I am amazed and deeply gratified not only by all that I learned last night, but also by the fact that other people have been exploring these questions for so long and in such a brilliant manner. To be a good scientist one needs to be thoughtful, persistent, patient, driven and as clear-eyed as a human can be. The fact that no one else believes in you and your hypotheses, at least at first, cannot faze the dedicated scientist.
How vividly I remember summer of '69. Stonewall happened. And then we landed on the moon. We humans did that. To me, in my last year before becoming an expatriate, it felt like the whole nation and maybe even the whole world was brought together in a state of wonder. What a piece of work is man!
There, at the end of the Sixties, after the struggle to desegregate our great nation, we could gather around the TV and be awestruck at our human accomplishment. You can't blame a bunch of us old-timers for cherishing memories of that time, even if we were to soon realize that dualism and prejudice were alive and well.
Now, with the internet and the 24-hour news cycles, we are increasingly aware of the plagues, the wars and the hunger afflicting so many of our fellow humans. We who are lucky enough to have had good education and are well-connected to the realms of knowledge, we are both graced and burdened with awareness. Does all this human tragedy make you want to step up and find a way to help? Or is it so overwhelming that you just want some escape from reality? Probably some of both.
But what about the masses of humanity whose only education has been fed to them by extremists-- those who deny science, who claim their religion as supreme, who are willing to fight and kill and die in order to sustain their deeply felt superstitions. When people have grown up in conflict and fear, their children get fear for breakfast, prejudice for lunch, and the will for revenge for dinner.
I say that any belief system based on exploiting human fear is a corrupt system. I want to be tolerant and accepting of all world religions, for that's how I was raised. It has been a rocky journey in my heart and soul to reach this point. For now I have come to distrust and even feel disgust at religion and what it does. With fear and loathing I follow what's going on in the Middle East. There are so many ways we can sloganize this terrible reality. I'm sick of it.
Those with the means to build weapons and launch bombs have more than enough means to end poverty, to promote nonsectarian education, to feed the hungry and treat the sick. All those who justify killing others for their beliefs have betrayed their original teachers. They have bought into the deadly dualism of hatred and they are making everything worse.
All the great teachers about whom I've read, and all the great teachers I have known, all have taught peace and love. Then religion came along and perverted that teaching, seeking power and glory. While I shall continue to admire and support all the good holy people who work every day for education, ecology and peace, I renounce Religion Incorporated wherever it festers. I renounce fear and separation. I embrace the radical teaching of wise women and men, sisters and brothers who care about our earth, about our children, and about the science of what is true.