What’s wrong with us?

We’ve been told that “What we believe in is right and the other’s beliefs are wrong. Our religion is perfect while the other religions are corrupted. Those are the rules and orders to follow and they are constant and efficient in all times and all places…” pretty much all the instructions we receive as kids are based on one fact: we are righteous thanks to our truthful religion and the others are corrupted because of their delusions and false beliefs.We are programmed to not question anything because we are undeniably superior and virtuous. We grew up believing that our powerful and enlightening religion is the key to a peaceful and prosper life, yet as adults we get struck by the awful reality; we live in a constant fear, corruption, injustice, violence, and  virtual disaster. Why?

We have tons of religious books telling us exactly what’s allowed and what’s forbidden, what should be done in a certain situation and what should be avoided; thousands of reported speeches about how to deal with this or that case. The solutions of an over thousand years’ problems, should now be adopted because it’s the absolute answer. Don’t question, don’t venture; the truth is already here, you just have to follow it. Even thought, obviously, it doesn’t seem to work at all, I mean look at our beautiful Arabic countries.

So let’s just go straight to the first point: if you’ve been told, for example, that this old kneading and baking technique will give you the most delicious and plumpy bread ever no matter the type of your oven. That it’s been practiced long time ago and it worked like magic. Now, you tried over and over again to apply the same instructions but somehow you end up baking a flat-hard as a rock thing instead. The natural conclusion would be: either you’re not correctly following the instructions or the flour is of a poor quality. And since you don’t know what exactly you’re doing wrong nor can you find a better flour, you will then just sit there and lament your unlucky fate. It will never come to your mind that maybe this technique is actually not compatible with all kinds of ovens and types of ingredients after all. Or maybe this worked long time ago, under completely different conditions from now. Considering the recipe sacred and constant, thus, the only way to make it work is by recreating the same circumstances of that time: that includes installing an air conditioner to have a warmer weather, buying the same pottery utensils and even an old fashion oven.   

And this is exactly what we are doing, imitating the culture and maintaining the beliefs of the old times (conditions and circumstances), making them therefore as sacred as the religion (recipe), so hopefully things would make sense and eventually work. “Sacred problems with sacred solutions”.

The second point: if we think that we are right no matter what, we will never improve, never alter or create, I mean why would we, aren’t we already perfect? While advanced countries are constantly searching for a way to make things better, analyze, question, and do studies to determine the root of the problems and try different alternatives until they find the right one that works for them, we; the righteous people; assume that we already know everything. We are not eager to look for a solution because the solution is already there, even though, somehow, it doesn’t work. But still it’s right there, let’s look for someone to blame.

 It’s striking how some countries have made thousands of researches and surveys to determine, for instance, why people suffer from mental illness or commit suicide, in order to conceive applicable solutions and improve people’s life. While we assume that a depressed or anxious person simply doesn’t have strong faith in God, there is nothing we can do, his bad, nothing needs to change, we are perfect. Other studies had been carried on harassments and sexual assaults trying to find out why such mindset exists in the first place and hence alter it by destroying the wrong perceptions and implementing good values through awareness. While we automatically conclude that the victim was not applying God’s instruction of dressing modestly. Other issues; whether social, economic or political; are approached the same way in developed countries: they know nothing until they know for sure and if their certainty doesn’t pay off anymore, they start questioning to adjust all over again. While our approach is as simple as: we know everything so we don’t need to know more, even if we get stuck, we are still perfect.

Last but not least, and this might be shocking, the truth is that all religions are corrupted. No matter how pure and well-intentioned its principle, once adopted, it will automatically be fitted into a human institution, and all human institutions are corrupted. Humans can’t help themselves but to be mislaid by their whims and greediness. Assuming that this religion is perfect will unconsciously include that some person's selfishness and mistakes are sacred as well, leading us thus to live in a constant chaos. We all know that the church used to burn anyone who question its beliefs and argue with reason. We call it the times of darkness and ignorance, but are we any better when we condemn people who disagree with us and throw them to hell with our judgments and words? Human’s nature is still the same even if you hold the righteous book; Religion will always be used as a mean to manipulative and devious ends. The core of the religion might be perfect, but its aspects once adopted by human beings will always be corrupted. So we can’t take it as the ultimate and sacred rule and law.  

The problem here is that when we take a religion that it’s been around for more than a millennium, and that had been interrupted and perverted for centuries to match different people’s vagaries and personal interests, and then adopt it as the ultimate sacred country law, we are not only adopting the sacred core message of the religion but the whole package of corruption that had been loaded over the time. What’s worse is that we make the ancestors mistakes and misjudgments along with their culture as sacred as the religion itself. Furthermore, when we label a law “sacred”, we are then systematically rejecting any changes, any potential creation, any reasoning and any improvements, even if they happen to be a much needed solution. Any questioning is severely punished; things are fucked up down here, but the sacred law (people’s understandings adapted to the old times) is up there untouched and well protected under the name of religion. Still, we wonder why?

We find ourselves hindered by the religion. However, the religion didn’t exist to be a roadblock rather than a fuel; a fuel to our minds to be set free and wonder as how to make things better. Why would the creator block the only thing that makes us humans and superior to the other species? The real obstruct is the people’s beliefs, once we adopt and shape our minds to fit the other’s understandings and logic, we automatically shut our minds to any desirable improvement.

To sum up; it is crucial to understand that the law that affects every aspect of our life should not be sacred, it should be flexible to changes and advancements, not because of the deficiency of the initial law itself, but more because 1- with time this law will be stained gradually by people’s defective values and 2- time changes and so should be the rules.