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The universe is vast and incredibly complex.
We use religions and philosophies,
Approximations of a wider reality,
To reduce it to a manageable shape,
Safer and more comfortable,
For our understanding.
It is all we can do.
But problems come when we deny this to ourselves,
And stop refining our worldview,
Thinking it truly accurate and complete,
As our egos become ever more bound into our perceptions,
And beliefs,
And so we close our minds.
In so doing,
And not admitting to ourselves,
That our perception is distorted by the filter of belief and experience,
We intentionally limit our understanding of the world,
Sabotaging our attempts to interact with it.
Do you wish to make everyone,
Moral, just and true?
For them all to see the rightness of your worldview?
You will never succeed.
The only one you can so control,
Is yourself.
Balance must be sought in all things:
Between reason and emotion,
Between the needs of the many and of the individual,
Between a victim’s justice and compassion for the accused,
Between science and faith,
Between our rights and our responsibilities,
Between work, family and self,
And so on.
Balance is difficult to find,
For matters are often simpler, more certain, at extremes,
And we must be wary of such.
Even when you think you have found your balance,
Test it,
Time and again,
To ensure it remains.
To use violence in defence of belief,
Or to promote a faith,
Or agenda,
Is absurd.
After all,
No mind was ever changed by a beating.
Violence hardens resistance,
And softens nothing.
Words are clumsy, inelegant things,
When it comes to describing the universe.
They are easily distorted,
Twisted so their original meaning is all but unrecognisable.
Some claim to know without doubt or question,
What this teacher, that prophet,
Or even their chosen divinity,
Truly meant by their words.
What foolish arrogance,
To claim their interpretation above all others as the only possible truth,
And denying even the merest possibility of error.
So, be careful that a healthy confidence in your beliefs,
Does not harden into dangerous fundamentalism.
If you wish to respect and keep to a tradition,
Then do so.
But neither complain about or berate,
Those who do not,
Nor smugly congratulate yourself for adhering to tradition,
As neither achieves anything worthwhile.
Holy War?
To kill in the name of life, of divinity?
One of the worst kinds of hypocrisy
There is no timeless wisdom.
Taken out of its original context,
Out of its original time,
Much is lost,
As interpretations and translations loop back on themselves,
Time and time again,
Against the backdrop of an ever-changing world.
However,
There is still wisdom to be found,
If you but look for it.
If certainty were truly possible,
It wouldn’t be called faith.
What others believe does not matter,
How others worship does not matter,
And neither does what you claim to believe.
The only thing that matters is what you do.
If you believe and worship faithfully and sincerely,
According to whatever holy scripture you subscribe to,
And yet willfully cause harm to others,
Then, respectfully, you may have missed the point.
If you believe something,
Ask why you believe it,
And why others do not.
As honestly as you are able,
Question it, test it,
And, above all,
Have the humility to admit that you may be wrong,
In your belief, or your interpretation of what it means.
A belief left unchallenged by one who holds it,
And simply accepted as truth,
Is weak and without substance.
Respect the beliefs of others,
As you would have your own respected.
Further, do not try to push your beliefs on others,
For to do so infringes on their right to privacy of thought and belief,
As well as your own,
Rather let your actions speak quietly to your beliefs.
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