Not too long ago I was chatting with a friend about religion. We were talking about the different religious traditions we had been studying and it struck us how similar they all seemed. How from the Abrahamic traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, to the beliefs of Hinduism and Buddism, to the traditions of Asia, and the spiritual beliefs originating in North America.

We like to focus on differences, people are like that. We like to be able to classify people as "us" and "them," with them often being the enemy, the alien, the other. There's probably some reason for that, probably something to do with early tribal lifestyles and whatnot. Myself, I like to look at the sameness, how at the end of the day we are all people. For me I try to catch myself whenever I'm looking at an "us and them" classification, because I don't believe that it is a valid way of looking at the world.

I don't care about what religion you practice; okay I actually really do but it's more of an academic interest. I don't see most people as other, I see them as a separate individual with their own unique and potentially interesting history, but still part of the same whole: humanity. If any sense of otherness is there it makes me fascinated more than scared, makes me want to understand the culture more, to know the language, to see things a new way.

Anyhow, while we were talking on the similarities between the religions, I was reminded of a poster I saw a while back that really cleared things up for me. It showed a central concept of about thirteen different religions, religions seen or portrayed as different as night and day, religions who have gone to war with each other over how irreconcilable they believe their differences to be. I looked at that poster and one thing struck me so very deeply: they are all the same.

Regardless of the location of origin, monotheistic, polytheistic, whatever. They all share enough similarities to make me wonder why. Why does this idea keep cropping up, in nearly every tradition that has survived to this point this idea keeps appearing? Similarly it gives me another question, another why. Why do we keep forgetting it?

With the situation with ISIS and the Taliban and such, it is so easy to forget this simple thing. It is so common to paint the issue as a religious one, when in reality the organizations have little to do with their religion.

Thinking of the whole of Islam as the same as the Taliban and ISIS, it would be like saying that the KKK and the Westboro Baptist Church represent Christianity. To say that it is inaccurate would be like saying the ocean is wet.

So yeah, we forget. We use religion to justify horrible things, but religion is but a tool. It can comfort, it can bring people together, and it can lead people through tough times. As far as I know, there is no religion of evil, and none that is truly innocent. They are all just human, with all the good and the bad that that implies.

Update

Yeah, it has been almost a year since I've last written on this blog. That is sad.
I have no way of guaranteeing better frequency of posting as of yet, also sad.
There are sad things happening in the news right now, to say that that is sad would be redundant.
So many sad things, so lets for a moment think about the positive, yes?

Alright. First of all, I am half way through my exams for this semester. I just need to study for math and physics, both of which should be fairly easy.
A baby seal was born recently, as most of you have probably read about or heard in the news. If you haven't yet, here is a link or two, so go read about them there.
Also, there is all that stuff in the news about a Mars mission, which is really cool and I hope that it all works out.
Finally, I am seeing some comedy show with a friend of mine tomorrow which should be fun.

Sorry about the somewhat disorganized nature of this post, I'm told that if I write more it will be less of a problem. I am inclined to believe the people who have told me that.

Exams Finished

Well, that is the end of grade ten for me. It is finished. After all of the struggles and whatnot that happened over the year, I am sort of glad that it is over. I mean, sure there are some people that I am going to miss until next year when I see them again, and there are some friends of mine that I should have talked to more over the year, which is something that I am going to see if I can improve before next school year. 

Well anyways, it's summer vacation now! That thing that most school related media makes a big deal out of. With surfing and mountain climbing and amusement parks galore, why would it not be a big deal? For me however, well I have summer school, so I have less time for those really fun things as I will be getting my religion classes out of the way so that I can fit more classes into my schedule. I am actually sort of looking forward to it, oddly enough.

Bee's wax

You know, I love bee's wax candles. no real reason for it, I just like them.

I guess that if I were to be asked why I like them, I would have to say the smell. They smell like honey. Not a strong overpowering stench like that of perfumed candles, but the smell is there, and it is real. It is sweet, and subdued, not shouting for my nose's attention, but merely waiting for me to choose to sniff.

I like that in a candle.

biased articles

okay, first off, I want to remind anyone reading this that this blog is used for sharing my opinions, the arguments, opinions, and pretty much everything else on this blog exist as second, third, or even fourth hand data. I intend to tell you about stuff that I find interesting, so that discussion, research, or at the very least thought take place.

I am merely stating this so that I do not seem hypocritical in my following statements. When I want stuff to be taken as absolute fact, I try to do so much research, you wouldn't believe it, and I reference everything.

However, this is all well and good, but when someone does not take time to bring in all information relevant to the topic: historical motivations, economic and political situations, geography, etc. well, that is not just sloppy, that is actually dangerous. Without proper background checks, one may increase the risk of igniting an already unstable social or political situation, and causing someone trying to do some research no small amount of stress.

When you fail to include the background of the situation in your report, it makes it easy for people to refute anything you say, and unless you can provide references, anyone can say that you are wrong.

Just Standing on my Soap Box

First off, I want to start by saying that I really love having a blog, I really do. I mean, how else am I going to get a bunch of people to listen to my opinions about stuff, I mean, aside from yelling(which I've tried, it doesn't work)

Anyways, I'm getting off track, and before I've even started no less...

So, it would seem that the school system has been trying to get more involved with technology.
I suppose that, this isn't a problem in itself, heck, it could conceivably become a good thing! Unless the technology prevents the students from learning things which should be fundamental!(like learning how to calculate sine, cosine, and tangent, or doing basic math drills [I shouldn't have to think about what 7^2 is, I should just know it!])

Anyways, it would appear that my school has deluded itself into thinking that allowing cellphones to be used with the classroom is a good idea! This seems to me to be a bad idea...

Yeah, so I just wanted to rant a bit about this, but I've already covered the points I wanted to make, so, I'll leave this with you guys.

Hope you've all had a good year so far!

Happy New Years!

Well, that's it everyone. It has been a good year, but I think I speak for everyone when I say HAPPY NEW YEARS!

A lot of stuff happened: the world didn't end (twice), Obama got reelected, some Korean song got famous, I started learning Java, and a whole lot of other stuff happened.

So, I will let you go and do whatever it is you were doing, an leave with this...

And have a great year people!