We have become one world. All of us, given the economic circumstances to allow us to do so, can communicate with all others who live on our home, the planet Earth. We are no longer isolated or semi-isolated. Whereas we were previously able to keep our passionately held religious beliefs somewhat isolated, we can no longer do so. Each set of religious myths can no longer fester simply in its own enclaves. Every expression demanding that all other humans adopt a particular set of religious mythology, or be punished, puts that religion in direct conflict with other religions which carry the same passion for their faith. The result, in our current world, which has become one world, is violent conflict between nations and religions.
The major obstruction to our religions learning how to fully express their components of compassion and tolerance, rather than hatred for all who do not share their faith, lies in the common myths the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam possess. These lead us into destructive self-centered decisions, because we have not so far been able to recognize them as myths. Even though these fables conflict severely with our scientific understanding of the universe, we have been told that they are facts. We have been told that the universe was created by a Divinity, who did so with a plan in mind, that plan including humans. We have been advised that this Divinity is still planning and manipulating. We have been told that this Divinity created humans to look like He, She or It, and that we are for that reason, partly Divine. We have been taught that this Divinity gave us humans the whole world, to do with as we see fit, and use in any way we want. We have been advised that this Divinity is reachable by us, and can be persuaded through prayer to give us victory over other humans, or move inanimate material on our behalf. We have been assured that there is life eternal, although that afterlife will be a pleasure only for a select few who believe a certain set of myths. All other humans will either rot or be tortured in Hell forever. We have lastly been told that this Creator Divinity is perfectly good. In order to explain all the evil that exists in our world, this belief in a perfectly good God has theologically necessitated the creation of another evil anti-God, who is almost, but not quite, as powerful, This great Satan is always tempting humans to fall away from their faith.
The result of these myths, common to the religions of Abraham, is to teach us multiple self-destructive fallacies. One fallacy is that we feel that we are greatly important creatures, who have the capacity to become all-powerful, like our God. We believe that we are so important we have been put in charge of the entire universe, to manipulate and use in any way that pleases us. We think that we can convince this great Creator to intercede on our behalf, interrupting the physical laws of the universe to give us victory against our enemies, whether that be other life or objects. Our personal God, we believe, will always provide for us, because our personal God is always on our side. We have this belief that our lives are not temporary, but will last forever. We are told that this world is not nearly as important as the next world. In short, our religions teach us that we are superior, nearly divine beings, in control of the entire universe, and that we are immortal.
The problem is that nothing could be farther from the truth. Although these religious myths may be comforting for humans who are leading lives of drudgery, deprivation, suffering and disease, they blind us from making rational decisions about our lives, seeing all other life with compassion, and tending carefully to those resources that sustain us.
The most honest and brightest minds of the human species have given us much different answers as to our position in this universe. They tell us that we are self-replicating life forms that began by chance, and that we have evolved by natural selection. There has been no Divine beginning or guidance to cause us to be where we are or what we are. They say that our planet home, Earth, is tiny in comparison to our sun, which has 333,000 times the mass. Even though 93 million miles away, it is all-powerful to us, supplying us with all the energy we need to survive. Our powerful sun is insignificant in relation to the 300 billion other suns in our galaxy. Our galaxy is insignificant in relation to the billions of other galaxies in our universe. Our universe is so vast, its limits cannot be measured. Humans are, in other words, so insignificant a part of the universe, we cannot even measure that insignificance mathematically. For us to believe that we are in control of this universe or any part of it, is highly absurd. For us to believe that we can pollute, destroy and consume without conservation and renewal, is insane. For us to believe that we will live forever is even more inane. We are, in other words, insignificant creatures, living in a universe of chance and probability which cares nothing for us, fighting for survival, and highly mortal.
The sooner we face our personal lives and our societies with this realism, the sooner we will make more rational decisions. This is not a universe that was built for us and given to us to use as we see fit. We are here by chance and lead a life of chance probabilities. Certainly life is precious to us. But we are here for one time only. We have only one chance to do it right. It is not the universe waiting for us to exploit, however we wish. It is the universe against us, doing whatever it does naturally to eliminate this foolish human life form. It is the universe sustaining us, but also against the human species. This means that we can no longer allow the conservative elements of our major religions to spew slogans of hatred and intolerance for all those humans who do not share their particular mythology. We can no longer allow the violence of religious intolerance to rule the events of our national social interaction, without paying a very dear price. That price may well be the elimination of the human species from the face of the earth, due to depletion of resources, pollution, nuclear contamination, and massive weapons of war.
It is deeply incumbent upon us to persuade our religions, now thrown together in one world, to emphasize their compassion, morals and justice, instead of emphasizing their intolerance and hatred. It is deeply incumbent upon us to help our religions realize that their beliefs are based on myths, and not on facts. The universe does not care, and will summarily eliminate us, unless we learn to work together.