A Continual Trend of Negligence

All basic ideals in this world seem to revolve around this ideology of so called religion. I will be the first to say that I am not a religious person. I consider myself a agnostic if anything. I also consider myself a partial Buddhist. I find Buddhist fundamentals the most intriguing as well as the most likely to what that higher being would want us humans to achieve. As said, I have a problem with organized religion for that one sole reason, the fact that it is organized and that it has strayed much from its' original roots.

My biggest problem lies in the two most persevering as well as wide spread religious denominations out there... I bet you all can guess what it is without me even saying it. I for one am more against Christianity than I am for Islam but both maintain their problems. I firmly believe that the origins of both were more humble in comparison to what they have become today. Furthermore, the beliefs of both religions have similarly righteous views that have been taken askew today. Some of these beliefs are of course outdated in our modern times.. You know those things about stoning women for certain behaviors, or cutting off someone's hand for stealing (eye for an eye). I digress.. The point I want to make is that the basic fundamentals of all religions basically preach the same ideology but expressed in different manners. All religions basically ask us to live a moral life. A morally righteous life is pretty simple in the grand scheme since every religions' definition of morally just is practically the same. Of course they do not want human kind to steal, kill, lie, or whatever it may be. It's a simple standard that has been set across human history, societies, and cultural as the "just" way to live.

Here's what gets me... The origins of all these religions preach just ways to live such as not killing and so on, and yet there has been so many religious wars. We all of course have heard of such overt wars as the crusades and of course not as overt "religious" wars as the current ones that we face today. What I can't comprehend is how far we have strayed from the origins of these religions. Now, I am not to say that I am completely knowledgeable of every religion around the world but judging by my experience and what I do know, isn't this all a contradiction? If religion asks you to stray away from violence why further propagate violence for your cause? This is the biggest issue that bothers me about organized religion most especially ones that like to preach non stop (I bet you all know which religion I am focusing on). I understand that by preaching to the people you are so called "saving" their souls but perhaps your religion isn't exactly the most righteous one for said person or groups of people. How can you force someone to believe in something, and if they do not follow, to do it by force?? Does that not repudiate every single value that you were taught in your holy books? The intentions may be pure but it leads to not so pure actions. These actions do not sanctify your name for your religion in fact it only taints the name even further.

What gets me more is this branding of religions as well. In our country, Islam is of course branded as a religion of so called "evil." Has anyone ever thought about researching the fundamentals of Islam before being so quick to judge? We all perceive the concepts of Islam as seen through the eyes of the media. The media in itself distorts the images of reality and thus plays us as fools. Those so called "extremists" or religious fundamentalists do not encompass all of Islam as a entity. In fact, they remain few and far in between. Terms such as "jihad" are openly thrown around when no one really has an idea what the original intentions of a jihad are. Why bother? I guess we just want to find a common enemy and focus all our intentions on said enemy, yet remaining ignorant in the process. This goes both ways as well as I know there are many a die hard Muslim that could say the same about a Christian and so on and so forth.

It's a truly paradoxical idea to me... I can't understand why people would say that they are true believers yet act so much against the fact. If you truly believed in your faith, you would not act the way that you do today. This frenzied ideology only increases with the crowd. As the numbers grow, the group mentality grows and the ideologies only become more and more twisted. It's like playing the game of telephone.. Perhaps the original intentions are still there but as the message goes down the line the original ideology gets twisted and taken out of proportion. Maybe I am wrong, but I firmly believe that people bring the worst of all religions... I believe that religion is necessary but in a sense, people as always have brought it into corruption..