Always love

Today I'd like to talk about a bit of a heavy subject, and a very controversial one: religion. I label myself as an atheist, more out of need for a name than anything. I don't believe that there is a higher power. However, while I am not a religious person at all, I am a spiritual person, and so I pride myself on being, out of most of the atheists I know, one of the most respectful ones when it comes to beliefs. My cousin Patrick and I have very different views on spirituality, but we still manage to have meaningful conversations about it without offending one another. So first off, I want to give you a disclaimer that my musings are not meant to offend, but to provoke thought.

The reasons that I don't believe in a higher power are many, but I'll try to name a few. I have studied religion, mostly christianity, due to my high school years in a Catholic school, and so I like to think that I'm not pulling opinions out of the air and that I have a fairly good grasp on the beliefs of those who I disagree with. During my childhood, I was raised in two openly gay households, so my first sort of beef with religion comes from the fact that I have encountered many kinds of religion used as excuses for homophobia. I don't believe that's a proper use of ones' beliefs.

Probably the most significant reason that I don't believe in a god comes from the fact that I don't view this world of ours, wondrous and beautiful as it is, as a fair one. I have witnessed, first hand and from a bystander's perspective, the great evils that we as humans reign down on one another. I study history and see centuries, millennia even, of genocide, war, plague, greed, hatred, the list goes on and on. Simply put, I can't believe in a god that stands by and lets us do what we do to one another.

I find it odd that I identify myself as an atheist when I know full well that I am a very spiritual person. While I don't believe in a higher power, I do believe that there is more to us and our world than the physical and mental. I believe in souls, spirits, auras, whatever you want to call them. I am going to write about my spiritual beliefs another day though, so on to my point (I do have one).

I feel as though religion and spirituality are things that should pull us together rather than force us against one another. Centuries of hatred have built up between specific religions and sects. But the message that I see over and over again in every religion is about loving each other. It's called "The Golden Rule" in Christianity, but it has many names and forms. Click here to see the many versions of the same rule in almost every major religion.

If all these deities and religions and spiritualists agree that above all, we should treat others as we would like to be treated, then why do we fail to do so? As individuals, as countries, as religions, as cliques, as families, I look at humanity and see a failure; a lack of compliance to this rule. I believe the world would be a better place if we all tried harder to follow this rule. I mean, everyone learned it. In kindergarten we were taught to share and treat others with respect, kindness, and love. It doesn't have to be something that we only think about when thinking religiously. I believe in the integrity of this rule as much as any Christian does.

I'm going to stop now before I get preachy, but before I do, I'll say one more thing.

Let's start a revolution.

Peace and love,

-T.A.D.