let us follow one such myth, habit, prejudice and superstition
from beginning to end…
God exists… that is one such habit that is taught from childhood…
but why this habit, this superstition? and how did it begin?
think of millions of years ago, when hominids like Homo sapiens and
Homo erectus lived on the earth…
think of the living conditions of those who lived in caves and in small groups,
eking out a precarious existence… for hominids, “life was solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short”…
and in such times, hominids would use anything, try anything to extend
existence…and that would include, hoping for a longer life, hoping
for food/game to appear… this hoping would after centuries,
would go from a hope to a god… and this god would take the place
of hoping for things to go right…
and after hundreds of thousand of years, this hoping, this idea of god,
was inplanted into the minds of human beings… almost like an instinct,
that became second nature to us after many generations of being taught
it… myth, habit, prejudice and superstition are all taught by generation
after generation after generation of human/hominids…
and after so long, it becomes part of us… but it doesn’t make it true…
just makes it ingrained in us…
and today, we still hold to this myth and habit and prejudice and superstition…
and why?
let us change gears for a moment…
we have in Europe, a clash of idea’s that has resulted in violence…
we have refuges from the middle east carrying their myths, habits,
prejudices and superstitions meeting European myths, habits, prejudices
and superstitions…but we know, know that Europe has the least
number of people who believe in the world…in Europe, the idea of
god has been dying… the prominent ideal is toleration…
but, we have those coming into Europe who don’t believe in
toleration… who still believe in outmoded and out of date ideals…
like god and heaven and hell…this clash of idea’s comes from
the believers who don’t practice toleration… they are intolerant…
they don’t believe in the liberal idea of toleration for all, even the
non-believers…the clash arises from a practice of intolerance from one side…
and from this intolerance, we see the violence and emotions of the modern age…
which stems from intolerance and that leads to injustice and inequality and
undemocratic practices… we can connect the “illiberal” idea of intolerance
with injustice and inequality and undemocratic ideals…
if you want peace and love and hope and charity in the world,
one must practice toleration which helps lead to justice and equality
and democratic practices…
the fight remains and will always remain to become fully human
and that road leads us to practice love, hope, charity, peace
for the one road to justice and equality and democracy is
via toleration… another words, liberal ideals are the path into the future…
Kropotkin