"Why is religion so prevalent" or "is it important"
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
--Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Theologian, Mathematician
Ideology, in every respect, is based on perspective; one that can be seen as wrong, right, or just plain ridiculous. How does a person determine what is right without knowing what is wrong? We must go to each far reaching extreme of every situation to know its middle ground; for without having done so our ideas are but a transparent speck on an unmarked abyss; a blind pair of eyes in a poorly lit room. Naturally, people have the right to deny the fact that they are not sure about something and jump head first into a situation based on some imaginary form of reassurance. It is their inalienable right, in fact. Ideologies frequently crash at full force, giving birth to a grey area very different from what is the accepted definition of compromise (as always words fall short). On the contrary, it is more of an anti-compromise. But this grey area is found in everything we come across. We may derive this from the theory of relativity, that one sees everything only from their own physical point of existence. Man knows nothing because man knows something, thus if a man knows something they must know nothing, for without the knowledge and the lack there of, they have no point of relativity. So the point is we know nothing and we know everything. That being said why must we violently clash ideologies if they are as unstable as radioactive atoms? It is the irrationality of human ideologies that brings about statements of complete non sense backed by a full throttle certainty. In no more obvious of a situation does this manifest itself than in the form of religion. We know nothing about the future in this life, and certainly less, if it’s possible, about the after life. Why then, is it so typical to gather arms and kill for this definite uncertainty? Was Winston Churchill so wrong in asserting the statement, “Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”. Now, the idea of a God has of course always been an honorable conviction. This may even be in good sense, the true question is where, how, and among whom you read what you preach? Muslims, Jews, Christians, and other forms of widely accepted religions are all convinced that they have the story right. It is blind faith, and it can be as ugly is it can be beautiful; as dangerous as it can be safe; as reassuring as it can be hopeless; and as deceptive as it can be guiding. Where is the grey area? Must ideologies clash in order to achieve said commonality? Absolutely! And I am convinced (pun intended) that there is no other way. What I am not convinced about, however, is that ideologies must clash rather than meet and find a common ground. It’s not an all together absurd conviction that human beings with “extremist” or “radical” beliefs can find a happy center. They know one extreme so they must know the other. For how can one know what it is to be extreme if they do not know what it is to be moderate? An easy answer to an easy question… They don’t know it! They don’t know because someone else developed categories of all sorts of -isms and dispersed people about them to fit the description. This is all a big misunderstanding between misguided, misinformed, but convinced individuals/groups. So convinced; so misguided, in fact, that they would give up their life for their beliefs. Righteous? Noble? We may never know. But is it daring and ballsy? Absolutely! I am convinced of it!
