I've studied a lot of religions, and although I don't like playing the game of "find the one thing they all have in common" (hint, it's not "do unto others as you would have them do unto you") I have to say there is a greater trend.

Every religion seems based on love, although not in the romantic sense, or even in the soterological sense, but in the more fundamental sense of the word. Love is the expression of feelings for something external to yourself, it is a link with a world that sometimes feels all too remote.

This link, this fundamental caring about the external, even when we have no good reason to do so, seems to be at the core of our most internal beliefs.

The opposite of this lo...

I've studied a lot of religions, and although I don't like playing the game of "find the one thing they all have in common" (hint, it's not "do unto others as you would have them do unto you") I have to say there is a greater trend.

Every religion seems based on love, although not in the romantic sense, or even in the soterological sense, but in the more fundamental sense of the word. Love is the expression of feelings for something external to yourself, it is a link with a world that sometimes feels all too remote.

This link, this fundamental caring about the external, even when we have no good reason to do so, seems to be at the core of our most internal beliefs.

The opposite of this love is egotism and solipsism. The other thing I've seen in common among all religions is the equal capacity for egotistical people who don't have love to manipulate religion to serve their own purposes.

In so far as their source is love, every religion I have studied is fundamentally good. In so far as dogma is consistently manipulated by the venal and egotistical, every religion I have studied is also corrupt.

Mankind being imperfect, we have proffered no perfect religions. However, that hardly means we must resign ourselves to apathy. Abailart, and anyone else - be whatever you want, and just do what you think is right.

The person who said they would kick the shit out of Carlos knew they were not righteous. When we speak with venom, it never feels righteous. It sticks on the tongue like grease, and we know we are indulging our darker side. To be right never feels bitter. To be wrong nev...

In so far as their source is love, every religion I have studied is fundamentally good. In so far as dogma is consistently manipulated by the venal and egotistical, every religion I have studied is also corrupt.

Mankind being imperfect, we have proffered no perfect religions. However, that hardly means we must resign ourselves to apathy. Abailart, and anyone else - be whatever you want, and just do what you think is right.

The person who said they would kick the shit out of Carlos knew they were not righteous. When we speak with venom, it never feels righteous. It sticks on the tongue like grease, and we know we are indulging our darker side. To be right never feels bitter. To be wrong never feels satisfying. I can guarantee, although they said just what they wanted, this person felt no better after they said it.

If more people stopped, and thought, and did what felt right, we would see far less of this kind of inhumanity.