EDITOR,
This is not an attack on organized religion, as I neither believe nor disbelieve in it. This is more an personal observation as to why I see people pulling away from religion itself and why many become disenfranchised from it. I am negating all the politics and crimes that have been committed and looking at just the belief component of it.
When many of us were children, we had imaginary friends that we would spend hours playing with in our room, our treehouses or maybe even in our couch forts. We believed in Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and the Cat in the Hat. We had all had heroes that we idolized without fault. For some it was Superman; for some it might have been Barbie. No matter who or what it was, we believed it because we could see it in our mind's eye.
We would tie towels to our necks and try to fly, or some would dress up in their prettiest dress with the tiaras and have high tea with all the stuffed toys in the room. No matter what were doing, we believed it, but as we grew older, whether intentional or not, the adults started to kill off our secret friends and throw away our toys. We had to grow up and prepare for the adult world.
Now about religion, those that went to church when we were younger and told to believe in (insert your religious leader/icon here) without question. But yet every other thing that the child has created in his or her mind is slowly being destroyed by the big people telling them it's childish to believe that. So what is to stop a child that had just as much belief in their secret friend from eliminating (religious leader) from their mind as well?
If you really look at it, whether you're praying to some supernatural being or fighting Lex Luthor with your red towel around your neck or your having the Queen mum over for a spot of Earl Grey, you're talking to someone who, for all intents and purposes, doesn't physically exist. So why are adults wishing that their children would follow their beliefs trying to destroy the one thing that connects imagination to faith in such a big hurry?
Think about this before you dismiss it. Remember what it felt like when your secret friend didn't visit anymore.
Jason Bechard
Squamish
