Religion represents a beautiful legacy of faith and wisdom. Handed down generation after generation by some of the very best representatives of our species. It is true that you can find examples of people who have hijacked religions in order to promote their own power. Tyrants of the past, who took control of a faith system in order to advance themselves. However, it is unfair to suggest that religion is guilty by association. Religion itself is pure, clean, and inspiring. Providing us with morals, stories of courage, and examples of how to pattern our lives.
Yet, while religion represents something good, the reality is that we as people are anything but perfect. We have many flaws and shortcomings. Which can lead us to use our religions in order to justify acting irreligiously.
The tyrant mentioned earlier provides an obvious example of this. Where religious teachings are twisted and turned until an entire civilization becomes craven and bloodthirsty. We do the same thing individually, though to a significantly reduced degree. We may not be bloodthirsty, but we often use our religions to justify leaving others out, or to justify not allowing our children to associate with individuals who are not of our faith. We use our religion to justify being disrespectful or unkind. We use our faith to embolden us, and to justify our feeling superior to others.
Why Bring This Up?
My purpose is not to belittle those who are religious. Rather, my purpose is two fold. First, to hold all of us accountable for being better, and for striving to live our religions more faithfully. Secondly, to point out an important reality to those who are not religious. Which is that we know we are imperfect. We know we err when we act in pride. We know this is a fault, and we are working on it.
You Can Judge Or You Can Celebrate
Those looking to dismiss religion as hypocritical, jarring, and offensive, can certainly find plenty of blatant examples to support their intolerance. They absolutely exist, and they are plentiful. However, the imperfections of the people do not invalidate the truths or wisdom found within the religion. Just as the tyrants who have hijacked religions do not invalidate those religions. How much better would you be to look at and learn from the message, rather than judging the people who carry the message? How much could you learn? How much could you gain?
Not Justifying Our Poor Behavior Based On Our Sanctity
On the flip side, it is important that those of us with faith in a religion not use that faith in order to justify any and all types of bad behavior. If we say to ourselves that our actions are justified, because we are faithful, and the people who we treated poorly are unfaithful, then we are not standing on solid ground. In these cases, we are not behaving like saints!
Read About This Same Phenomenon From The Perspective of Science
