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.

Ignorance is Bliss

Every once in a while I step out of my fortress of solitude, my domain of knowledge, and enter the internet proper. I have often forgotten at that point why I strongly dislike researching certain things. Like religion or politics. Mainly images involving those subjects. I forget that, while many people can be quite rational and intelligent, a lot of people are complete ignoramuses, and like to hate on other people's beliefs.

One normally won't notice it unless one uses certain search terms, like "shari'a family law" or "Imam family laws," at which point you see a lot of, quite frankly depressing stuff. Stuff that makes one think that maybe peace and tolerance is impossible. I hope that these thoughts are wrong, but it is the impression given when I look at the minority of people, you know, the ones who actually happen to be morons and do/say stupid stuff which can cause some serious contention, and negative connotations for the majority who, in reality, are actually nothing like that.

Aside from your excitement that I've actually updated this thing, you're probably asking yourself "why is he talking about this?"
Well, I'm doing a project in my religious studies class about a couple of religious groups: Islamic faith (specifically Shari'a Law) and Jewish practices (specifically Brit Milan)

I had have to do a visual presentation for on as well, so I chose Shari'a Law (though I was tempted to do a visual presentation about circumcision)now, positive visuals about Shari'a law are hard to find though, what with some parts of the United States government being against it, and several hundred ignorant citizens in many countries, combined with the percent of Muslim people who actually do conform the the stereotype regarding them(yeah guys, you are really not helping anyone with those stunts your pulling!)

Anyways, I am having some trouble finding the visuals, and some of the things that I have found kind of make me, upset, for lack of a better word.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. On a lighter note, December 21st: end of the world! Four days after that: Christmas for all you Catholics out there, and those who just celebrate it anyways!('cause there is absolutely no reason you can't) Eight days prior to that will be the precise date of the ancient Roman holiday Saturnalia(which is still sort of celebrated nowadays), one day after the end of Hanukkah! Enjoy!

The Aftermath

In my last post, I mentioned how it was "one of the most difficult things I have partaken in." I must say that the movie was a "best case scenario." We were not kicked out of the movie theater. In addition to that, the 3D effects were okay by my standards, somewhat blurry at some points, but not that much unnecessary "popping" out of the screen.


Actually, I would like to give a thank you to my friends who invited me to this, as I would not have had a reason to leave the house last night, and would have probably been watching TV and playing Xbox all night. I did enjoy going to the movie, so thank you, all of you.


On a somewhat related note, I am looking forward to the release of the movie based on The Hunger Games, as the books were good, and I would like to see if they are able to do the series justice. My fingers are crossed.


I am sorry if the length of this post is not up to previous standards. I just do not have that much to say today.

Herding Cats

 There are some things that you attempt that turn out to be really easy to accomplish, and then there are things that turn out to be almost as difficult as herding cats. What some friends of mine are trying to attempt is part of the latter, not impossible per-see, but without organization, one of the most difficult things I have partaken in.

What we are attempting is for a group of about fifteen people to go see Star Wars episode 1 in 3D. It will be difficult as I do believe that the movie has just been released in theaters today, and tickets are approximately $18. I am starting to wonder if this was really a good idea, but even if it turns out to be a worse idea than watching the entire Doctor Who series in one sitting, I am going to see it through to the end.

  

However if someone in our ridiculously sized group does something that causes us to be banned, either from the theater temporarily, permanently, or the entire mall for any amount of time, I may have to reconsider who my friends are. It probably will not be that bad. If worst comes to worst, we will probably just not be able to see the movie, or not all of us anyway.

Well, I should probably wrap this up for now. And to anyone reading this who noticed that I have fallen behind on the updates, I apologize,  I allowed myself to fall behind. In addition, if anyone takes offense to things that you read on this blog, I am sorry, I did not mean to directly offend anyone.