Sunday, March 4, 2012

Tolerance is the key to our future


Religion, science and human rights... how are they related? One of them is constantly being used to harm the other two. Tolerance is such a key ideology to the future of humanity, and we can only benefit from it being widespread faithfully, scientifically and ethically.

No one is out to attack religion or spirituality. However, some faithful followers are constantly combating others who have done humanity no harm. Women, homosexuals and people of all kinds have been heavily discriminated against socially and legally for hundreds of years and the prejudice has always stemmed from overzealous dogmatists of different pieties. Old-world, young-earth believers try to discredit and halt scientific advancement because it doesn't align with their ancient concept of the universe. Scientific research brought the world medicine, life-saving knowledge of disease and the human body, not to mention endless amounts of information about the natural world; it is not a threat to society.

Luckily, in our modern time we find charming and refreshing churches and groups, even in the Bible Belt, that promote loving thy neighbor - and yes, even their homosexual ones. These peaceful and loving people have learned tolerance of those who are different than themselves, and their faith is not affected by it in any negative way. Most people nowadays can tolerate change, variety and opposing views — it's the dwindling assembly of powerful extremists that fuel this ridiculous bigotry. I'd like to think the majority of religious people, or at least the ones that I know, look to their faith as a source for love and compassion toward one another and not as a tool to harm or restrain others.

The argument that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community is living in sin or that solid scientific findings are bogus because they negate an older, less-informed idea of the natural world is irrelevant to law-making in a democracy. America has been a secular nation since day one, which protects the freedom to have faith as well as guards from discrimination derived from it. Lately both locally and nationally, states with anti- gay marriage laws are being challenged and some even overturned due to the gay rights movement.

You don't see any laws in favor of America's majority religion that forbid rounded haircuts (Leviticus 19:27), eating figs (Mark 11:12-14) or getting divorced (Mark 10:9) because those little tidbits seem a little absurd to even the most pious of followers. Laws should not reflect these oddities, especially the ones that directly inhibit the freedoms of others that bring absolutely zero harm to anyone - like gay marriage for example. Homosexuals will not "violate the sanctity of marriage" because licenses are issued by the government. "Sanctity" literally means the quality of being holy, which is an intangible idea that the government cannot legally enforce.

Without tolerance and a yearning for knowledge, technological advancement would halt. I will never understand why anyone would blatantly ignore evidence and physically tangible and testable proof for such things as the age of the Earth or evolution. And not to get started on the whole "it's just a theory" bit, but theories in science are arrived at by hypothesizing, experimenting, observing, collecting data and analyzing the facts - not randomly guessing. Many other well- known and accepted scientific ‘theories' are bacteria (germ), electromagnetism, gravity, atoms and plate tectonics. Science isn't trying to dissolve faith, it's trying to learn and explain nature in a logical, researched and informed way. If knowledge is power, why knock it? Time and time again, the government rightfully stands behind teaching science in public classrooms and not re-branded forms of religion, such as Intelligent Design.

I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to live in a free country instead of one plagued by deep-rooted dogmatic principles such as misogynistic Shariah laws or - let's be honest - many of the pro-murder musings in Leviticus that (hopefully) no Christian follows anyway. Be thankful for life, love and the pursuit of happiness and don't waste your time trying to ruin others'. Tolerance, kindness and empathy will not lead to eternal damnation - or communism - but they will produce a higher standard quality of life for all.

No comments:

Post a Comment