A Quick Note

Am working on rewriting a story, and it's almost done, but I wanted to park an idea here.

Every group has its extremists. Every. Single. One. Dogmatic religiosity is a human problem. If there is one thing that I wish I could change, it would be this erroneous and arrogant belief that only one Belief System is valid and that all others are evil, sinful, unintelligent, and/or flat out dangerous. I'm tired of people pointing figures at one group or another and screaming about how awful they are--particularly when their own groups have committed equally as bad, worse, and/or similar wrongs. I'm sick of it.

Find the thing that you're most comfortable with--the belief system (or non belief system) that fulfills you and/or helps you get up in the morning. Sometimes this world is a tough old place. Do that thing. It shouldn't be up to anyone else but you what that thing is. Do not judge others' belief systems. That won't help anyone. In fact, it hurts everyone when you do. I see belief and non-belief as I do human gender and sexuality--as a continuum, a spectrum and even, dare I say it, intersectional. Humans are complex critters. We just are. 

I also wanted to ask--theoretically...if you're a Christian and you already understand that certain parts of the Bible do not apply to modern life (like the ban on shellfish or the owning of slaves or the treatment of women and girls as chattel) then why not allow for the possibility that the phrase "I am the way, the truth, and the light." only applies to those who choose to follow those teachings? Can you allow for the possibility that maybe Jesus was preaching reform an already existing religious organization? That he wasn't insisting that this was a universal principal and the only way for absolutely everyone on the planet?

Adherence to absolutism is killing people. It's toxic.