The Humanist in Me

I've been feeling incredibly unsettled the last few days.  My mind is going around and around things I was taught to believe as I was growing up - and I just can't imagine how I ever thought they were true.  One thing in my Christian upbringing that I never truly accepted was that people were born inherently bad and sinful.  I took one look at my girls the moment they were born, and that philosophy was thrown out the window.  No one on the planet can tell me that my children - my beautiful, innocent children are filled with evil and corruption.  Not a chance.  Do they test their boundaries?  Yes.  Do they learn bad behaviors?  Absolutely.  Will they do things that are wrong?  Sure.  But they are not evil.  They are all things good and wonderful!

I really struggle with people who try to tell me their beliefs are all right, and that there is no way they could be wrong.  This is one reason why I don't go to church anymore - not because of the Christian God, or because of the Bible or anything else like that.  I don't go to church because of the people who choose to condemn others instead of showing understanding and love.  I just can't wrap my head around that kind of thinking.  We need to look beyond ourselves and what our minds can comprehend and be open to more than just what surrounds us.  It breaks my heart to see people ostracized and shunned just because they think differently.  I myself have been treated in this way, and even though it is in the past, it still hurts to this day.  I am still saddened by the losses I suffered at the hands of my friends.  Even now, over five years later, my heart breaks a little when I see anyone from my old life. 

I suppose that is why I am thinking on the subject these days.  Recently I have happened across some of the people from that era of my life, and though I wish it didn't, my heart hurts when I encounter them.  I am saddened because of the intolerance and condemnation that people place on others.  I am saddened because it is this kind of thinking that leads to Holy Wars and genocide.  The thinking that only one group or person can have a monopoly on truth - this is what makes it so that others have to die for their beliefs.  This is why we have racism, sexism, and all those other isms.  I'm not saying it's Christianity that is perpetuating intolerance.  It is all people who close their minds to others and do not seek to understand.  It is people who choose to cause division among their peers instead of showing compassion and kindness.

So, I am truly bothered these days because I just can't imagine why people choose to hurt instead of heal.  I believe everyone has good in them, and we all deserve a chance to be heard and understood.  Call me a humanist - that's okay, but don't tell me I'm going to hell because of it.  Just because I believe in rational thinking and the goodness of people doesn't mean I don't believe in God or have faith.  That kind of condemnation is just not cool.