Every other articles on the web right now is focusing on the "wars, conquests and genocides" perpetrated over the last 2,000 years in the name of religion. The same tired, worn-out old chestnuts... the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Rape of the New World, slavery, "an eye for an eye", the repression of women... over and over and over again.
Religion is the root of all evil, and should be shunned, purged or destroyed... THAT seems to be the message I hear in the words "Imagine no religion".
So let's, shall we? Let's take a stroll down the "no religion" path, just to see where it leads...
No Pyramids at Giza. No Sphinx, no Temple at Karnak, or Luxor. No Tutankhamen's Tomb or any of the fabulous art and treasure found within. No understanding of the history and culture of ancient Egypt, because the Rosetta Stone would never have been carved.
No Pantheon in Rome. No Acropolis in Athens. No Stonehenge in England. No colossi on Easter Island. The Iliad and Odyssey would never have been written down, because they never would have been spoken in the first place. No Beowulf, or any of the Nordic Sagas, or the Epic of Gilgamesh would ever have been shared.
There would have been no Ten Commandments to provide the basis for all Western moral codes of conduct. No understanding of a statute of limitations as laid down through the "eye for an eye" passage. No Psalms. No Proverbs. No Golden Rule. No understanding of absolute and unconditional love from God for our fellow man.
No Sistine Chapel. In fact, NO work of Michelangelo would exist today, or of Raphael. 90% of all the sculpture, painting, music and literature of the Renaissance never have been done... no David, or the Venus de Milo, or the Pieta, or Virgin of the Rocks. Handel never composes the Messiah, Bach never composes Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and Mozart never composes the Requiem.
No architectural monuments like the cathedrals of St Peters, Chartes, Hague Sophia, St Pauls, Notre Dame, Salsbury, St Basils, or Reims. No beautiful mosques like the al Aqsa in Jerusalem, or the Grand Mosque in Damascus, or the Mezquitta in Spain, or the Shah mosque in Iran. No Taj Mahal. No Forbidden City. No Kremlin. No Westminister Abbey. No Machu Pichu.
THAT is a world with no religion. Wars would still be fought, crimes would still be committed... it is human nature to be violent and possessive. Would we be as quick to heal the wounds, though? Would the incentive to GIVE more than we RECEIVE be as strong, were that same sentiment not one of the most familiar and popular in the Bible?
John Lennon was singing about a world with no judgement, no prejudice, and no limits. But in the case I am speaking of here... is it the religious that are making the judgements, forming the prejudices or setting the limits?
No, it's the atheists.
No comments:
Post a Comment