How is it better or different if one religion worships stones and another throws stones at the stones? The idea is the same: if you believe in one, you must believe in the other. If you say, “I am throwing stones at the Devil,” it may be a tradition, but you must critically examine traditions and customs because things are changing rapidly—just look at the cell phone in your pocket. I don’t want to break the stones of faith with my pen, but I do want to break the ideologies that make individuals feel so inferior, small, insignificant, and brainwashed that they are willing to kill innocents over the customs and traditions of their faith.
If you violate the rules of spirituality and human rights just because your ancestors did, you don’t have to continue that injustice. If you are unable or unwilling to change, you are not evolving with the times, even if you have changed in other areas of your life. From your cars to cell phones to the medicine you take for diabetes or mental health issues, you are clearly evolving, but you can’t change or amend anything related to your religious beliefs. I believe one fundamental change is necessary in all faith systems in the name of spirituality: the politics of prejudice, which undermines equality and human rights.
The belief that one’s religion is the best and only way to God, that you can’t go to heaven unless you choose that religion, is a fundamental cause of wars and spiritual crimes. All religions need to change, even if it’s hard to amend these constitutions. Religious leaders must speak for human rights and spirituality instead of politics. The statement “Our religion is better than all others” is a political one that needs amendments to meet the needs of the time.
Today’s news says that conservatives are dropping their policy against gay marriage. Sure, it’s politics—after all, it is a political party. You can’t stay archaic in governance and expect to get elected unless you lie. If people don’t change, they are left behind—simple and straightforward. You can’t have human rights in the constitution and violate them with political policies. You will be challenged in court, and as we’ve seen, conservatives have failed several times when standing against the justice system.
I will make the case for the need for individuals to evolve in all areas of life simultaneously because if we stray from the truth as individuals, we will face a spiritual dilemma sooner or later. Human rights are directly tied to truth and spirituality. When a religion steps away from spirituality, it ends up in the political zone where human rights are violated.
Islam says that if you kill one innocent human being, it is as if you have killed all of humanity. Now, look around the world and see how many innocent people have been killed by terrorist attacks and bombings. Where do governments and terrorist leaders find the politics to justify that? There is capital punishment for innocents just because they belong to a group we are at war with—no trial needed. Guilt by association means even children are collateral damage. How did we fall this low? Here we are, evolved and working against capital punishment for murderers to avoid executing an innocent person, yet indiscriminate bombing from both sides is justified.
Now, look back at the history of religions and see how many people have been killed in the name of God. There’s no way to tally that. Our politics has taken all religions hostage and wreaked havoc on innocent human individuals. Religious people say God will punish you by putting you in hell. I wholeheartedly disagree. If God were punishing, God would start with religious people first for their egoistic extremism.
It is up to us as individuals to learn from our evolution and step into the next level. This next level is crucial for our coming generations because we may not exist otherwise. By becoming the CEO of our lives, we may have to cross the lines of our sense of belonging. As populations change, there will be discomfort and unrest, which has been happening worldwide. This is the price individuals pay for growth because it does not come easy.
Have you ever seen a cat trying to catch a laser beam? Playing with my daughter’s cat triggered my thought process for this article. Humans are entertained by it, but a cat lacks comprehension and tries to chase it without success. Hypothetically, imagine two or more cats getting into a real fight over the laser beam. You, on the other hand, are amused by the cats’ lack of understanding. Now imagine someone shaking their head over us killing each other, regardless of our comprehension or understanding of God.
Picture yourself like the cats running around chasing something you don’t really understand and getting into fights, even killing each other over the laser beam. For cats, the laser beam is a reality to chase. For us, God is that laser beam. There is nothing wrong with believing in something beyond our understanding, but when we start to kill each other over God or belief systems, it makes us less evolved than the cat. God is in the vicinity of the laser; thus, fighting over it is fighting over assumptions. As we evolve, we will understand more. Just like we know more about lasers than cats, we may know more about God as we evolve. But until then, we should keep our sense of belonging in check.
Logically speaking, God, law and order, ethics, and morals are all closely related to a full stomach. Blaming an individual’s devilish acts and judging and punishing them is an easy way out or the politics of black and white. This blame has long tentacles, reaching deep into our past and current governing systems.
If we have a system set up with ethics, morals, religious beliefs, and even our justice system of law and order, which allows the world’s resources to end up in the hands of one percent of the population, something is wrong at the core of the system. There is no individual to blame, but there is a lot to point to in the system that works against human nature. Naturally, we all are aware of our mortality. Spiritually speaking, we should live this life as temporary beings, which logically should make us humble and nice to each other. Yet, it has gone the opposite way. The more insecure we feel, the more we hoard and compile our savings. Charities dry up with individuals’ personal insecurities.
Personally, I would suggest a poverty and health tax on all sales worldwide. I know I am thinking as an idealist, but spiritually speaking, if we are honest and want the planet and its residents to be healthy with full stomachs and the same purpose in life, we can have fewer crimes and diseases of all kinds. The problem is our sense of belonging to our groups, nations, and religions. If we shift it and belong to humanity as a whole, we can change the whole picture, even the predictions of our holy books.
There was a time when religious people threw innocent virgins as offerings to God, and the sati tradition in India, where a widow had to be burnt alive with her husband’s dead body. We have come a long way, but we still throw stones at stones and even worship stones. We must fix our personal problems by taking individual responsibility. Hiding behind religious traditions and customs to blame the Devil is pure politics. You do the deed and blame the Devil or even God. When we start to take our responsibilities as a CEO, we know deep inside whom to blame.
It is all about education, education, and education of spirituality, not about the business or political side of religion. It is all about the individual who takes charge of their actions, putting everything into the departments of life. Yes, even sense of belonging, God, Devil, religions, society, and family—they all are departments of a CEO’s life. One must juggle through all the departments of life to run the show. You are not the least important; you are the most important figure in your life.
If you feel you are not up to the task, you undermine the CEO inside you. Your potential has been tainted by the education you have received, and your feelings of inferiority stem from the sense of belonging to a group. When you join spirituality instead of one particular religion, you start to look at yourself as directly connected to the entity above and beyond all human groups. Your present comprehension has been, is, and will be kept down unless you start to seek your own melody. It will not only be good for you individually but also for humanity around you.
If you seek something missing in your life and end up in one particular religion, you are actually seeking spirituality but may buy into the politics of belonging. Every religion promises heaven to suck you into their political business. There is a clear and present danger of losing your identity. If you are seeking, it already means you need guidance, but what guidance?
Your goal should be spirituality. If you are trying to secure yourself physically, you may end up losing your spirituality. I don’t claim that religions can’t provide spirituality, but depending on your vulnerabilities and personal emotional insecurities, you could be used politically. It’s your responsibility to be a CEO who understands the politics of belonging.
If you remove the politics of belonging, you will automatically find what you have been looking for. For instance, if you are born into a Muslim family, you are Muslim by birth. The same goes for all other religions. If you think your religion is better than all others without understanding or research, you made that judgment because of your sense of belonging. If you can remove that judgment, you are already in the spiritual zone. First, you are assessing right and wrong. Second, you can respect others as human beings.
I believe if you are born into any religion, you don’t have to change, and no one should force you to change your religion because it is not about belonging to a group—it is about spirituality, God, and humanity. Spirituality is like the internet, and religions are like computers plugged into the internet. The internet and spirituality have no boundaries and carry infinite potential.
If you feel insignificant, it’s not the vastness of the boundless internet or spirituality—it’s what you feel inside. If you feel weak and vulnerable inside, it is because you have bought into the education you have received. It is like knowing only one computer without a connection to the internet or a pond with boundaries. You may feel bigger and more important in small settings like religions and nations, but in reality, you carry space and even God within you. Look at yourself a little deeper, see how you function, and understand who you really are.
Consider how you have progressed to figure out the paths of storms, how you can fly into space without wings, swim in the depths of the oceans without gills, and dig deeper into the earth further than any creature without claws. If you still don’t get it, look at your ability to see the space outside you and the baby inside you without ripping yourself open. You understand infections, live twice as long as in the past, and communicate with each other like magic.
If you understand yourself to the point that you know the reasons behind your free will and the triangle of God, Devil, and you, you will find yourself in a different world. You will respect yourself as part of God who can’t be bribed, promised, or manipulated by the fear of hell.
Join and stick to the spiritual part of your religion. Understand the politics of belonging, then and only then will you find inner and outer peace. If you buy into the politics, you will end up in the philosophy of the carrot and stick, which works for physical beings only. We are spiritual as well, so that philosophy is wrong for evolved individuals. You pray to God not out of fear of hell but to reciprocate, which is practical prayer—useful to God, you, and humanity simultaneously. If you pray or fast for the greed of heaven, you are taking away from reciprocation, which is your duty. You are also spiritually unaware of the whole picture and the purpose of your life.
There is a difference between worshiping, praying, and reciprocating equally. It is up to you to know where you stand. Are you insignificant and born a sinner, or are you the third equation? Choose your education. Feel what is right for you and know who you really are—a physical body or part of God’s body. The answer is within you, so seek within. Your education may not be leading you in the right direction, so choose and use your free will and the status of a CEO, which you have been granted but may have sold in the name of personal security and control, of which you have none due to your mortality.