instilling a belief in the intuitive feeling of common sense is not the answer the world is looking for. What common sense is for one person, is not always the same common answer for another. Just as you said in your commentary, there are few intelligent people in the world. So if common sense is going to be our new trendy millennium way of dealing with world problems, I hope our leaders will be ones who are actually charmed with the uncommon gift of common sense.
The crises in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, well, we might as well be in the days of yore with the progression they have made over time. I think that their actions are not only factors of their religion but also of your good old friend common sense. They are still acting on the motto of an eye for an eye.
Though the presence of religion may not create a better or easier lifestyle, we can not try to substitute common sense for religion. The two things are not interchangeable.
Religion is successful through all the atrocities in the name of God because of one word-faith. The strength’s of one’s faith is mind boggling to those who do not have any. What I enjoy most is the beautiful physical quality of faith. it is invisible. Faith has lasted from the beginning of time because no one can annihilate it. You can try and try `til the point of threatening another’s life, but faith can not be killed with the body.
The martyrs from the Christian religions are not only strong examples of religious figures but also of figures that provide strong leadership and free will. How are you going to break the faith of millions in the world without providing them with a new leader who is better then their God? I don’t believe everyone is going to martyr for his of her religion, but they are not going to give up their beliefs for nothing. And the reason is much deeper then faith, they will hold stronger then ever now because of experience.
My world religions class teaches how encounters with transcendent reality causes an enlightenment and awakening without a person. Nature can cause these religious impulses from the grand appreciation we see in extraordinary creation. But extraordinary moments are not the only way to witness the unity we have with the higher being.
Have you ever watched a person receive his last rites, prayers from a priest for forgiveness and for strength? He lies there, in a hospital bed. You see, it was an emergency, an accident. and now he is dying. His face is scared, confused and weak but after a worldly ritual his expression is different.
You may say the reason his tortured face turns to peace is because he feels the weight of his wrongdoings lifted off his shoulders. Or maybe the religious prayers only serve as an echo of a happy place he can go to after all this pain. but the reason I believe is connected to the chill that permeates the room when the priest is done. Each onlooker is left with goosebumps when it happens, and it is not a draft of wind but something else.
And it has nothing to do with common sense.
—Rene
