god
November 3, 2010
why why why why why are people intolerant to other religions?
myself included. i had to be reminded this morning by my friend that i AM included in this; as much as others are pro omni-religious i have to remind myself that i’m at the other end of the scale, being pro (what’s the antonym for omni? …blank) ‘multi’ religious. i admit i’m not as tolerant as i would like to be to others who think they’re religion is superior.
i made a comment on my friend’s facebook post, which was a video about oprah talking with an author about some book that he’s written, pretty much about mindfulness and openness. (2 consecutive posts involving oprah… what the hell has happened to me haha).
I quite like mindfulness, it’s a buddhist way of teaching, and i came into contact with it through work. it’s being used here in australia with clients who have drug and alcohol addictions… and for one organisation has a 100% success rate… that includes their heroin addicts who are NOT simultaneously taking suboxone or buprenorphine or one of those. sooo… take everything else out, forget about religion, forget about people’s views… mindfulness is working (i want to use the word miracles here but don’t want anyone to get snappy) in a way that nothing, NOTHING, has before for AOD clients. And it’s certainly not a religious thing that’s being taught to them… it’s pretty much meditation and being ‘mindful’ of their actions.
Medically, i now understand how meditation works, engaging one’s parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the body to fully relax, allowing food to digest properly, relaxation of organs, stimulation of saliva, slows the heart rate etc. For an AOD client to be able to achieve this is amazing, and must be why they keep coming back for more. It’s like making your body form it’s own, natural high… without losing friends, family, money etc.
i can’t continue writing what i was going to, cos i’ll end up talking up my own way of thinking and his down, which isn’t fair. so all i’ll say is what i hold close to my heart:
people have had wars, have died, because of intolerence to other’s beliefs. and continue to do so. no religion i can think of doesn’t have a claim to fame on this one
i don’t believe that going to church/mosque/synagogue/temple whatever means that you can act however you want for the rest of the hours of the week. eg. ’sinning’ all week… then repenting your sins on sunday doesn’t make you a good person… it makes you a stupid person. and i refuse to budge on that.
and finally… personally… as a totally lapsed italian catholic who is now totally athiest… talking about negative things all the time make you, and everyone around you, negative. hell, sin, bad omens etc. and scaring people with those negative things isn’t making them believe… it’s making them scared.
sigh.
i wish i didn’t care
