Religion Simplified

When growing up, my parents told me that religion, politics and sex were topics that should not be discussed among friends and family.  These are personal opinions and typically come with plenty of emotional baggage.  I was a child with three older siblings and grew up in an upper middle-class, Catholic society; such a guideline was good enough to start.  In this post I am not going to touch on sex or politics (perhaps just a little on the latter).

I was lucky enough to attend a very competitive all-male, private, Catholic school.  In kindergarten nuns were our only teachers.  Brothers taught us in the middle school years and towards high school we had several priests in the mix.  I still remember my favorite high school teachers.  At the time he was a “brother,” held a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and taught physics.  In time, he was ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church.

I don’t remember all of the religious curriculum in my younger years, but what I still recall are the seemingly hours we spent kneeling down on the hard floor of my classroom praying with a rosary.  What a way to waste learning time.

During high school things were quite different.  Although religion was still a mandatory course, it was covered only two or three hours a week.  The theme of the religion classes shifted from pure Catholic indoctrination to Christian.  Later we moved to other world religions.  I still recall many discussions regarding the existence of god and reasons for other religions; some of them with more or less followers than Catholicism.

Time passes, I marry and my wife and we have two boys.  The time came to choose the type of primary education.  My wife and I tried the public school system on the East Coast and in the Mid West.  We decided to move our children to a private Catholic, Military school.  We were pleased with the discipline and reinforcement of moral and ethical values taught at home.

So far this looks like blue sky and smells like apple pie.  As an individual, the Naive American needs to pose  itself the question:  Do you recall choosing location, time and parents to which you were born?  In other words, did you choose your parents?  The obvious answer is:  NO.

By not being able to choose a location in the world in which to be born, the religion surrounding us would most likely be different.  In the US, most people profess some type of Christian-based religion.  If we would have been born in the same exact place just a few centuries earlier, we would most certainly be professing a different religion.  Likely, one based on multiple gods (e.g., Native Americans).  Given the current diversity in our country, the family next door might have completely different beliefs.  President elect Barack Obama appears to have professed at least two different religions.

Another aspect to consider about any ancient or modern religion is that they completely subjective.  They all share different ways to define a god that has created us and, in the future in this world, or after death, would reward us.  This simple way of interpreting religion provides the Naive American with a justification to do no wrong.

If things are going well then god must like us and be on our side.  If things are going poorly, then the lord works in mysterious ways.  It appears that Karl Marx had a great analogy labeling religion as opium for the masses.

At this point, things are not going well in the USA.  We are engaged in two different wars to make sure our needs to consume weapons and oil are met.  During and after the Second World War, the Naive American worked hard in manufacturing.  We were producing goods that were very desirable in our country and all over the world.  World population was less than half of what it is today.  Today, most design and manufacturing jobs have been outsourced.  Our population, and that of the world, have grown considerably since then.  How is prosperity going to be achieved and secured in the near and long term future?

Religion appears to be an inexpensive and readily available mechanism to deliver morality and ethics to individuals.  This was the thought of my parents and my own thoughts.  In college, I took two semesters of “Morality and Ethics”.  I learned that they are based on a single principle that has nothing to do with religion.  As a matter of fact, modern religions are based on this simple principle:   ”Do unto others as you want others to do to you”.

If the Naive American starts living by this simple principle, things might change for the better for each of us in the USA and in the rest of the world.  The rule needs to be applied to every single act and decision we make at home, at work and while interacting with all individuals.  At such point, happiness and prosperity will follow.  Religion, and all its baggage will (hopefully) disappear.  And a true separation between religion and state may actually become a reality.