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Thoughts from The Ever Philisophical Mind of Me |
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I had to go to a Christmas Eve service with my family tonight. As some of you already may know, I myself am not expressly religious in the same way that the rest of my family is. For example, I can already tell that Montana, my oldest cousin, all of age 7, is going to become one of those obnoxiously devout Christians (apparently the private school she goes to teaches religion... well, religiously, no pun intended, and their efforts to drill the following of Christianity have been most effective. Anyway I digress.) Im not against religion or Christianity (I was raised Catholic, for Heavens sake) but Im in a point of my life where Im trying to be accepting towards the things that most religions, especially Christianity, consider sacrilidge or taboo, and thus do not have a specific religion, nor do I feel the need to go to church to believe in what I believe in.
But there I was. It was a lovely church, of the likes that dont exist much any more in the States. Anglican in denomination. Almost Catholic, but with little differences. Seeing as I am not a devout christian by any means, I took to philiosophising during the man service (the Catholic church has drilled it into me practically, so I go through the motions while not exactly being all there. Its something I feel a little guilty about, but I havent felt comfortable in a church for some time, so its a little nuance that has entered my life.) And I was thinking over my philosophies on my beliefs. I noticed the crucifix, and it got me thinking. Its a holy symbol for christianity. Judaeism has the Star of David, which is a holy symbol too. And Islam has holy symbols. As do all other religious affiliations.
Now, I believe in an omnipotent higher power, but chose not to say whom he or she is and what he or she wills. Now, if the cross has powers over the unholy, why not the star? Ive never seen a Jewish person banish a deamon or slay a vampire with the star. Why does society only recognise the crucifix as a Holy Symbol with powers like that? Im being picky, but it makes you think.
The high point of the service was the sermon, which was fascinating at this service. It was talking about how the most religious people are the outcasts. Jesus was an outcast, born in a stable when the in was full, healing those condemend by society, preaching a word of which he would ultimately be killed for. This was his inner message, but it was woven into a deeply profound message of out society. Organizations, clubs, countries, homes, and yes, even religions, where only the chosen were to join, and the rest were to be ignored and cast out. The poor, the sick, the needy - yes, even those more devout than any other member of a religion, constaly being cast out over stupid things like status, race, sexual orientation, belief.
It makes you think, doesn't it? Here we are, the most advanced species that we know of, rulers of this planet. And we constantly turn out those whom would be the most devout, the ones in most need, the ones whom have no reason to be turned out other than being a little different. We're so busy killing and hating each other that we cant even stop to see that were all the same, deep down. The Christians believe that God made us all equal, and the scientists know we are all made up of the same chemical matter and elemental structure. And yet, originality, uniqueness, variety - constantly crushed under the heal of "Normality" or "Conformity." And all for what? For the feeling of superiority? For money? Or do we do it just because it is human nature to do so, to weed out the differences? Is this Darwins Survival of the Fittest at work?
We may never truely know the answer to this, nor may we solve this tragic problem. But I know that that sermon got me thinking, and I am a better person for it. I can only hope that you become a better person from the random thought processes of an amatuer philosopher.
 Sutiiven · Mon Dec 25, 2006 @ 01:55am · 0 Comments |
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