I was thinking about religion today. And I've decided that religion, simply put, is one's belief in how we came to exist and what the afterlife entails coupled with how those two things affect us here on earth.
If you don't believe in a God creating man or in an afterlife, then those two things have no impact on what we do on earth and one would probably live according to that.
If you believe in God's creation of man and in some form of heaven and hell, then it could be presumed that you would live how you feel you should based on what you believe is needed for the afterlife.
Two people could believe in the same before-life and the same after-life, but one could believe that something (say promiscuous sex) could keep you out of heaven but the other could believe that not to be a deal-breaker. A third person could even find promiscuous sex a risk on your after-life plans, but still is promiscuous and then has to figure out a remedy for that (for example, repentance). A fourth person could not care if they end up in hell. It all just comes down to what the individual believes will or will not affect their after-life (if they believe in such a place at all.) And different after-life beliefs create different views on what is acceptable in this life.
Maybe these aren't very profound thoughts, but as I was thinking about it today, it struck me as important. Just because someone is doing something wrong in your eyes doesn't mean they are doing something wrong in their eyes.
My biggest message - and it's a Christian message but pertains to all - LOVE. Love others. We are all trying to make our way through life and love is *my* belief on how best to do it together. But feel free to disagree.
That's an interesting (and yes, profound) thought. So many people can't get past that someone may not believe what they do. That's why you hear, say, Catholics telling Muslims they are going to hell because the Muslims don't live the morals the Catholics decided were important. This tends to be religion wide, and I've noticed everyone feels they can judge another against their personal religious morals - but if you have the wisdom to step back and think about it, you are probably only in that religion because you happened to be raised that way. I love hanging with mormons because they tend to be more "forgiving" of people not living the mormon livestyle (even though they don't condone living that way, the mormons do not disrespect that person more often than not).
ReplyDeleteOur head veterinarian at BYUI, Dr. Waddoups, had a last minute message to us. He said "american is very against animal cruelty right now. Take how mexicans treat animals for example. They tie razors to chickens and have cock fights. How atrocious. They have bull fights, where they have severed a tendon in the bull's neck so it cannot lift its head when it charges the bullfighter, who sticks a spear in its head, neck or back. Complete animal cruelty.
"But consider this. Is rodeo animal cruelty? In american (especially here in the west) we don't seem to think so. I've been on site at these events. Most of the animals come out dead. They die of exhaustion, or being beaten to react violently. Or sometimes they are killed on purpose, if they broke a limb. Our perspective is warped because of what we grew up with. Now that I have you doubting yourselves - look at Rachel," (he loved calling me out) "she's not mormon. Does that make her a bad person? Is she less worthy, because she didn't grow up with the same morals as us? ...I'll see you all tomorrow."
This is why Dr. Waddoups is my favorite teacher, haha.