Religious Diversity

From "The Wild Hunt" blog

Religious diversity is basic human impulse, and attempts to get everyone worshiping the same God (in the same manner) are ultimately doomed to failure as the needs and wants of individuals, groups, and societies stray from entrenched dogma and doctrine.

I cannot begin to say how strongly I agree with this perspective.

In fact, diversity in general is important to me. In religion, in society, in nutrition...diversity is important. Diversity is healthy.

Each of us are individuals, and as such we have our own perspective on the world. We each see life through our own eyes, and for a variety of reasons, no two people will ever see even the same life the same way.

So how can the monotheists expect us all to not only accept the same god, but to believe in that god the same way they do? Isn't that more than a little unrealistic?

And yet they try so hard... They talk, they proselytize, they preach, some of them even kill... All in the name of, what? Sameness? When did sameness ever truly help us? It reminds me of The Giver. Did you ever read this book as a kid? In the name of sameness, no one can even see in color, twins must suffer the weaker one being "euthanised," and sex is forbidden (except for a few "breeders" who are looked down upon by the rest). I loved it, but few books have depressed me more.

Is that what they want for the world? Sameness?

I think that is why I raged against Christianity so when I first left it behind as a faith. "Put me in a box?? FUCK YOU!" I don't want sameness. I don't believe in it. I believe in the glories of the diverse. Even when I can't stand the way another person thinks, I thank the gods that we each have our own minds to think differently. I thank the gods that should my kind (radicals, feminists, pagans...) ever come to be the majority, there will always be a balance to us.

I wonder if this is what the Farrars mean when they talked about polarity. That only through the give and take of polar opposites does life work, does creativity happen, does society evolve. I think that is part of it. I certainly think that's true.

I suppose my only hope is that society at large will come to respect that more... If there's one thing I think we can all believe, it's that there is strength, power, through diversity. That perhaps we can celebrate it, even in our differences with each other.

I hope.