Religious Conversion: What a Waste!
I think just about everyone knows that no matter what religious belief, or lack thereof, that we hold to be true, there will always be someone who will disagree with us. So why do we make such a big fuss about it? Why do organized religions waste so much time, resources and energy trying to convert others to their faith? With so many millions of people in the world, who each have their own ideas about the meaning of life, how the world was formed, what happens after death, etc., there is no way that any one faith would be able to ‘save the world’ of all the ‘abominations’ . So why bother?
I’m not talking about things that are harmful to humanity, such as murder, rape, and domestic violence. By all means we should be fighting against those injustices. However, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to the world for organized religions to put less emphasis on conversion and fighting the system, and devote more of their resources to helping those in need, whether those people are going to hell or not?
Religious groups all over the world spend way too much time and money trying to outlaw abortion and gay marriage, fighting a war that they have no hope of winning as more and more people are slowly abandoning the religion of their childhood every year. And why? Because they see more harm than good being done in the name of God! That is money that could better be put to use feeding the hungry, caring for the homeless or a wide variety of other contributions to society.
Instead of fighting each other, we need to band together to fight for the things that are most important; taking care of each other and the world in which we live. Almost every religious tradition claims to follow a version of the golden rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The one truly universal rule and we cannot seem to follow it. If you were gay, wouldn’t you want to have the same rights as straight people? If you were an atheist, wouldn’t you get sick of people telling you that you’re going to hell?
We are wasting too much time and energy on things that will never matter. We are all different, we all believe different things and act in different ways. There is no way to change that. What we can change is how we react to those differences. Remember the golden rule and look at things from the other side once in a while. You may be surprised at what you find.
- T. M. Apsey
T. M. Apsey's author page. The best place to find all the latest published articles and blog posts by T. M. Apsey on HubPages and The Skeptic Religion Scholar. - The Skeptic Religion Scholar