by Shanna Babilonia
Many
people globally are being persecuted for their religious beliefs and
for their non-belief. They are being stripped of their property and
personal rights, tortured, murdered and displaced from their own
homeland, simply for not following the same spiritual principles as
their fellow citizens. Whether you are a believer, or not, we can all
agree that this is a reality that has left a horrid stain on humanity
for thousands of years. It is the unfortunate and terrible trademark of
our archaic ideas that have followed us into our modern world. No doubt,
this problem has yet to see its end.
In America, we are given the
freedom to pursue our own religious philosophies (and our choice to
free ourselves of religious ideology all-together); but the problem is
that some American conservatives observe what’s happening to religious
adherents in
other nations and assign the same “experience” to their own life, when in reality – it’s not
their
experience at all. They claim to be the victims of persecution, when in
reality, they have more in common with the discriminatory perpetrators.
It’s easy to understand why this is happening – religions have been
persecuting one another (and outsiders) for thousands of years because
it is an embedded element of many religious traditions. But, can a
dominant religion in a free nation claim persecution? Is it the same
experience citizens of other (less free) nations are experiencing around
the world?
Here are 11 things American conservatives must stop claiming as persecution:
1.)
It’s not persecution when scientists agree on the origin of the
universe and human life and those facts conflict with religious tales.
If
something is true, it can be largely proven through the scientific
process; and our ability to prove our hypothesis’ is advancing
exponentially. The fact that most of our world’s scientists have reached
a consensus on our planet’s beginnings and how human life has developed
through time, is
not a targeted attempt to persecute religious
cohorts. It is a [human] attempt by those who are concerned with human
advancement to learn about our world and share that information with
humanity in order to propagate human and natural growth, advancement and
improvement. Whether an individual chooses to believe in untested
ideas, while simultaneously discarding proven ones, has nothing to do
with persecution, but with the inability of an individual to mentally
separate fact from fiction.
2.) It’s not persecution
when a family member disagrees with traditional religious views and
makes a different spiritual choice than their original teachings.
When
a family member who has been trained to believe a specific set of
religious instructions about life discovers philosophies that conflict
with those experiences, they may choose to discard their first teachings
and create new ideas that are more compatible with their own life
direction. This is almost always not a choice that is made in order to
spite or disobey family traditions; but rather, because it no longer
fits into their world view. This is not persecution because the family
member should be free to honestly choose what ideology is correct for
their individual understanding. The persecution occurs when the family
member who has chosen differently is cast aside and besmirched, simply
for no longer carrying on the same religious notions as other family
members.
3.) It’s not persecution when LGBT, women,
racial groups (black, Latino, Indian, etc.) and other minorities fight
for equal rights.
Offenders of discrimination often
seek to justify their attempts to restrict the rights of other people
based on their own religious ideas, and those of their religious text;
even when those rights harm no one and enable people to enjoy a more
harmonious life. They are not concerned with other people enjoying
rights and freedoms, but whether
they agree that those individuals and groups should
have those rights according to
their
religion. Persecution does not occur because groups of people attempt
to achieve rights and freedoms, it occurs when others attempt to
restrict those rights based upon religious concepts. The victims are the
groups who are denied their rights because of religious bias, not the
group denying them.
4.) It’s not persecution when informed citizens are against theocratic rule.
Our
past and modern history is full of examples of what can be expected for
citizens of theocratic societies. Those informed citizens who have
studied the events of our world, and our country are well aware of the
oppression a theocratic government can cause for its people. When those
citizens speak out against religion in government, they are not
attempting to persecute religion; they are attempting to keep religious
oppression from asserting itself and affecting their own life and that
of their fellow Americans. Their interest lies in keeping America free
for all, and they are informed enough to understand that a religiously
governed country is harmful to that freedom. The persecution happens
when religious followers support forcing their ideas on the entirety of a
population, irrespective of the fact that millions of Americans do not
agree with their spiritual concepts.
5.) It’s not persecution when educated people expose the fallacies in many of our world’s holy texts.
Many
of our world’s major religious books were written hundreds and
thousands of years ago in a time when our human understanding and
concepts were in their infancy. When a person takes interest in
exploring those texts and thinking critically about what is presented to
them, it is easy to discover the innumerable inconsistencies in those
books. When people who have taken the time and effort to educate
themselves about religion share those findings with others, they are not
doing so specifically to persecute believers. They are doing so in
order to help others discover a truth that has been largely hidden from
populations in order to perpetuate a specific belief structure. Even
today, there are countries that still conceal information from their
citizens in order to maintain religious control, especially in
theocratic societies. Presenting the problems with commonly held beliefs
written in ancient books is not persecution, it is information. It is a
common human way of sharing ideas and partaking in human mental
expansion.
6.) It’s not persecution when people leave religion in vast numbers as a direct result of critical thinking and education.
In
a free society where information is readily available and shared, it is
expected that the ideas and concepts of a people will eventually change
and adapt to a new cultural environment. As Americans begin to become
increasingly aware of the painful and violent atrocities that have
plagued humanity over religious differences, the decision to leave
religion is a favorable option for many Americans. This is not
persecution, it is an individual and collective decision to move away
from concepts that can be harmful to humanity and society and move
towards more modern, positive and ethical ways of treating one another.
It is the very thing that has already happened countless times in
antiquity when our past religions were retired to the dustbin along with
all our other historical mythologies. It is what happens when the world
operates off of a set of ideas, until it reaches a point where the
human mind expands enough to leave redundant belief structures in favor
of philosophies that more critically and appropriately fit with our
current world experience.
7.) It’s not persecution when outsiders demand proof of religious claims.
At
one point in our history, when religion claimed to know the absolute
truth of life and our universe, it was accepted as fact. It was our only
explanation before our consciousness matured enough for us to use our
mental tools to evaluate our world more precisely and quantitatively. We
no longer live in that time, and our advancements have proven that what
we once believed about our world; was in fact, completely wrong in many
ways. It is not persecution when religion continues to make
extraordinary claims and defy everything we have learned to be the
actual way our world functions and we ask for proof of those claims.
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”
~ Carl Sagan
Although
it’s true that we can’t prove that a divine creator who mysteriously
delivered messages about life to ancient goat herders is not real; we
also can’t prove that it is. But, we can prove when and how those texts
came into existence, and often even who wrote them and what collective
trends they share with other mythology and the commonly held beliefs of
the time. To make a religious claim without the ability to prove the
stories of man are true and not simply fables (like all our previous
mythological gods and goddesses) is an open-door to criticism and
skepticism, especially in today’s world where informed people can no
longer be fooled into ignoring their own cognitive abilities to discern
fact from fiction. It is not persecution to require those who make
extraordinary claims to prove that their concepts are real and not
human-conceived.
8.) It’s not persecution when non-believers disagree with religious versions of family values.
Many
Americans view proper family functioning only through the ideas of one
specific religious ideology and are unable to recognize or accept that
their version of family values is not agreeable for many people. For
those who are well-informed and researched on religion, many of the
family “values” found in religious texts, are in fact, abhorrent to
those who disagree with the archaic and unethical instructions on the
treatment of women and children. To them, their concept of family values
cannot possibly agree with that of a religion that dictates oppressive
and harmful roles within a family. It is not persecution when those who
disagree with religious family values refuse to have those values
dictated to them, when internally, they can’t possibly accept those
instructions. It
is persecution when those who perceive their idea of “family values” to be the
only acceptable concept attempt to force that concept on an entire society through legal processes.
9.)
It’s not persecution when non-believers share their knowledge of the
literary archetypes and ancient mythological beliefs and traditions that
formed the basis of modern major religions.
We now
have more information available to many more people on the planet,
thanks largely to the internet. We can connect with people from across
the globe, learn about cultures and explore our history in a way never
available to the average human in times past. Since we are living in an
age where we can quickly learn about our world, many of us have used
this opportunity to discover the
whole picture, rather than
just the portion we were indoctrinated with as children. We have the
resources to connect the historical dots of our human religious
invention and understand how it all began – and how it brought us to
where we are today. It is not persecution that those who have chosen to
learn about their world and its history are sharing that information
with others, and with less-informed groups. It is a natural progression
that when information is available, it will be spread to others through
conversation and debate. This is one way we humans reconcile old and new
data and arrive at a conclusion that promulgates human progress.
10.) It’s not persecution when women’s rights supporters expose the outright misogyny of our world’s largest religions.
There
is no denying that our world’s three largest religions all support
texts that are full of misogyny and appalling treatment of women. It is
not persecution when outsiders expose what is plainly written in these
texts. It is an attempt by cognizant people to help others understand
what they are supporting and expose the problems that are created for
many women in the world as a direct result of the words written in those
books. In some countries, women are treated so despairingly that it is
an insult to humanity to believe that we as a species can treat one
gender of our human race in such atrocious ways. Pointing out the
reality of what is written in our holy texts and our social contempt for
such deplorable human actions is not persecution, it is necessary in
order to change the female human experience to a more positive and equal
one.
11.) It’s not persecution when parents of other
faiths (or no faith) disagree that specific religious prayers and
teachings should be led by publicly paid staff members in public
schools.
Our public schools are filled with a
diversity of cultural, racial and religious backgrounds. In a classroom,
it can be expected that many student may hold a majority belief, while
there will still be some whose teachings differ vastly from that of
their peers. In the past, it was acceptable for staff members to lead
students in teachings and prayers that only catered to a specific
religious idea, but it left those whose religious concepts were
different in a unjustifiable situation – an authority figure in their
life (who was not their parent) forcefully leading them in a way that
conflicted with their currently held views. If this is allowed, where
does it leave those students who do not adhere to that specific faith,
or non-faith? Are they to be ostracized and singled-out for
non-participation? The persecution is not the restriction of staff from
proselytizing for a specific belief; it is the expectation that those
students who don’t carry the same religious ideas of their teachers
should be subjected to religious teachings, without their own consent,
or that of their parents. For this reason, religion is allowed in
school, but can’t be led by a publicly paid teacher. Students are
still free to connect on a spiritual level with other like-minded
students.
So, if these things are not persecution, what is?
Persecution
occurs when those with specific religious beliefs use their ideology to
justify labeling others as immoral and wicked, without consideration to
facets of the individual’s personality and actions, other than their
religious disagreement. It is the attempt to eliminate, or prevent
others from enjoying the same rights and freedoms they enjoy and using
religion as the basis for that discrimination. It is the use of religion
as a means for oppressing others by forcing a specific ideology on
children, tribes, communities and often an entire population through
legal processes, violence and the threat of personal safety, loss of
property and resources, citizenship or even life itself. It is the use
of money, food, resources and governments as a tool to force religious
ideas into society, without consideration to all parties involved, but
only for the ideas of one specific group. It is when religious
institutions and followers seek a measure of control that ultimately
reduces other human beings to a position of inferiority based
exclusively on religious belief, rather than the content of character.
Persecution,
as defined, is the act of continually treating others in a cruel and
harmful way. Sharing knowledge and information, attempting to exercise
rights already provided to others, upholding freedoms for all citizens,
not just for one group of religious adherents, is
not persecution. It is how a humane, ethical and civilized society progresses for the benefit of all.
So
many people have been rescued from a new island off North Carolina’s
Outer Banks that officials have issued warnings about accessing it.
It's
hard to tell whether the Japanese have a more enlightened view of human
sexuality or if they're just so crass that standard sexual intercourse
is beneath their fetish-driven interests.But everyone will agree
young people in Japan are better off learning about sex from a
scientific book rather than some tentacle porn manga, even if the book
is a bit outdated.
The Young Person's Guide To Sex
is a primer for teens who know they want to have sex but know nothing
else about the act, including how to court a potential partner.The
book starts off innocently enough with lessons on hand holding and ways
to become comfortable with each other physically then it gets down to
the nuts and bolts of sex, including positions.
Recreational marijuana, which was legalized in Washington, D.C. and
decriminalized in February 2015 in Alaska has been deemed to be less
dangerous as compared to both tobacco and alcohol, according to several
scientists.
During World War I, the German army outfitted its troops with "pedal-operated" generators, i.e. bicycles with a bigger dynamo instead of tires. On these tandem bicycles, two German soldiers would sit together intimately, pedaling for power and going nowhere -- like the least romantic French holiday ever. When stumbling upon these bicycle frames, British soldiers marveled at them like it was some weird alien tech. As one officer's letter read: "It is exactly like a tandem bicycle without its wheels. I am not sure if it ever was a bicycle." Leave it to the Germans to create military equipment that can also induce philosophical crises.
