Taking Life Too Seriously

By James Donahue

If we can sit back and look down upon the current goings on around the world from the eyes of an objective and impartial being . . . perhaps like a "Creator God" as many believe . . . we might think the whole affair a bit humorous.

Gangs of Islamic radicals are storming American embassies and even McDonalds Restaurants because of a privately produced film that few people have ever seen that allegedly pokes fun at the Prophet Mohammad. People that had nothing to do with the film are getting maimed and killed. Buildings and cars are being destroyed, and the Marines are threatening retaliation.

What is in that film that triggered such anger? While we have not watched the flick and don’t have all the answers, we hear that it portrays Mohammad as a homosexual. Egad! How bad can it get? How many books and writings have we seen over the years that suggested the same thing about Jesus? And why haven’t the Christians around the world rioted over such musings? The priests, bishops and even cardinals within the Roman Catholic Church have been branded as pedophiles and while it has stirred contempt, the stories did not generate riots in the street.

How can it be possible that a people can be so absorbed in religious dogma that they will kill to defend a written or artistic work that in some way questions the holiness of the god they follow? Where is the love? Have they failed to listen to the teachings of the prophet?

Looking up on the map a bit, this same objective Creator God is probably looking down on the controversy surrounding England’s Prince William and his new wife, Kate Middleton, more formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It seems that this young woman, who is slated to become the Queen of England at some future date, was photographed sunbathing in the nude by an enterprising camera operator using a super telephoto lens from nearly a mile away. It has become a scandal since the pictures have not only appeared in some European publications but are being copied on the Internet.

We suggest that we all sit back and consider the silliness of all of this behavior. Is the sight of the breasts of a future queen really that scandalous? Is the accusation that a prophet who walked the earth thousands of years ago, teaching a spiritual way of life to a people desperately needing a mental focus on their purpose for existence might have been sexually attracted to men that terrible a thought?

Our complex social orders have carefully implanted strange concepts in our heads from the day we were born. Among the most common implanted and universally shared dogmas has been a belief in superiority of men over women and a general fear of public nudity and discussion of or performance of the sexual act. There also is a general belief that the sex act is only for the procreation of the species and that any deviation from this is sinful. Thus same-sex behavior, prostitution, promiscuity and public displays of nudity are something to be hidden behind closed doors and never talked about.

These things are all normal acts among healthy men and women all over the world. They are natural acts in the animal kingdom. Yet some cultures have stoned women in the streets after they are accused of being unfaithful to their husbands. Police arrest working prostitutes in many countries, while other places accept prostitution as a legal and legitimate business. Same sex marriage is only recently been legally accepted in some states. And the U.S. Military has recently dropped its "don’t ask, don’t tell" ban on gays in the service. Are we slowly beginning to understand the natural variations in human behavior?

We are attempting to belittle established religious and social belief systems here. Every culture has its unique legal and social order. The implants are carefully established in the children from the day they are born. Once placed, it is nearly impossible to charge behavior patterns. Thus we must expect certain reactions to actions that offend, even if the behavior doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Our point here is the old axiom that we are all one. Every human can trace his or her ancestry down the branches of the tree of life to the same roots. Our origins are linked. Our genetic code is unique only in that it identifies the color of hair, eyes and skin, the features, the kind of person we have become. But we are all part of the same human race. And we all answer to the same creative force that put us here.

During my years as a religion editor for a major Michigan newspaper, and my association and research linked to the variations in religious dogma that flooded the city where I worked, I was aware of the fact that many religious groups were separated only by minute variations in their interpretation of sacred text. For example some Christian churches believed the rapture of Jesus would occur before the seven years of tribulation, as foretold in the Book of the Revelation. Others believed it would happen in the middle of the tribulation. Entire congregations divided over such ridiculous issues.

After years of studying Christianity and attempting to understand its rigid concepts, I reached a conclusion that this ancient religious system has become so stagnant and outdated that it was no longer something of value to humanity. I suspect that the other great world religious systems, which also date back thousands of years, are just as fragmented and out of touch with the world as Christianity has become.

What army hasn’t gone into battle over the years believing that God was on their side of the conflict? How could a creator God take sides with such horrific behavior? That the war occurred at all was because the creator granted us all free will. Thus we have the freedom to choose to follow the right spiritual path and evolve, or we can muck everything all up and then start over in the next life.

Instead of going to war over the God we follow, it seems as if a better choice would be to lay down our arms and embrace one another as brothers and sisters, and stop taking issues like nudity, homosexuality and church dogma so seriously. After all, the creator clearly exists within us all. This is the true meaning behind the saying that we are all the same.